gardasil for all!

I have to admit that mandatory vaccinations reside in the fuzzy penumbra of my libertarian sensibilities. However, if one accepts the public health rationale for requiring vaccinations for measles and such, to exclude one vaccine from that kind of program simply because the disease happens to be sexually transmitted seems pretty arbitrary and stupid to me.

Still, Merck is backing off its campaign to promote state laws mandating administration of Gardasil, its breakthrough vaccine against human papiloma virus:

[Lobbying efforts by Merck] stirred opposition from two groups from different ends of the political spectrum. HPV is sexually transmitted, and religious conservatives became incensed that state government might try to force their daughters to be inoculated against an STD.

They found allies in more liberal big-pharma skeptics, who were suspicious of the relationship between Merck and state lawmakers.

Of course Merck is not a disinterested party in this matter. This doesn't mean that they are wrong. Sometimes I think Big Pharma's perennial critics would expect the company that developed a cure for cancer to publicize and promote its product quietly, if at all. (While Merck hasn't cured cancer here, it's gone a damn long way towards preventing one kind of it, and this is a huge accomplishment.)

Besides, if you have the religious right joining forces with the reactionary anti-corporate left on an issue, it's a pretty safe bet that sensible people should take the other side.