Texas Republicans: Protecting Texas Womanhood From Cancer Vaccine

by tristero

We should all thank our lucky stars for Texas Republicans. I mean, who knew pharmaceutical companies could release new medications without ever testing to see if they were safe?

The vaccine protects girls and women against strains of the sexually transmitted virus that cause most cases of cervical cancer and genital warts. Merck & Co.’s Gardasil is the only HPV vaccine on the market.

Republican Rep. Dennis Bonnen bristled at the governor’s criticism of his bill.

“We should not and are now not going to offer the 165,000 11-year-olds in Texas up to be the study group for Merck to find out what the implications of this vaccine would be for these girls,” he said.

About half of all men and women are infected with HPV at some point in their lives, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency recommends that girls get the vaccine when they are 11 or 12 so they will have immunity before they become sexually active.

That has to be true, right? Drug companies don’t test their drugs before they’re available for public use, just like the Republican Representative said, correct?

Otherwise, Bonnen would simply be a nasty, lying, woman-hating, fear-mongering fuck who is deliberately acting to guarantee that a new generation of Texas girls grows up with a high risk of contracting an easily preventable cancer.