Someone (and a man) with strong opinions on the cervical cancer vaccine

I've written several times already about the impending vaccine that would prevent the majority of cervical cancer cases...and the politicization of that vaccine.

Well, meet Cenk Uygur of the Huffington Post. He's even more pissed off about it than I am!

Key excerpt:

"But this isn’t just about controlling our sex lives anymore. This is a matter of life and death. Now they’ve gone way past acceptable. Letting over 3,000 women die of cervical cancer each year because you think it might lead to promiscuity and pre-marital sex? This is the point where your religious fanaticism ceases to be anachronistically amusing and becomes downright dangerous.

Well, yeah.

I read a pretty good analogy somewhere: it's like saying one shouldn't wear a seat belt because it might encourage one to drive recklessly.

Sure, some people do drive recklessly. All the awareness campaigns in the world don't bring an end to DUIs. But to protect the rest of us, both from ourselves and that minority of crazies out there on the road, seat belts are a very good thing.

Let me just repeat a stat from my last post on this subject:
38% of women who have been raped were 14-17 years old at the time of the attack

So, this vaccine will protect our adult selves not only from our own teenage bad judgment, but from the crazies out there.

Seriously, how can these people be for real?

Comments

[hgstern]

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Seriously, how can these people be for real?

Because they're morons?

Just guessin'.

I sorta/kinda understand folks that would be agin it for thoughtful, medical reasons: after a LOT of research, my wife and I decided against the meningitis vaccine for my eldest, who was headed off to college. The downside risk far outrweighed the potential upside. But there was no consideration with regard to her behavior; this was a risk/benefit calculation.

So, if there was a lot of (legitimate) research that showed nasty downsides to the cervical cancer vaccine, and if parents decided against it for sound medical reasons, then I'd obviously have no beef.

But the whacko's that rail against it for purely demogogic reasons leave me cold.