Bush Administration Forcing HPV Vaccine On Immigrants
Bush Administration Forcing HPV Vaccine On Immigrants
In July, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services quietly amended its list of required vaccinations for immigrants applying to become citizens. One of the newest requirements? Gardasil, which vaccinates against the human papillomavirus (HPV). From the agency’s press release:
CDC’s revised Technical Instructions to Civil Surgeons for Vaccination Requirements require the following age-appropriate additional vaccinations to adjust status to legal permanent resident:
* Rotavirus
* Hepatitis A
* Meningococcal
* Human papillomavirus
* Zoster
This regulation goes directly against the advice of Dr. Jon Abramson, chairman of the CDC’s advisory committee on immunization practices. In Feb. 2007, Abramson said that he and other committee members advised that Gardasil should not be mandatory because HPV is not a communicable disease like chicken pox.
The problem with this regulation is that the HPV vaccine is not mandatory for U.S. citizens. Therefore, U.S. citizens are allowed to weight the costs and risks associated with Gardasil, but immigrants are forced to pay-out-of-pocket for a vaccine they might not want to take. Some of the problems with this scenario:
Cost: Without health insurance, the three-shot vaccine can cost $162 per dose, making it the most expensive vaccine on the market. Gardasil manufacturer Merck, which lobbied heavily for state mandates for school girls, would profit greatly from the new regulations
Testing on underserved populations: WOC PhD writes how immigrants and women of color have historically been used as human test subjects: “[Although] Gardasil has already been approved by the FDA recent complications in patients using the drug, 3500 major complaints in a single year and 8000 since the approval, as well as multiple deaths, could indicate that more testing is needed. Why pull the drug off the market when you can study the results through a mandated population?”
Immigration barrier: Jessica Arons, Director of the Women’s Health and Rights Program at the Center for American Progress, expressed concerns to ThinkProgress that this mandate will block women from immigrating: “Given Gardasil’s high cost, and the fact that there does not seem to be a public health justification for this particular mandate, I’m concerned that its real purpose is to create a financial barrier for immigrant women who seek to lawfully enter this country.”
HPV is the most common sexually transmitted viral infection in the United States. The two most deadly strains are “responsible for most of the cervical cancer in the U.S., affecting over 10,000 women each year and killing more than 3,700 of them.”
Gardasil has so far proven to be extremely effective in preventing women from contracting HPV and should remain a widely available option for women. But as Jill at Feministe notes, “[E]very woman deserves the right to decide for herself if the benefits of Gardasil outweigh the risks. And we all need to be vigilant when we see the history of reproductive exploitation of bodies of color repeating itself.”
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Now THAT’S sexist.
September 15th, 2008 at 6:16 pmWhat a coup for Merck! I hope they sent President Bush a thank you card for going against the CDC’s scientific recommendations. Texas Governor Rick Perry must have put in a good word for the product.
September 15th, 2008 at 6:17 pmSounds good to me; other countries require vaccinations, etc., prior to entering their sovereign territory. Why should the US be any different at helping people thwart disease?
September 15th, 2008 at 6:22 pmI was listening to someone on Air America Radio last week who has written extensively on Gardosil. Lots of very creepy background on that vaccine, including a remarkably short approval time and release of the drug — for which the company had begun a huge promotional campaign long before it was actually approved.
There also appear to be large questions about whether women will need a booster shot and whether the young girls getting the vaccine well before they become sexually active, will later assume they were protected when they actually needed a booster shot.
According to her, cervical cancer is way down the list of dangers to women and yet Merck has been pushing through its government friends to have the vaccine made mandatory, not just for immigrants, but for all young girls in the country.
September 15th, 2008 at 6:23 pmGummitch, you lost all credibility as soon as you wrote “Air America.” Ha, ha! Thanks for the laughter. Whoo… wiping tears from my eyes… hee, hee…
September 15th, 2008 at 6:24 pmTo the barricades!
