Flap over HPV vaccine

A local weekly newspaper called Isthmus ran a story about how some religious conservatives in the US are trying to block administration of the new human papillomavirus vaccine (causes cervical cancer) to kids on the grounds that giving kids immunity to an STD would cause them to become promiscuous. I'm often pissed at Isthmus for making Christians out to be the bad guys by focusing on the right-wing nuts and rarely looking at the good stuff that Sally Army, Habitat for Humanity, local churches etc. do for society. But this time, in addition I'm pissed as hell at the idiots who are trying to stop the vaccine...my level of respect for James Dobson is very near zero.

Wow...writing letters to newspapers all the time...I'm turning into a female version of that old Bulbir Singh fella in Seremban who keeps getting printed the M'sian English dailies. Last time I went home several people said "I like your essay" and I thought "What essay?" until I realized they were referring to the epistles that I periodically shot off to The Star while in college, which I never found out if they got printed or not since readers' letters don't always come up on the website.

Then again, I'm always afraid of my tendency to go off half-cocked about news.

Ooh, on the plus side, my letter about Neil Gaiman's Asian fanbase was published in this month's issue of WIRED (it's near the bottom of the page). I'm a happy kitty. Have decided that one of my life goals is to become famous enough to be featured in WIRED and National Geographic, the two coolest magazines on earth.

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Dear Editor,

I am baffled by the lack of reason which has led some people to fear that vaccinating children against an STD would increase risky sexual behaviour among teenagers. Allow me to present an analogy. In Malaysia, my home country, adult disapproval for teenage sex is generally stronger than in the United States. However, in secondary school, there comes a day when all the girls are pulled out of class and sent to the school nurse's office for rubella "jabs". (Vaccinations for children of school age are mandatory and administered for free in Malaysia.) This is because rubella, or German measles, can cause birth defects. By no stretch of the imagination does this mean that our moderate Muslim government encourages large numbers of pregnant 15-year-olds. It simply makes more sense to administer the vaccine at a time when children can be tracked to make sure that they get it - and women do not have to worry about their immune status later in life when they get pregnant, planned or not.

In general, I feel that Americans, having been insulated for decades by effective vaccination campaigns against many diseases still affecting other parts of the world, fail to appreciate the power of vaccines. Searching for the word on the Internet brings up a slew of websites condemning the idea of protecting one's children from disease on the grounds that vaccines cause allergies, cause autism, are too expensive, are a scam by the pharmaceutical industry, et cetera. While on the other sides of the Atlantic and Pacific, children die or are crippled by pathogens like polio and measles that are so easily defeated here.

Finally, given the teaser phrase "What Would Jesus Do?" on the front page of that issue, I am extremely disappointed that Isthmus didn't bother to take statements from Christian doctors or researchers who support the vaccine, but instead took the "religious right" to be the sole voice of the body of Christ. Many doctors and biologists are in their respective professions partly because they believe that healing and protecting people is what Jesus would do. In St. John's vision, he described the tree of life growing in the kingdom of God, "...and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations." Many of us are trying to bring that healing into the present world.