A shot in the dark I swear my blood pressure rises every time I see a Gardasil commercial. The best way to prevent cervical cancer is not with a vaccine, but with a rubber or a chastity belt. No matter what Merck would have you believe, human papillomavirus (HPV) isn't something you catch by accident like the flu or pink eye. It's clever advertising - I'll give them that. Who wouldn't jump at the chance to prevent cancer with a simple shot in the arm? But as I lamented a few months ago, taking away the fear of contracting the most common sexually transmitted disease is only going to encourage even more teenagers to practice unsafe sex. And the consequences of that can - and will - be much farther reaching than the potential risk of developing cervical cancer. Unlike my opinion on a plethora of other topics, I'm not alone on this one. I'm sure you remember the ruckus that ensued when Rick Perry, the Republican governor of Texas, issued an executive order saying that all girls in the state must receive the vaccination. Many parents were outraged - some because of moral concerns, others because of safety ones. Regardless of the exact reason why, the point is that they didn't want a vaccine for an STD to be forced on their
young daughters. Can you blame them? Since that time, Perry's ties to the pharmaceutical industry have come to light, making his already controversial decision even more so. But what happened in Texas looks like small potatoes compared to what's going on north of our border. Keep reading… Just a week ago, I was singing Canada's praises for its stance on vitamin D. Today, those warm, fuzzy feelings aren't quite so warm - or fuzzy. That's because I just found out that Canada is planning a nationwide campaign to vaccinate all of its middle school-aged girls. In fact, the Canadian government included $258 million in the 2007-2008 budget to help the provinces pay for their HPV programs. That's a pretty generous sum, if you ask me, especially considering Canada's low cervical cancer rate. According to Canadian cancer statistics, cervical cancer ranks 13th in the list of cancer deaths, causing only 400 deaths a year. With the amount of time, effort, and funds backing this vaccine, you'd think we had an uncontrollable disease on our hands, like malaria, small pox, or some other epidemic threatening to claim the lives of thousands - not an STD that can be avoided by practicing safe sex or by abstaining altogether, if kids even know what that means in today's sex-crazed world. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: A little more parenting and a little less boob-tube babysitting would go a long way toward teaching kids about sexual temperance and age-appropriate behavior. But with Big Pharma dangling the "easy way out" carrot in front of parents and lawmakers, why
would anything change? | 
