Bizarre, Politics, Society

Bachmann Attacks Perry For Giving Girls Anti-Cancer Vaccine . . . And Retardation

We have been following what Jon Huntsman called the war on science in the GOP. Now Rep. Michele Bachmann has added to the attacks on global warming, evolution, environmental protections, and other scientific work with a claim that the leading anti-cancer vaccine given to little girls causes retardation. Experts responded with alarm that Bachmann’s comments could discourage families from giving children the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine.

During the last debate with Texas governor Rick Perry, Bachmann lashed him for his 2007 order to vaccinate young girls when “little girls . . . have a potentially dangerous reaction to this drug.” She explained part of her scientific research for this remarkable claim:

I had a mother last night come up to me here in Tampa after the debate. She told me that her little daughter took that vaccine, that injection, and she suffered from mental retardation thereafter. It can have very dangerous side effects.

While more than 35 million doses have been administered without such reports of dangers, Bachmann has triggered a debate over its safety. It could be a very damaging political attack if young girls are made more vulnerable to cancer.

Source: Guardian

112 thoughts on “Bachmann Attacks Perry For Giving Girls Anti-Cancer Vaccine . . . And Retardation”

  4. If you google circumcision cervical cancer, there seems to be very good evidence that circumcision dramatically reduces the risk of both AIDS as well as cervical cancer.

    Given this, I take it that we are all for mandating circumcision as a requirement for public school attendance.

  5. NoWay – Thank you for correcting the record on the safety and legitimate use of this vaccine.

    Medical decisions should be between doctor and patient. Government should never have the power to mandate medical procedures on citizens.

  8. http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/2011/09/14/elizabeth-warren-a-democrat-id-vote-for/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=elizabeth-warren-a-democrat-id-vote-for

    (rafflaw,

    Yes… Cheney — “a person of wisdom and judgment”…

    The excerpt that I might have included:

    “He said, “I was watching CSPAN, and I saw Vice President Dick Cheney and he was being asked questions about a whole host of issues– following 9/11, the affairs in various countries in the world, and I listened to him speak and said whether you agree or disagree with him, this a man of wisdom and judgment and he could have been President of the United States. That’s the kind of person I’d like to have — a person of wisdom and judgment.”” )

  11. Even Bachmann’s Ex-Campaign Manager Thinks She Blew It On Gardasil (VIDEO)
    EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO SEPTEMBER 14, 2011
    TPM2012
    http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/09/even-bachmanns-ex-campaign-manager-thinks-she-blew-it-on-gardasil-video.php?ref=fpb

    Excerpt:
    Michele Bachmann is officially looking weaker than she already was after her suggestion that the HPV vaccine Gardasil may cause retardation.

    But you don’t have to take our word for it — Bachmann’s former campaign manager, Ed Rollins, took to MSNBC tonight to make the case.

    “Obviously she would have been better if she stayed on the issue, when issue was [Rick Perry’s] executive orders and whether he basically made a mistake, as he said he did,” Rollins told Chris Matthews Wednesday. “She made a mistake. The quicker she admits she made a mistake and moves on the better it is.”

    Rollins chalked up Bachmann’s decision take what a member of the audience told her at Monday night’s debate in passing and turn it into a talking point to Bachmann being an “an emotional person who has great feeling for people.”“

    He acknowledged “there’s no empirical data other than one individual woman coming up to her,” to back up the claim, which has drawn fire from Rush Limbaugh and others on the right as well as the medical establishment.

    “She needs to move on,” Rollins said. “The bottom line she can’t prove the case, and it’s better for her to get back on the trail.”

  12. Don’t know if anyone has time to read a new book about Sarah….

    McGinniss Book on Palin Comes Out

    Just as Palinologists and politicos are awaiting Sarah Palin’s imminent (or so she says) decision on whether she will run for president, a new biography of her makes lurid accusations that have filtered out to media outlets now that the book has begun circulating.

