Religious Fanaticism Out of Control

[Castro]

In case you're still not sure just how destructive the Bush administration has become to this country, you need to read Michael Specter's piece in the March 13 issue of the New Yorker magazine.

 

It's enough to give you the willies.

 

Specter documents how the Bush people have stacked the Food and Drug Administration with fanatics who regularly trump science to advance their own religious beliefs. It reads like a modern-day Galileo being persecuted by the Catholic Church because he maintained Earth was round.

 

Although Specter cites several examples of religious beliefs thwarting scientific advances by key appointees to the FDA and other divisions of the Department of Health and Human Services (Tommy Thompson's old department), one of the most egregious has been to block a vaccine designed to thwart cervical cancer.

 

Two of the country's bigger pharmaceutical companies Merck and GlaxoSmithKline have developed and proven the safety of a vaccine that prevents a common sexually transmitted disease called human papillomavirus (HPV). Strains of HPV are known to cause cervical cancer in early adulthood. The vaccine needs to be administered to girls before they become sexually active, which is an average age of 17.

 

And therein lies the rub for the religious base of the Republican Party that George Bush and company have installed in crucial posts in the health department. That base and George W. Bush himself steadfastly adheres to the proposition that kids need to practice abstinence. In their eyes, anything from promoting the use of condoms to giving young girls vaccinations against sexually transmitted diseases only encourages promiscuity among young people.

 

These people refuse to believe results of the numerous scientific studies that have shown the availability of condoms, for instance, has absolutely no impact on the rate of teen sex, or that young people who pledge to abstain actually engage in sex as often as those who don't take a pledge.

 

Their religion maintains that premarital sex is a sin, period, which is fine except that Bush has created a situation where those overzealous religious beliefs instead of scientific fact determine national policy.

 

"Since George W. Bush became president, the United States has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on abstinence programs, and it has cut almost that much in aid to groups that support abortion and the use of condoms as a primary method of birth control," Specter pointed out.

 

But, who would believe they would actually block approval of a vaccine that can prevent cancer?

 

The role that religion is playing in important health decisions has caused several career FDA doctors and staff to quit their jobs in disgust.

 

It isn't just an insane war. It's the anti-environment policies, the unjust tax policies, the ceaseless trashing of civil liberties and the subjugation of solid medical science for religious zealotry that is tearing down an America that was based on fairness and truth.

 

Can we really survive nearly three more years of this destruction?

 

Source

[J.Lee]

But, who would believe they would actually block approval of a vaccine that can prevent cancer?

Now that above else is just sad.

 

As for spending money on abstinence programs (What a waste), they should use it to finance more noteworthy research projects, particularly the one I plan to do in couple of years insha'allah.

[Castro]

^ So you don't believe prevention of HPV will lead to promiscuity? Do you know of other similar cases (of diseases) falling under this religious prohibition vs. medical prevention debate? I know there's another but I just can't think of it at the moment.

[Naden]

Bush's administration doesn't really care about the spread of STDs among people, especially teens. They don't want to be associated with or seen as signing of pre-marital sex. Religious and social conservatism was the platform that got them the midwest polls. They use similar arguments with giving out condoms and abortion. When people ask them about the birth of children to teenagers and people who can't care for them, they have nothing but blank stares. Who cares about the kid once born as long as condoms are not given out on their watch.

 

Do you know of other similar cases (of diseases) falling under this religious prohibition vs. medical prevention debate?

You may be thinking of stem cell research that they've set back a few years. The research is in its infancy and its benefits are still in debate but the potential use of an aborted fetus/umblicial cord froze many of the grants.

[Castro]

I was thinking of Plan B. It is approved as a prescription drug but the FDA rejected the request to make it over the counter. Here's an excerpt of that decision from the FDA's site:

 

Following the advisory committee meeting, FDA requested additional information from the sponsor pertaining to adolescent use. The sponsor submitted this additional information to FDA in support of their pending application to change Plan B from a prescription to an over-the-counter product. This additional information was extensive enough to qualify as a major amendment to the NDA. Under the terms of the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) performance goals, major amendments such as this may trigger a 90-day extension of the original PDUFA deadline.

 

Now FDA has completed its review of the supplemental application and concluded that the application could not be approved at this time because 1)

adequate data were not provided to support a conclusion that young adolescent women can safely use Plan B for emergency contraception without the professional supervision of a licensed practitioner

and 2) a proposal from the sponsor to change the requested indication to allow for marketing of Plan B as a prescription-only product for women under 16 years of age and a nonprescription product for women 16 years and older was incomplete and inadequate for a full review. Therefore, FDA concluded that the application was not approvable.

LOL. Or, in other words, daddy Bush said no.

 

FDA decision

[Naden]

^ Ah yes, I remember the Plan B dilemma as well. Interesting that it would be a source of debate at all given that as a hormone-based contraceptive, medical supervision is necessary in most if not all cases.

[J.Lee]

No, I certainly don't! How can it lead to it when promiscuity existed before we even had knowledge of genital HPV :confused:

 

This shouldn't even be a debate maandhow: No human being should ever find him/herself in a position where they either feel the need to control the genitalia of the people or force their religious beliefs on others.

 

 

Mida kale, abstinence programs aren't going to make much of a difference nor are they going to curb any teen's desire to experiment with sex; if anything such a negation would inflame it and as evidenced by the high rate of HIV infected teens, apparently the majority of them aren't even using the encouraged preventive methods but without them where would we be?

[Castro]

I agree, maandhay ( ), this is not debatable unless, of course, you consider those whom faith (and abstinence) is not even an issue. When faced with a Talebanesque regime, such as that of Bush, in their view, it becomes a matter for debate. For example, even as a Muslim, would you vaccinate your 17 year old against HPV or hope and pray she abstains? I'd do both plus stalk her with high-tech gadgets that pinpoint her coordinates at all times. I will then be in a position to dispatch rapid-response teams should I feel she's ever in any danger. Problem solved.

[Jacpher]

You're better off shipping her to Kuntuwaarey for summer vacation. An eye opener trip if you accompany her in the jungles of Habaar Waalid and drink from the same puddle with cattle & giraffe. You don't need to pump all those drugs in her body.

[J.Lee]

If you make her drink from the same watering hole as those animals maandhow, you will be pumping drugs of a different kind in to her body.

 

And who is to say if the people of Kuntuwaarey are paragons of abstinence? They might be worse ® than the ones you are taking her away from.