HPV vaccine

At the recent debate of hopefuls for the Republican presidential nomination, Michelle Bachman apparently made a series of ugly false claims about the safety record of the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine.  It was the usual dribble of fear-spasms calculated to appeal to a rabid anti-feminist sub-group of the electorate.

It was ugly because HPV kills: along with the initial, rather unpleasant* disease, HPV causes cervical, vulvar, vaginal, penile, anal, and oropharyngeal cancer.  In fact it causes most cervical cancers which mean that the HPV vaccine might be the first pharmaceutical which lets us cure a cancer.    HPV vaccine also has a shiny safety record, better than the safety record of Tylenol/aspirin/ibuprofen which I'm sure Bachman regularly throws down her gullet.  So, here's the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) to set the record straight:

 “The American Academy of Pediatrics would like to correct false statements made in the Republican presidential campaign that HPV vaccine is dangerous and can cause mental retardation. There is absolutely no scientific validity to this statement. Since the vaccine has been introduced, more than 35 million doses have
been administered, and it has an excellent safety record."

Furthermore, this is only an effective way to cure cancer population-wide if it happens in the right time-frame, i.e.-before sexual activity.

“The American Academy of Pediatrics, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the American Academy of Family Physicians all recommend that girls receive HPV vaccine around age 11 or 12. That’s because this is the age at which the vaccine produces the best immune response in the body, and because it’s
important to protect girls well before the onset of sexual activity. In the U.S., about 6 million people, including teens, become infected with HPV each year, and 4,000 women die from cervical cancer. This is a life-saving vaccine that can protect girls from cervical cancer.”

Dear parents: do it.  Dear everybody else: if you're considering voting for this woman, or any other Republican candidate, please convince them to engage in political grandstanding less likely to cause the death of women and the destruction of families.
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* Sorry if you clicked that.

Twist it a little more, Cohen!

Andrew Cohen writes this about John Yoo:

Former government lawyer John Yoo taking credit on behalf of the Bush administration for Sunday's strike against Osama bin Laden is like Edward John Smith, the captain of the Titanic, taking credit for the results of the 1998 Academy Awards.

John Yoo is of course trying to do just that.

Climate

I have often been surprised when people are very adamant about something that they probably do not know much about.  It usually works to my detriment because I typically do not know much about it either so I have historically had a hard time phrasing my disagreement.  After all it's a little rude to say, "hey, bullshit smells, and right now, so do you."  Lots of these folks are perfectly nice, they're just, well, wrong. 

This video brings it up because I've often talked to people who inflated the uncertainty in reconstructions of temperature trends.  Now I realize they were just parroting denialist talking points.

How would you rephrase: "hey, bullshit smells, and right now, so do you." (?)

Crackpot Bumps Up NY Times Ratings

NY Times front page online:

Magazine Preview

The Crash and Burn of an Autism Guru

By SUSAN DOMINUS

Andrew Wakefield, condemned by the press and the medical establishment, still believes in a link between autism and vaccines.

The man participated in a campaign to inflate the risk of vaccination which has resulted in outbreaks of measles and other preventable diseases around the world.  His conduct while participating in this campaign was outrageous by all of the standards that researchers are supposed to abide by.  The crazy man yelling on the street corner in Berkeley has a much more relevant opinion on autism and vaccines.  The CDC might be an even better place to ask.  You know, people with actual credibility and relevance.

NY Times, please be a little choosier about what gets front page coverage.  Thanks PZ for pointing out the crazy.

"Anger", oh really?

This is a nytimes.com headline:

Afghan Mob Kills 10 Foreign United Nations Workers

By ROD NORDLAND 8 minutes ago

KABUL, Afghanistan — The protesters, angered by a Koran burning in Florida on Mar. 20., attacked a U.N. office in Mazar-i-Sharif.

I'm sorry, but this is premeditated mob murder.  This has nothing to do with anger.  They were whipped up by irresponsible religious figures at the mosque and set loose on an poorly guarded compound.  The story states:

The attack began when hundreds of demonstrators, some of them armed, poured out of mosques after Friday Prayer and headed to the headquarters of the United Nations in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.

To imagine that this was provoked by some cracked up Florida pastor's burning of a few Korans is giving these people far too little credit.  Somebody wanted the UN out and they found an excuse.  The ugly thing is that people are so easy to whip into a frenzy.  Maybe the NY Times consider writing headlines that don't just monkey the American prejudice towards Afghanistan as the land of religious insanity?  Pretty please?