14 September 2011
The headline of this blog post by Jerry Coyne worthy of spreading:
HPV vaccine: Republicans prove themselves morons once again
This is a prime example of how religion, and its willful ignorance of facts in favor of faith, can be deadly. In Monday’s debate between Republican presidential candidates, Michele Bachmann laid into Texas governor Rick Perry’s order that female students in Texas be vaccinated against the HPV virus, which causes cervical cancer.[...]
Hey…just saying……Dr. Coyne is a professor the University of Chicago BIOLOGY department. Not that this means anything to anyone. 
Speaking of the harm that religion does:
You have the people flying the planes into the building to begin with, people who aren’t at risk of being burned to death making moral judgements and of course, those who said that “the hand of God” was present because….wait for it…even more weren’t killed in the attack. (no, I am not making that up; I received that in a viral e-mail message).
Believing that a deity interferes in the events of the world or supplies some “after life” punishments or rewards is a crackpot idea, period.
And it is NOT a harmless one!
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I think it would be more accurate to say “Michelle Bachmann proved herself to be an idiot.”
While I favor the vaccine and will have my daughter get it, I don’t think the government should mandate it for school attendance. The primary reason for requiring vaccination for school attendance is that diseases such as measles, mumps, polio etc. are very contagious so unvaccinated children pose a substantial risk to others (who for example couldn’t be vaccinated for medical reasons or who had a suboptimal response to vaccination).
HPV is spread by sexual activity so there is no risk to others in an unvaccinated child attending school
I can see an argument that we shouldn’t let crazy parents prevent their children receiving the vaccine and its attendant benefits, but that seems a bit of a stretch to me, as we, for example, let kids drop out of high school, etc.
I don’t really see it as the role of government to require things like this
Dr. A
My true feelings might surprise you: I believe in allowing for anyone who wants a public education to get it. But believe it or not: I do not believe that it should be mandatory.
Interesting. Is there some age below which you think education should be compulsory?
Could parents elect to never send their kid to school (or provide a home schooling curriculum?).
A
In theory “no” though I’d make it AVAILABLE to all who want it.
But of course, my thoughts are “half baked” and my idea is probably unworkable (e. g., what if parents changed their mind and their kids were behind a grade or two, etc.).