STICK YOUR SHOTS

`````This is the time of year that parents start getting their kids ready to return to school. They're usually provided with a list of items that they need. For health reasons, children are mandated to have their shots, and there's an obvious need and reason that we want to innoculate them against things like polio and German Measles. These are vaccines with a proven track record. Unless people get these shots, it can undermine the greater good and well being of society as a whole due to the highly contagious and dangerous nature of these illnessess.

`````What I am shocked by, is that for many grade school girls now, along with other school supplies, they are being told to get HPV shots. HPV is an abbreviation of a big word that means genital warts. There isn't just one kind of wart out there...there's several strains. The vaccine which they are trying to force people to take hopes to target the specific variety which causes cervical cancer.

`````I've read different statistics for the United States, but it seems that 70% of cervical cancer is caused by the wart infestation. About 10,000 women are diagnosed with it per year and 4,000 will die. In Canada, about 1350 women are diagnosed and 400 will die. The death rates are much higher in developing nations. This is the most costly vaccine ever, at over $300 per dose.

`````I think it's great if it's voluntary, but don't force something into anybody's body; especially if it's a nine or ten year old, which happens to be the age they want to start this program. It's not fair that the only way to opt out is to attend a religious school, either. First of all, not everybody can afford this option. Second, such schools are not available in all places. Third, a person might not be happy with the quality of education provided by a specific academy. Finally, I should be able to refuse on moral principles not related to religion at all.

`````I was not raised with any stated, organized religion after a certain age. As a child I attended some religious classes in Swedish; I recall receiving little cards with photos on them and sitting in the room of a church. After we moved to Canada, there was nothing. Yet, I was forever beating myself up over doing the right thing. Everything would become an ethical debate within my brain. To say that only those tied to organized denominations have a right to opt out is discriminatory.

`````They only want to force this innoculation upon girls, even though boys carry the HPV virus as well, and it's been proven that they too would benefit from the shot. So, if a parent says "no" to the vaccine in some places, it's only the girls who will be denied a proper education. How very Dark Ages.

`````This is not a disease, like polio, which endangers the public at large. What an insult to presume that a girl will have sex. Some, by the way, may be gay. To think that we all lack the self control to say "no", and that we might actually have interests beyond being boy crazy, seems a shocking concept to these people.

`````By the way, abstinence, in this case, may not be the right word to use or promote. So many people use that term to describe "everything but..." In the case of HPV, it's risky, as it can be spread by mere hand or skin contact, and thus in some age groups, 50% of the people may be infected at some point. The operative word is actually "chaste." There is a difference.

`````Young women are not total idiots. Give them the shot if they want it, along with proper information. Do not force it upon them. Give it to them when they are ready and old enough to decide what they want to put into their own body. I recall being that age and I detested being treated like an idiot. When I was tested in grade eight, my research and reading skills scored at the university level. If I had wanted to become sexually active and get the shot, I would have known where to find it. As it was, it wasn't a choice I opted to make.

`````Obviously, this shot doesn't begin to prevent herpes, which can be devastating and lifelong. In some places and age groups, the figures are 1 out of 5 victims. It cannot prevent the spread of Hepatitis C, which may destroy your liver and kill you. That disease requires the consumption of a vast array of pills every single day. Before you know you have it, you may have spread it to others. Of course, there's pregnancy. We need something more then this shot to solve the problem out there, be it better education, parenting or having girls understand the full consequences of the choices they make.

`````Maybe they should take that $300 per shot and invest it instead in improving the schools. Imagine if girls grasped the concept that the way to help their lives was to open your books and not your legs. There's something wrong when they equate self-esteen with having a boyfriend. Perhaps they could hire school guidance counsellors who were actually approachable and knew their jobs; ones that the kids didn't see as flakes who wouldn't keep a secret. Then, should they want the shot, they could talk to them. They could use that money to work on the prevelence of school bullying and violence. There's places that have drastically cut their arts programs. Well, here's some money to fix it. Self-esteem develops when you can do something well. It gives you the voice to say "no." Part of that is saying "no" to physical contact but also to somebody sticking a needle into the arm of a nine year old against her will. If you don't stand up and say that it isn't right, you're telling her that next time, coercsion is okay if it comes from a person in authority. It takes away her power. It's hardly a lesson we want to teach, is it?

`````One last comment is that, how much of a double standard is it that the government can mandate this to little girls, yet adults, who have abused kids or have decided to have one baby after another born with fetal alcohol syndrome or addicted to drugs, can continue to get pregnant with impunity? The courts could never order them to be sterilized? It's so typical of how wrong it all is. Or is it because that's where the easy money is? There's been a lot of lobbying going on and $300 per child if it's made mandatory will fill the coffers of a company that just got sued over their arthritis drug that was pulled off the market.