Texas governor Rick Perry issued an executive order today requiring that schoolgirls get the HPV vaccine:

By employing an executive order, Perry sidestepped opposition in the Legislature from conservatives and parents’ rights groups who fear such a requirement would condone premarital sex and interfere with the way Texans raise their children.

…

Perry, a conservative Christian who opposes abortion and stem-cell research using embryonic cells, counts on the religious right for his political base. But he has said the cervical cancer vaccine is no different from the one that protects children against polio.

…

Merck is bankrolling efforts to pass state laws across the country mandating Gardasil for girls as young as 11 or 12. It doubled its lobbying budget in Texas and has funneled money through Women in Government, an advocacy group made up of female state legislators around the country.

Never mind the appalling “sidestepping the Legislature” thing and the bit about Perry’s connections to Merck. What annoys me here is the implication that there’s no difference between this HPV vaccine and the polio vaccine. From an editorial by Dr. Joseph DeSoto in the Charleston Daily Mail:

There are over 100 types of HPV, of which 35 are known to be acquired sexually. Infections with HPV subtypes 6, 11, 16, 18, 34, 36, 45 are especially prone to cause cancer.

Recently, a vaccine developed by Merck was shown to be effective against HPV subtypes 16 and 18, which together cause 70 percent of today’s cervical cancers.

…

The vaccine, however, suppresses only a few specific HPV types. Hence, those subtypes not suppressed will obtain an evolutionary advantage in growth and become more prevalent and dominant — for which the vaccine will have no effect.

This is the analogous reason we don’t have a generalized vaccine against the common cold, though we do have vaccines against some individual cold viruses.

Now, I don’t know much about the polio vaccine, but I imagine it hits a few more than two of seven (or two of one hundred) strains!

While that’s enough to convince me that the governor’s action is shortsighted, here’s more from Dr. DeSoto:

Additionally, according to the data presented to the FDA, which I have reviewed, it was evident that 1) there is no evidence that this vaccine works after five years, 2) two-thirds of those who had been administered the vaccine suffered from moderate to severe pain at the site of injection, 3) it is not known whether in the long term this vaccine may cause auto-immune, neurological or other disorders, 4) the risk for pelvic inflammatory disease, appendicitis and gastroenteritis is doubled.

So, the vaccine not only may not last long, but it’s potentially dangerous. Whether the governor is misguided or inappropriately influenced by his connections at Merck, it is obvious that making this decision unilaterally was an absolute travesty.