    The book, “The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin,” is by her former next-door neighbor — or rather, by Joe McGinniss, the best-selling but controversial author who moved into the house next door to the Palins in 2010 to research the book. (That prompted the Palins to erect a fence and claim via Twitter that he was trying to peek into their young daughter’s bedroom. Mr. McGinniss responded that there was no bedroom view, and that Ms. Palin could have come over with a plate of cookies and had a civil discussion about the matter instead.)

    The 320-page book, due out Sept. 20, is part biography, part diary of Mr. McGinniss’s days in Alaska and the media frenzy that surrounded the frosty neighbor relations. Its more salacious details began to leak out Wednesday as the book reached media outlets, but many episodes cited in the book relied on unnamed sources or second- or third-hand accounts.

    http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/14/mcginniss-book-on-palin-comes-out/

    Hmmmm

  13. Michele Bachmann moves to the left (on crazy conspiracy theories):
    The suddenly flailing 2012 candidate adopts the popular liberal myth that vaccines are dangerous
    by Alex Pareene
    Salon, 9/15/2011
    http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/09/15/bachmann_vaccines/index.html

    Excerpt:
    Michele Bachmann said that the HPV vaccine makes babies “retarded.” This is easily the dumbest, most irresponsible and inflammatory comment she’s made in years. It began at Monday’s debate, when she attacked Rick Perry for his now infamous decision to require that girls receive the vaccine. “Little girls who have a negative reaction to this potentially dangerous drug don’t get a mulligan.”

    She accused Perry of only supporting the policy for money:

    What I’m saying is that it’s wrong for a drug company, because the governor’s former chief of staff was the chief lobbyist for this drug company. The drug company gave thousands of dollars in political donations to the governor, and this is just flat-out wrong. The question is, is it about life, or was it about millions of dollars and potentially billions for a drug company?

    She got worse after the debate, on Fox and the “Today” show, when she said an unnamed mother told her that her daughter became “retarded” after receiving the vaccine.

    Obviously there are no cases of kids becoming “retarded” after receiving the HPV vaccine. I am pretty sure Bachmann meant to reference the popular myth that vaccines (usually the common MMR vaccine) cause autism, but she got confused.

    So she either repeated some hearsay some random person told her as factual at a nationally televised presidential debate and then twice more on television because she’s an imbecile, or she is cannily reaching out to the sizable number of paranoid parents with misguided concerns about vaccines. She has a very good ear for the sort of scary story people half-hear on the news or get the gist of third-hand from a friend — her first school board run was built on horrible tales of what the government was secretly doing to your children.

    So, in that sense, this is completely unsurprising. Bachmann is an avowed enemy of science, running to represent a party that of late has decided that scientists are untrustworthy liberals. She has a long history of parroting conspiracy theories and believing and repeating anything she hears or reads that reflects her biases.

    But this isn’t your typical right-wing conspiracy theory, about climate scientists plotting to destroy capitalism, or the U.N. using bike-share programs to institute a world government. This, this is a liberal conspiracy theory.

    The “vaccines cause autism” lie is as liberal as conspiracy theories get. Crunchy coastal elites, panicky about the health of their babies in a world full of “toxins,” are the ones not getting their kids vaccinated these days, because of something they read on the Internet (or saw on “Oprah”). The story has traction in part because it’s anti-corporate. It insinuates collusion between the government and those damned pharmaceutical companies that are only out for profit. (The scientists, too, are in the pockets of big pharma!) This stuff doesn’t get much play on the right, because it doesn’t tap into the foundational myths of the conservative movement or play on their tribal fears. Right-wingers are more concerned about their babies being exposed to the mental toxins of liberal indoctrination than, say, mercury.

    This is why Ace of Spades is mocking her. It’s why Rush Limbaugh said she “jumped the shark.” It’s why the Corner featured multiple posts strongly decrying Bachmann’s “dangerous flirtation with the anti-vaccine movement.” Conservatives oppose giving girls the HPV vaccine because they want premarital sex to have (potentially deadly) consequences, not because they think vaccines are inherently dangerous.

    But vaccine panic is big. It’s specifically big with mothers. With Rick Perry sucking up Bachmann’s support, she needs to branch out a bit. This is her version of “moving to the center.” Michele Bachmann moderates her message by adding liberal conspiracy theories to her repertoire.