September 15th, 2008 at 6:26 pmJT Says:
Gummitch, you lost all credibility as soon as you wrote “Air America.” Ha, ha! Thanks for the laughter. Whoo… wiping tears from my eyes… hee, hee…
And of course, if it was Faux NoNooz, it would be considered a viable source?
September 15th, 2008 at 6:29 pmupside99:
Anything trumps Air America! Still laughing at gummitch’s naivety and gullibility….
September 15th, 2008 at 6:32 pmJT, if it’s not safe for Americans, then why is it safe for others? Don’t give us the bull about it being approved by the FDA. There are so many drugs that get approved that are later taken off the market after causing major illness and death. Just make a list of what was being pushed ten years ago and where are those drugs now? The same goes for today. What’s being pushed now is racing through the greased hands of the FDA. Ten years from now, after it’s general use, we’ll see all the damage these drugs have caused. The drug companies haven’t adequately tested their drugs for some time now.
September 15th, 2008 at 6:34 pmThe immigrants are just being used for guinea pigs and profit.
Even with insurance most don’t pay for well child care and don’t pay for it anyway. The complications keep piling up but the drug lobbyists are so strong they’ll be ignored.
September 15th, 2008 at 6:35 pmI guess he’s just not used to hearing the truth and so it probably seems implausable to him/her/it.
September 15th, 2008 at 6:36 pmUnfortunately JT’s stupidity isn’t at all amusing.
September 15th, 2008 at 6:37 pmJT Says:
Gummitch, you lost all credibility as soon as you wrote “Air America.” Ha, ha! Thanks for the laughter. Whoo… wiping tears from my eyes… hee, hee…
September 15th, 2008 at 6:24 pm
You lost all credibility when you failed to read the whole post.
HPV is NOT a communicable disease like TB, etc.
September 15th, 2008 at 6:38 pmIf Faux News trumps Air America radio, isn’t that like saying you hope a few magical beans will lead you to treasure in the sky? You get more useful info off the Naked News…just that the Naked News gives the male viewers what it wants when it comes to the female news anchors.
September 15th, 2008 at 6:38 pmSocialism for the BushCo, Republicans and their connected industry friends, capitalism for the rest of us.
September 15th, 2008 at 6:40 pmJT Says:
Gummitch, you lost all credibility as soon as you wrote “Air America.” Ha, ha! Thanks for the laughter. Whoo… wiping tears from my eyes… hee, hee…
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Thats ok JT you never HAD any credibility. By the way I would cry too if I were HALF as ignorant as you. As for the laughing if you step away from the mirror you might find things less funny. Then again thanks for the free clown show.
September 15th, 2008 at 6:50 pmYou’re all missing the point, and I guess Think Progress did, too.
Social conservatives, which the Bush administration claims to be, are AGAINST using the HPV vaccine on the dubious grounds that doing so will encourage teens and young women to become sexually active.
But in contradiction to the stated position of social conservatives, Republicans with ties to the HPV vaccine maker, especially Texas Governor Perry, promote the mandatory distribution of its product.
Merck, the maker of the HPV vaccine, is bankrolling a national effort to pass state laws mandating Gardasil for girls as young as 11. To do so, Merck doubled its lobbying budget in Texas and channeled money through Women in Government, a nationwide organization of female state legislators.
One of Merck’s Texas lobbyists is Mike Toomey, Perry’s former chief of staff.
Another Perry chief of staff is the daughter-in-law of Texas Republican state Rep. Dianne White Delisi, a state director for Women in Government.
Perry received $6,000 from Merck’s political action committee during his 2006 re-election campaign.
So, one of the two stories ought to be Republican hypocrisy, in that the social conservatives who are the party’s activists are always discarded when there’s money to be made.
The second story is that Republicans are compelling use of the HPV vaccine because they’re making money from it — they’re using their offices to enrich themselves.
September 15th, 2008 at 6:51 pmExcellent point First Republic
September 15th, 2008 at 6:53 pmAnother round in the war on science? It might piss off the Psychochristians if they admit scientists and/or doctors might know best. And if someone can get rich on bad science? So much the better.
