Bachmann, Santorum Nail Rick Perry On Vaccination Issue

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Written By:
Rob Port

Sep 12, 2011
8:41pm

In Texas Governor Rick Perry issued an executive order to make Gardisil, a vaccination for HPV, mandatory for girls in the state. During a question about the abuse of executive orders at the federal level, Perry was asked about this order in Texas.

He answered saying it was a mistake, but Bachmann and Santorum took him down to the mat ton the issue.

I thought Santorum made the best point. Government vaccination mandates are defensible in some instances. If we want to eradicate certain diseases from our society, or at least have a level of prevention that’s as good as the next best thing, then a critical mass of the public must be vaccinated. Thus, requiring vaccinations in public schools is sound policy.

But it’s hard to make that case in the instance of HPV, which is an exclusively sexually-transmitted disease. Perry’s defense that he was concerned about the little girls getting cervical cancer is all well and good, but HPV is a essentially a behavioral disease. It can be avoided.

Bachmann bringing up Perry’s ties to Merck, the manufacturer of the vaccine, was damaging as well. Overall Perry came out poor, but if this is the ugliest part of his background I don’t see it changing his trajectory in the race.