Mandatory Safe Sex III

Today our political supermen here in Texas, namely the House of Representatives, voted to prevent Governor Rick Perry from enacting his order for mandatory vaccination of 6th grade girls for the sexually transmitted HPV virus. See previous post.

This proposal goes nowhere unless the Senate concurs, which they may not, but in either case it doesn't matter. All Perry has to do is veto the bill and the legislature will be powerless to stop him. Theoretically they can overrule his veto, but unless the Senate moves quickly (good luck on that!) the session will expire and the legislature won't be back to consider an override for another two years. (We have a rather strange system here in Texas. Getting the legislature out of town as fast as possible usually serves us well, but it may backfire this time.)

Meanwhile, Merck's lobbying effort is bearing fruit in New Mexico and Virginia, which are close to passing similar requirements to inject all young girls with $400 doses of Gardisil.

In an earlier post I pointed out that unlike chicken pox and other such childhood diseases, there is zero risk of HPV being spread in the classroom unless the students are having sex there. I wonder if these kids were vaccinated?