September 15th, 2008 at 6:53 pmUsing immigrants as test subjects? We know these vaccines have very little research. And to force this on a person…. I would be very afraid.
September 15th, 2008 at 6:55 pmwow.
quite the lab test…
and profits too!
September 15th, 2008 at 6:55 pmTrue, First Republic. However, those in power will hoodwink the Religious Right into supporting it because, they will argue, the vaccinations will protect pure, Christian, Americans from dirty foreigners.
September 15th, 2008 at 6:57 pmIf they find a vaccination for HIV, I assure you that they will require immigrants to have it to enter the country (even though it is not spread like chicken pox) and I don’t a lot of people will be upset.
I am pretty progressive and I don’t have a huge problem with this.
September 15th, 2008 at 7:09 pmI think Gardasil should be mandatory for U.S. citizens too (why wouldn’t a vaccine that could prevent a CANCER be mandatory), but this policy is stupid given that Gardasil is only proven cost-effective and medically effective for girls 12 and under. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/119018.php
September 15th, 2008 at 7:16 pmThis rule has Lou Dobbs’ fingerprints all over it. I wonder what the rest of the planet thinks of us using innocent humans as guinea pigs? Sorta seems like Auchwitz – demanding a captive audience to take an unproven drug, which offers almost no protection for the patient or the population, but substantial profits for the drug company.
The GOP: Profits over humans, all the time and in all ways.
September 15th, 2008 at 7:18 pmI am not against compulsory vaccinations. Actually, I do support them.
This instance, however, looks suspiciously like cronyism in the Bush administration; again, using public funds to enrich their buddies in the private sector.
I am shocked -shocked!- I tell ya…
September 15th, 2008 at 7:25 pmThis is simply the result of a drug company having well paid lobbyists that got them mandatory sales from our Republican administration.
September 15th, 2008 at 7:26 pm#
#
rf7777 Says:
If they find a vaccination for HIV
From what I have heard and believe, there is more profit in producing drugs to reduce symptoms rather than in curing diseases.
September 15th, 2008 at 7:33 pmThis is a big IF and I do not see any chance of a vaccine that cures AIDS UNTIL we completely reform our health care system… go from for profit to government run health insurance aka: medicare for all.
Had enough, the U.S. pharmaceutical industry is based on maintenance drugs, not vaccines or cures.
Ours is an ecomony based on inherent obsolescence, not one-time purchases.
Merck has to make up for its losses from Vioxx, and who better than a group of lobbyists to push this through.
“The Constant Gardener”
PEACE
September 15th, 2008 at 7:53 pmBush Administration Forcing HPV Vaccine On Immigrants
“… but heaven forfend we offer such immunizations to our girls; they’re lily white [literally] and don’t need it…”
Cheers,
September 15th, 2008 at 8:14 pm#8 JT:
Still laughing at gummitch’s naivety….
Ummmmmmm…. Perhaps there is a bit of naïveté here. Although stoopidity might be a more appropriate noun than a synonym for “simplicity” or “artlessness”.
Cheers,
September 15th, 2008 at 8:20 pmDid JT really use other countries as a justification for certain policies? IOKIYAR, huh?
September 15th, 2008 at 8:57 pmDeaths from Gardisil? That’s an exaggeration.
September 15th, 2008 at 9:06 pmI’m missing something. I get it that the WH may be trying to pad the manufacturers’ pockets.
But I thought that the right was against HPV vaccine as it encouraged sexual promiscuity. And I thought the anti-immigration crowd compared the Mexicans to being oversexed (e.g. rabbits).
So why does the right want Mexicans to have Gardasil ???
September 15th, 2008 at 10:52 pmWell you idiots open your mouth with out thinking again.
HPV is rampant in the USA, by all that I have seen most kids have sex by 16yrs old. 1 exposure to HPV is enough to put any female at substantial risk to cervical cancer.
