God damn, get a fuckin grip, dude. It’s a vaccination given by a trained nurse, just like the ones they have at the doctor’s office. It’s not open-heart surgery performed by the Spanish teacher. :rolleyes:
Yeah, we stopped doing that in schools back in the 60’s.
Another factor - this is not a cheap vaccination. We’re talking hundreds of dollars out of the parents’ pockets to have it done out of school (but free in school). That is going to be a big deciding factor for a lot of people.
That’s a good question, Boyo Jim - there is a part of me that can’t forget that this is mostly a female health issue, and the Catholic church does not have a fantastic record on women’s health issues. Maybe malevolence is too strong a word - simple disregard?
Again - Canada. (I’m virtually certain that) it’s free outside of school too.
Not necessarily. Flu vaccinations aren’t free here. Gardasil is not the same as an MMR vaccination, and I don’t know if that one is free at the doctor when it is offered for free from schools, either. Research time - okay, here’s an example - $150 per dose ($450 total), and appointment required. Some girls may be covered under family insurance.
Well, I agree that they’re idiots, but the vaccine doesn’t prevent women from getting cancer. It drastically reduces the chances of getting infected with a few single strains of a very wide-spread virus which overwhelming doesn’t cause any complications at all, but in relatively rare cases can lead to cellular anomalies.
A woman can still get HPV and even cervical cancer after getting the vaccine. It’s nothing miraculous, it doesn’t cure or prevent cancer, it just reduces the risk. As a youngish female I’m kind of tired of hearing people bleat on about how the vaccine “prevents cancer,” because that’s a flat-out lie. There’s an obscene amount of misinformation and misunderstandings about what exactly HPV and the vaccine do - partly because admitting that in the majority of cases, it does absolutely nothing (the virus, and thus the vaccine).
This is also my experience with the Separate School System in Calgary. I am a graduate of Father Lacombe, 1988.
I am delighted to see you back!
I was quite surprised to learn that the schools here in Maryland do not vaccinate children, as I was in Alberta schools. It’s a good thing my father-in-law is a pediatrician, or I would completely forget when my kids need shots.
Now, lemme see if your pets have posted in this thread, so I can get the whole family. 
What’s free and what’s not free in terms of vaccinations depends on the province. For example, as featherlou notes, annual flu vaccinations in Alberta cost out-of-pocket, but I recall that in Ontario, they were free. In other words, when it comes to health care, it’s usually incorrect to broadly state “in Canada;” it is, however, correct to narrow the jurisdiction: “in Alberta…” (Or Ontario, or Manitoba, or Price Edward Island, etc.) Because heath care plans and benefits are administered by the provinces, they can and do differ slightly between provinces.
Very true. I’m in Ontario and have never paid for a vaccination. In fact, the only things I’ve ever paid for at a doc’s office were two sutures and a few forms that I needed filled out, for non-medical purposes. Oh - and a copy of one x-ray.
Office peds nurse in Ontario here.
If a parent wants gardasil for their child and they did not receive it in school - for whatever reason - they must pay for the prescription. It’s not one of the vaccines we have laying around in the fridge and it’s not particularly cheap, either. OHIP pays for us to administer the needle, however.
I’ve spoken to some moms about the vaccine for their daughters. When some have voiced reservations to the vaccine because HPV is sexually transmitted, I remind them that it’s not just a matter of their daughter being sexually active, but that they’ll never be able to control for their future son-in-law’s activities. It’s food for thought and I’ve had some return to get their daughters vaccinated.
According to this (poorly written) article from yesterday’s Calgary Sun, it does not appear the province has a plan to make the vaccine available outside of the schools as of yet. I’m assuming that will make it very difficult for those parents who decide they want to have their daughters vaccinated regardless of what the Bishop or School Board says.
Aside from the fact that the Community Health Centres don’t even have the vaccine yet, there will also be the logistical problems. The article says the vaccinations were going to be given to 3400 Grade Five girls in the Separate District. The plan was also to begin vaccinations for Grade Nine girls next year, so the number of total girls affected is obviously going to be higher, although I don’t know exact numbers. I don’t think the Health Centres are set up to accommodate anywhere near the number of girls affected. These Centres are already completely overwhelmed.
This is not merely an issue of convenience. While I don’t mind having to make an appointment for my child to get a vaccine (although I doubt one is available anyway), not every parent has the same inclination. Rather than judging those parents as being lacking, I’d much rather just make it as easy as possible for their children to be vaccinated.
