Spontaneous Needle Injection!
Rants, Uni August 2nd, 2007Yesterday I had some free time at Uni and I went to our medical clinic and got a free needle injection of Gardasil! Now I’m vaccinated from the four most common strains of HPV thus drastically reducing the chances of me developing cervical cancer. Booyah!
I heard about the vaccine a little while ago and I only realised that it was free in Australia for women between the ages of 12 and 26 when walking by our Uni clinic. Unfortunately there is an age restriction for free injections for economics sakes; each injection costs about $150 and to give those with Medicare a free injection is quite costly. I guess they can only give it to those most at risk. Hooray for universal healthcare!
The only think I’ve heard about it before is the controversy in the US about vaccinating young girls for a reason that makes my blood absolutely BOIL with rage. Many US conservatives object to allowing their teenage girls from being vaccinated because making sex safer will “encourage” sexual promiscuity. The reasoning behind this is vomit-inducing.
These conservative, “concerned parents” cling to their parental rights that they should be allowed to withdraw their daughter from being vaccinated against a sexually transmitted disease. Have they considered the parental responsibility of securing the safety of their child? Denying your child a HPV vaccine is not likely to magically stop your 15 year old from fooling around with boys if they are going to do that. Another argument seems to be that kids that are young, when being vaccinated, might inadvertently learn about having sex with boys. Somehow… I doubt that. I have a feeling that a 12 year old isn’t going to think “yay now that I’m vaccinated against human papillomavirus that means I now know what intercourse is and that I should have some!”
I’m sure not all of these conservative parents are so foolish and naive as to think that not vaccinating to their child would definite lead to abstinence. I’m sure some have considered what would happen if their daughter did have sex and contracted HPV and there is an implicit desire to punish “immoral” behaviour. It reeks of “I don’t want my teenage daughter to get vaccinated because if she fools around and gets HPV or cervical cancer, well she deserves it for being such a slut”. Mmm, sounds like wonderful parenting.
But yeah, I’m vaccinated. The needle hurts a bit and made my arm a little sore and weak-feeling for a little while but it got better quickly.
8 Responses to “Spontaneous Needle Injection!”
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“Another argument seems to be that kids that are young, when being vaccinated, might inadvertently learn about having sex with boys.”
Because, you know, they’ll be traumatised for life if they know where babies come from…
I’ve been hearing about this vaccine over and over again and plan on getting it really soon. By the way, the arguments that conservatives are making over the whole thing makes a whole lot of sense. Especially the part where you get what you deserve. I’m pretty sure that’s in the Bible somewhere.
Don’t you need to take the shot three times for it to work, rather than just one? o.o I got my third last Friday. It does hurt more than most shots. ;_; But yay, after the third I’m done and vaccinated! :D
Yeah, I don’t get people here either. @_@ When my mom and I heard about it, my mom was like “HURRAY! Go get that one now!” Protected against cervical cancer? Sounds good to me.
Still, it doesn’t make sense: when I get shots I’m just like “okay it’s a shot yay!” I usually don’t know what it does, and most kids don’t know what shots are for, just that “they’re good for you”. Just tell your kid that this shot’s good for her and don’t tell her anything else about it. Kid’ll be like, “No cancer? Okay!” Yeah. Conservatives make no sense. ._.
^ You have to get three of those HPV shots. I had my first the other day - the second is supposed to be two months later, and the next is four months after that.
See your GP for more info? I’d imagine it’ll be easy to get lost in a crowd at uni clinics.
I think that those arch-conservatives (who don’t represent most Americans - yay!) don’t believe that their daughters will actually go out and have sex after getting the shot… As far as they’re concerned, their daughters don’t need the shot because they’re not having sex & won’t have sex until they’re married. These conservatives just see don’t why they should have to pay for other people’s “slutty little teens” to get medicine that they wouldn’t need if they weren’t having sex. =/
Oh wow, I’ve been looking into this vaccine too. I hope my Uni offers free vaccinations too, but I’m not sure if I “qualify.” T_T
Hmm maybe the doctor forgot to tell me about getting extra shots. I’ll go ask next week. I’m glad to see others also getting the vaccine when they can!
To Chantelle: Eh, those conservatives must be quite “optimistic” then. The crime and teen pregnancy rates in Texas for example, (a generally conservative state) is quite high and yet I bet many people there are willing to bet that abstinence is better than prevention. Sigh. :(
To Omi: I hope you qualify! You should be in the age group that free vaccinations are targeted towards anyway.
This is going to sound terrible but, I think that conservatives in Texas would say that the “Mexicans” are responsible for the crime and teen pregnancy rates… I would look at the rates in a state like Kansas or North/South Dakota where they can’t really use the “Mexican” excuse. I didn’t have sex ed. until I was a senior in HS (17/18yrs. old) and then it was… all they talked about were STDs. I suppose it was an abstinence-geared course (condom? what’s that?) and it was the most idiotic class I’ve ever taken. I only enrolled because it was a state requirement for graduation.
Anyway, I saw a commercial for Gardasil yesterday.