Have you ever watched cervical cancer eat a woman from the inside out. It is horrible. When the cancer eats the uterus and bowel and feces comes out the vagina, when the pain is just unbearable. I have seen it just like that. You may be lucky and only have your belly hollowed out, lose all reproductive organs and bowels. Carry you urine and feces around in a bag attached to your abdomen.
That is cervical cancer and anything you can do to prevent a woman from getting it, you better damn well do.
One death you link to is not proven to connected to the vaccine only that 2 days before she was vaccinated.
September 16th, 2008 at 2:20 pm.
Yet these fundies cry when it’s suggested that their girls get it too.
.
September 17th, 2008 at 1:13 amAnd of course, the mandatory immigrant medical checkup is not covered by insurance. (Many places that provide it are, in fact, cash-only establishments.) Note also that most people entering the US on visas that permit applying for a green card later on have already had a medical exam in their home country (at full price) and one set of vaccinations in order to get that visa. This new set is only necessary after they’ve been in the US for a significant amount of time.
So it’s both a way to test the vaccine over a large sample, and to cover costs by charging immigrants full price. Combine that with massive increases in the application fee, and it’s clear: when the Bush administration looks at legal immigrants, it thinks ‘ka-ching’.
Guess what? Lou Dobbs doesn’t say a damn thing about that.
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January 10th, 2009 at 7:05 pmThis is another example that the “old world jounalism of Murrow, Cronkite and Rather is dead and buried. In the case of the Time Magazine reporter Ms Tumulty, she seems to think the finding out the who, what, where, when and how have been replaced with a steno pad, which she records what ABC said in rebuttle to the complaint of Congressman Kucinich. There is a great disconnect with what happened and the points made by ABC. She asks little of no questions to ABC. She takes what is handed to her and repeats it vebatim and then calls that reporting. I call is stenography. Lida Sohbet sohbet sesli chat Gelinlik Modelleri
January 11th, 2009 at 11:02 amIf you’re referring to Karl Schwarz’ articles, if they are true, how will we ever know unless the news media gets involved without bias? The military under orders not to speak out may never convey Karl Scharz’ expose’. Sesli Sohbet If Cheney was truly involved in 9/11 and protected in some way, then he’s being protected by what may be going on in the Caspian Sea area as well. That pre-9/11 August 10, 2000 article drives the point home to me that Cheney had a vested interest in the oil at the Caspian Sea area (before 9/11). Fx15 From all I’ve read in Schwarz’ articles, he claims the Taliban was working on a deal with Argentina with that pipeline in the Caspian Sea area and UNOCOL wanted the deal instead. Orjinal Lida It’s too much to get into here and I’m not able to convey in here what Schwarz has presented in his articles. Sikis Dig into Schwarz’ articles to learn more about the unnamed soldier’s experiences related to so-called Black Ops missions in the Caspian Sea area in Schwarz’ article. What Schwarz had to present in this article is an eye opener: kurtlar vadisi pusu izle
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I want suits in Colorado, New Jersey, and any other state where illegal suppression campaigns are being conducted. And some real looks at the polling methodology would also be eye opening.
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I’m concerned that its real purpose is to create a financial barrier for immigrant women who seek to lawfully enter this country.
February 9th, 2009 at 2:13 pmJust like the cold war when everyone who didn’t agree with the U.S. was either a communist or a communist sympathizer. Lida This poor crazy guy spent half a decade being tortured because a bunch of stupid politicians Lida were sure the NVA was in bed with the Russians (minimal help) and/or the Chinese (ancient enemy of the vietnamese). Orjinal Lida You would think he would have learned from others’ mistakes. Guess not. Republicans need an enemy. yuda This century it apparently will be all Muslims, Elektronik Sigara all of whom must be alQaeda operatives.
February 9th, 2009 at 10:54 pmJust like the cold war when everyone who didn’t agree with the U.S. was either a communist or a communist sympathizer. toki This poor crazy guy spent half a decade being tortured because a bunch
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