Re: [asa] Re: [ASA] Mandatory HPV vaccination

The vaccine costs $120 each for three injections over 6 months. Merck is in the position to make millions of dollars a year if all states mandate vaccinations. Various medical societies are recommending the vaccine, but not mandating it.

So then Perry, a conservative Christian, who would seem to be someone opposed to mandating it, passes an excutive order to make it mandatory. It just so happens that his former chief of staff is now the lobbyist for Merck. Make of that whatever you will.
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: SteamDoc@aol.com
  To: asa@calvin.edu
  Sent: Tuesday, February 06, 2007 10:44 PM
  Subject: [asa] Re: [ASA] Mandatory HPV vaccination

  David Opderbeck wrote:
> I think the problem is the mandatory nature of this executive order.
> Mandatory vaccinations for schoolchildren are appropriate for communicable
> diseases that are transmitted by ordinary social contact. It seems very
> different to me to require that kids be vaccinated against an STD. It does
> seem like the kind of thing families should decide for themselves. I could
> see maybe making state funding available for any family that chooses the
> vaccine.

  Except it isn't mandatory. In Texas (and I think in all the other states where this is coming up), families can "opt out" if they want.

  A legitimate question that some have raised is the cost-benefit analysis. The vaccine is pretty expensive (a few hundred dollars as I recall). The cancer prevented, while certainly tragic, is not extremely common. So society is spending hundreds of thousands, or maybe millions, of dollars for each cancer prevented. What are the opportunity costs for that expense? If insurance is required to cover it, how much will premiums go up and how many people will go uninsured as a result?
  I'm not advocating any specific answer to these questions, but I think they need to be asked in such a situation.
  And one could point out that they are already making such a calculation to some extent by not requiring the vaccination for boys, although that would also prevent some cancers (albeit a much smaller number).

  The other legitimate question that people have raised is the active role of the company that owns the vaccine in lobbying for states to pass such laws.

  ---------------------------------------------------------------------
  Dr. Allan H. Harvey, Boulder, Colorado | SteamDoc@aol.com
  "Any opinions expressed here are mine, and should not be
  attributed to my employer, my wife, or my cat"

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Received on Wed Feb 7 07:07:22 2007