Bachmann Can't Pony Up

[Shell B]

Again, the reason I mentioned Influenza and HIV is precisely because they were once "easily preventable".

When were those "easily preventable?" Aids was pandemic before we even knew it existed.

Even with modern anti viral treatments resistant mutations often appear within weeks or months of beginning treatment.

Yes, but the survival prognosis for HIV/AIDS has gone from 10 years to 25 years. I would say that it is a huge success on that front. As for the flu, it has always been mutating. In fact, that is the same with HIV. Viruses nearly always (or always?) develop different strains. Even Ebola, which barely has any time to mutate in a population because it has a 50-90% mortality rate (Zaire being the most deadly, thusfar) mutates without us even being able to track its movement.

That's the point of hitting hard and fast while you have something nailed down. We've eradicated a grand total of two viral diseases in all of human history. One of them wasn't even a human disease (yet). Why not make a run for three?

I'm not saying it wouldn't be a good thing. I am saying that forcing people to comply is not a good thing because HPV is still preventable by other means and it is still not spreadable through casual contact.

Did you know that there is currently no test for HPV in men? So, that clean bill of health from the pedigree papers you asked for means jack shit. HPV also infects areas not covered by condoms.

There is no test for women, either. Sure, you can get a pap smear, but that only tells you if you have cancerous or precancerous cells in your cervix. Nonetheless, an std test would be nice, as would a condom.

The only "easy way" to be sure you won't get HPV, is to not have sex, period. Not exactly easy..lol.

Condoms are still a good preventative, according to the CDC. I might also point out that the CDC says that "most cases of HPV go away on their own. In other words, you completely rid yourself of the virus within two years without ever knowing you have had it. Up to 50 million people have some form of HPV in the U.S. at any given time, if I remember the numbers correctly. A very small portion of those people will ever see any negative result from the viruses. The CDC calls a disease related to the virus that 2,000 people come down with every year "very rare." Only 12,000 people come down with cervical cancer a year, so I would call that less than common. Millions of people died every year from smallpox at its peak. Of course, I am not trying to downplay the pain of HPV sufferers, that is horrible. However, it is not something I would worry about destroying the planet. Like I said, extremists on both sides. To hear some people talk, it is a curse from Satan. To hear other people talk, it is going to kill all of our daughters. Really, even the most virulent viruses would have a hard time wiping out the planet. Smallpox, which was a bitch, had a mortality rate of at least 30% and could cause hemorrhaging. That is significantly higher than deaths caused by HPV.

Or.....we could vaccinate our children down to the last man and drink a toast to number 3. Vaccinations do not work in the long run when people do not use them.

Do you really think every single person on Earth was vaccinated to eradicate other viruses?

As far as the idea of "population control"; While epidemics may seem to serve this function it isn't exactly a built in function of some grand design of life.

Obviously not. However, just imagine what the population would have been like without the Spanish influenza.

These things are opportunists and given the chance they absolutely would kill off every single thing on earth until they were all that was left.

They are opportunists. However, it is counterproductive for viruses to kill their hosts. There are very few with mortality rates above 50%. They have been "given the chance" to destroy mankind for thousands of years. Here we are. I'm sorry. I'm as scared of getting sick as the next guy, but I don't prescribe to dramatic prophesies of doom.

Nor is it desirable to allow them to even begin to do so.

HPV, at this point, is completely incapable of such a thing. You're making it sound like HPV is highly communicable and deadly, which is not the case. Of course we lament the deaths that have taken place, but more people die from suicide, from what I can see, than HPV every year.

Perhaps the idea of being coerced into injecting yourself with something (despite the obvious benefits) is unsettling to your idea of rights, or freedom or whatever, but there have to be human beings alive to enjoy these ideals.

Rhythm, viruses are not new to the human race. It is nice to be able to combat them, but let's not pretend this is some new war we are fighting. Viruses have been around since the dawn of man, before, in fact.

If we have a practical concern that runs counter to our idealistic notions of "how things should be" we have to decide whether or not to fall on the sword don't we? What a ridiculous obituary for the human race;

Here lies the human race, who, in the name of freedom and "higher ideals", willfully facilitated their own extinction by epidemic in the year xxxx.

Blahaha! Listen, Shakespeare, we're talking about a disease that millions of people get and never fall ill from. In fact, they rid themselves of the disease. MILLIONS. (Sorry, you need some caps love, dear.) As you have read, repeatedly, I do support forced vaccinations for highly communicable diseases with high mortality rates, so don't pretend my objections stem that far when you know full well they do not. I understand your objections completely, but it's no reason to go all daytime soap opera on me.