Well, this is an interesting turn of events, from the TMA website:
TMA supports “strongly supports” physicians’ ability to immunize young girls with the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine but does not at this point endorse Gov. Rick Perry’s mandate that the vaccine be administered for all girls entering sixth grade in 2008, says TMA President Ladon Homer, MD. TMA’s position was developed by the association’s Council on Public Health.
“Organized medicine has and will continue to promote prevention as a best practice for the health and wellness of all Texans,” Dr. Homer said. “This includes supporting a recommendation to administer the HPV vaccine and acknowledging its potential to prevent cervical cancer among Texas women. However, mandating a vaccine for a disease not spread by casual and/or occupational contact – and currently only available to one gender – represents a considerable departure from past practice concerning school immunization requirements. School immunization requirements came into existence to protect school children from outbreaks of contagious disease in the school setting, not to compel vaccination.”
…
“TMA has played a proactive and involved role in Texas’ previous vaccine debates and would prefer that any vaccine mandate for school entry be vetted through the legislative and regulatory process to ensure stakeholder input from all interested parties,” Dr. Homer said.
(emphasis mine).
This legislative session may be more interesting than usual.
Gov Perry has no business mandating this vaccine. This, as stated in the article, is not a disease spread while in the school setting. I’m glad to see this from TMA.
I have a friend who got cervical cancer because of HPV. right now she is under going chemotherapy and some anti-cancer drugs. . `