  14. anon,

    Look at the Republican candidates who are running for president. Yikes! I doubt any of them–or the great majority of political leaders serving in this country today–could write the Constitution or the Bill of Rights. Too bad they’re not “classical liberals.”

    We are now leaning toward a government of the corporations, by the corporations, and for the corporations in this country. Look at what our financial wizards did to this country’s and to the world’s economy. We are not the country that we once were.

    I have not slurred the words, anon. People like Bush and Cheney and others have.

    *****
    “That Elaine, which you call Eek the Plebians was not written for chiefs or kings or elite leftists or aging lefty hipster hippies that believe in aliens, but for all the people!

    P.S. I’m not a Patrician. I don’t drink latte. I was never a hippie. I have no idea why you bring aliens into this conversation. (Are you speaking of illegal aliens?)

    That long spiel of yours has what to do with the HPV vaccine? You do go far afield in your arguments. Don’t you?

  15. Elaine M: “The contribution of $5,000 is exactly what Merck would say it is—a sincere effort to promote the career of a politician who they want to see succeed. It’s not a bribe.”

    How about a down payment on a bribe?

  16. The article cited by Woosty’s Still A Cat said “Perry, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, received at least $23,500 in campaign contributions from drug-maker Merck & Co., including $5,000 in 2006, the year before he ordered girls throughout the state to take a new Merck vaccine. The drug-maker also has donated about $500,000 to the Republican Governors Association, a group which Perry headed twice and has been among his most generous campaign donors.”

    Ignoring the broader comments Perry said he was insulted to have it said that he could be bought for $5000. Does he mean he can’t be bought, or that it would take more than $5000?

  17. anon,

    Is that your evidence?

    “Everything about Western Culture tells me we rely and believe in education and outreach, especially over force, and for good reason, it works.

    “One data point in particular is that the more educated the people (women) are, the lower the birthrates.”

    *****

    We have plenty of people in this country who are anti-science. Some of them believe the Earth is about 6,000 years old…and that humans and dinosaurs co-existed. Rick Perry and thousands of people prayed to God for rain. We have some conservatives who are trying to outlaw certain kinds of contraceptives.

    I wouldn’t say that “everything about Western Culture” shows that we rely on education and outreach–or common sense.

    Yeah, ain’t that something Elaine? I mean seriously? Call me crazy, but written language, education, good parenting, the scientific revolution, the englightenment, all those classical liberals that ended up with the Magna Carta, Adam Smith Economics, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, Science, Education, shit fuck, that’s some pretty damn awesome sauce! Why would I have faith in that? Why would I have faith in government of the people, by the people, and for the people?

    Elaine M, liberty and freedom have to be more than just words. Hear me. Hear this! Among my people, we carry many such words as this from many lands. Many are equally good and are as well repsected, but wherever I have gone, no words have said this thing of importance in quite this way.

    Look at these three words written larger than the rest, with a special pride never written before or since. Tall words, proudly saying, “We the people”.

    That Elaine, which you call Eek the Plebians was not written for chiefs or kings or elite leftists or aging lefty hipster hippies that believe in aliens, but for all the people!

    Down the years Elaine, you have slurred the meanings of the words,

    “We the people of the United States,
    in order to form a more perfect union,
    establish justice, ensure domestic tranquillity,
    provide for the common defense,
    promote the general welfare,
    and secure the blessings of liberty
    to ourselves and our posterity…
    do ordain and establish this constitution”.
    These words and the words that follow
    were not written only for the Latte Liberals you approve of but for the Tea Partiers as well.

    They must apply to everyone or they mean nothing!
    Do you understand?

  20. What is it going to take for someone, with some credibility with both rational, everyday folks and the blind, raging tea-baggers ( admittedly a VERY unique quality ) to speak openly in the media and tell people – openly – that Bachmann is 1) a liar, and 2) she’s a complete fake. She is past being a disgrace to the people she represents, but to the US, she is now a complete, global laughing stock.

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