The Pro-Death Religious Right

On June 8th, 2006, the US Food and Drug Administration approved an HPV vaccine called Gardasil. This vaccine can be used to prevent sexually transmitted HPV which can cause cervical cancer, genital warts, and other health problems.

From Wikipedia.org:

Worldwide, cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in women (after breast cancer) and is the third leading killer (behind breast and lung cancer). It affects about 16 per 100,000 women per year and causes death in about 9 per 100,000 per year.

Before the FDA approved the Gardasil (another HPV vaccine, Cervarix, is still going through the approval process), some crazy Religious Right conservatives expressed concerns about HPV vaccines. Now what kind of person would be against a vaccine that prevents cancer? A Pro-Death Religious Right conservative.

These Pro-Death Religious Right conservatives initially opposed FDA approval of Gardasil. They would have rather had women die from cervical cancer than be vaccinated against HPV. Why? Because they have this insane idea that if you vaccinate a girl against one of many STDs in the world, she will become sexually promiscuous. They do not seem to realize that there are still plenty of other STDs to worry about or that there are many other emotional and psychological reasons for why people choose not to be promiscuous.

Fortunately, the FDA ignored that crazy ideology and approved Gardasil. Despite this, these crazy Religious Right conservatives continue to fight having their own daughters vaccinated. That's right. They don't want the vaccine to be mandatory so that they can choose to keep their daughters vulnerable to HPV in case their daughters decide that abstinence is not for them. These people are disgusting. They would rather their daughters die from cervical cancer than be vaccinated for HPV.

Today, I heard about this:

AIDS vaccine heads to clinical trials

"We expect FDA approval within a year," he said, adding that Curocom is also committed to another $35 million for the final phase of three rounds of testing that will follow an initial series of toxicology tests on animals to show that the vaccine has no harmful effects.

"We expect that the initial tests will clear the way for this vaccine to be used therapeutically within three years to treat patients suffering from low-level HIV infection," Kang said.

It will not be a cure for those suffering from full-blown AIDS, he said.

Kang said he expected the full set of clinical trials, to be completed in six or seven years, will clear the vaccine for widespread use as a HIV/AIDS preventative.

"We hope it will give total immunity," he said from London.

There is a lot of research going into potential HIV vaccines, and we don't know whether this one or any other will be successful in ending HIV and AIDS. However, let me say this to any religious nutcase who might try to oppose a preventative or therapeutic HIV vaccine:

Don't. Don't try to stop medical advances. Don't try to stop vaccines. Don't try to stop stem-cell research. Leave the rest of us alone. If you want to refuse a vaccine or stem-cell treatment for yourself for whatever crazy reason you can think up, fine. However, if you choose to prevent any life-saving medical treatment for your children, then I consider that a form of child abuse or, at least, child negligence.

Don't force your religious beliefs onto me, my health, or the health of my friends and family.