For the record, although I do have a child in the Separate District, he’s a boy, so he is not directly affected by this short-sighted and irresponsible decision. My outrage is not because I don’t want to have to make an appointment for my child. My outrage is because I think the Bishop and the Board have done the wrong thing, yet again.
In my remembering, the diocese of Calgary has been rife with idiocy, if not downright vice. There was a bishop in recent memory who was known privately as the “Cherry Picker”.
Depends.
If you live with someone who is recovering from cancer or something which wreaks havoc with your immune system you can get them for free from the health clinic. Also if you live with young children iirc. Otherwise you have to pay for it out of pocket or maybe work pays for it (as mine does, they have a nurse come in to work and give the shots).
They’ve been talking about Bishop Henry since I was in school (I went to Bishop Grandin). Don’t recall half the stupid stuff he said though. There’s just so much!
Thanks NinjaChick for putting this out there. Too many people are rushing into this “vaccine” thinking it’s just about foolproof. It’s not and I don’t expect we’ll have to wait too long to start seeing numbers on how many still get the virus in spite of the vaccination.
I don’t understand how it’s a lie. The vaccine prevents some cases of cervical, oral and throat cancers that would otherwise have happened. Not everyone who gets HPV is destined to get those cancers, sure, but the vaccine will stop some cancers - those cancers caused by the 4 strains of HPV the vaccine protects against (which are the most common cancer causing strains of HPV).
And exactly the same can (and is) said about measles, mumps, diphtheria, chicken pox, hepatitis B and nearly every other vaccine preventable illness out there. These things reduce misery and deaths, sure, but the vast majority of those who get the viruses (now or pre-vaccination days) didn’t die from them or even get life-threateningly ill, either. But some did. Enough did, in most doctors and disease specialists’ opinions, to warrant widespread, even mandatory, vaccination.
Which, again, is exactly what’s said by anti-vaccine people about the standard childhood vaccines. No vaccine is 100% effective. Do you have numbers which show that the HPV vaccine is particularly non-efficacious?
Hey, Canuckistanis, what the heck is the point of having a national health service if it won’t pay for your vaccines? Hell, you can get a boob job on the NHS in Britain if you’ve got a friendly psychiatrist… or actual issues.
Um… what harm are all these vaccine-rushing people doing? Does the vaccine have a high incidence of harmful side effects? Is there a shortage? Do you think teenage girls are going to start having additional unprotected sex once they’re vaccinated, since they’re scared of HPV but will take their chances with AIDS, gonorrhea, syphilis and herpes?
For what it’s worth, I’m not anti-vaccine at all, I just don’t believe all the hype over this particular vaccine. Preventative care also involves going to the gyn and getting yearly paps. Cervical cancer grows slowly so if this is done and a woman is monitored by repeat paps, colpos and biopsies if needed, and further treatment there is ample opportunity to be successfully treated. Here’s one of many articles out there about this vaccine. No matter what though, people are being manipulated into getting this particular vaccination through fear. Not always the best way to make an informed choice.
Fears about effect of cervical cancer jabs
10:00am Saturday 27th September 2008
<Copyrighted article removed. In future, please use a short quotation and/or link. - Fluiddruid>
Psst… you’re not supposed to quote entire articles like that.
Oh crap, I didn’t know that. Thanks for telling me. I guess there isn’t anything I can do now though, is there? What is usually done then…post a link to the article?
I can’t speak to other provinces, but in Alberta, the province DOES pay for our vaccines. The vaccine schedule for children includes: diphtheria, tetanus, acellular pertussis, polio, haemophilus influenza type b, measles, mumps, rubella, varicella (chickenpox), hepatitis B (3 doses), HPV (3 doses for females), pneumococcal disease, meningococcal disease and influenza (the flu shot is free until a child is 23 months old). All these vaccines are provided free of charge for every child in Alberta.
It has been my experience that adults are required to pay for optional vaccinations, like those required for travel, and influenza. However, there are exceptions in the case of influenza that allow you to receive the vaccination for free, regardless of age. I get mine free because I’m asthmatic and my family also gets theirs for free because they live with someone who would be endangered if they brought the virus home. Other reasons that qualify someone for a free flu shot include, but are not limited to, people who live in nursing homes, people with HIV, health care workers, etc.
You can post an excerpt- a paragraph or three at most- and link to the rest. Posting a whole article is problematic intellectual property-wise, IIRC.