Well! I'm feeling much safer now!

WASHINGTON — A new report finds that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did a poor job of screening medical experts for financial conflicts when it hired them to advise the agency on vaccine safety, officials said Thursday.

Most of the experts who served on advisory panels in 2007 to evaluate vaccines for flu and cervical cancer had potential conflicts that were never resolved, the report said. Some were legally barred from considering the issues but did so anyway.

In the report, expected to be released Friday, Daniel R. Levinson, the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services, found that the centers failed nearly every time to ensure that the experts adequately filled out forms confirming they were not being paid by companies with an interest in their decisions.

The report found that 64 percent of the advisers had potential conflicts of interest that were never identified or were left unresolved by the centers. Thirteen percent failed to have an appropriate conflicts form on file at the agency at all, which should have barred their participation in the meetings entirely, Mr. Levinson found. And 3 percent voted on matters that ethics officers had already barred them from considering.

Ms.:

Texas Governor Rick Perry (R) on Friday issued an executive order that made Texas the first state to require girls entering the sixth grade to receive the HPV vaccine, beginning in September 2008. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Gardasil, a vaccine that prevents several strands of the sexually transmitted disease human papillomavirus (HPV), in June 2006. Gardasil is approved for women ages nine-26 to prevent cervical cancer and genital warts caused by HPV types 6, 11, 16, and 18.

Though Governor Perry is known as a social conservative, his press secretary, Robert Black, told The Dallas Morning News, "He came to the conclusion it was the right thing to do. You don't have opportunities like this where you can certainly prevent a cancer. It's never happened before, so it would be irresponsible to walk away from it."

Seriously, this is such a no-brainer that I'm surprised other states haven't jumped on the bandwagon. The whole wingnut argument that this encourages girls to have sex is a bit bizarre to me. As a mom, I truly hope that my daughter will have a fulfilling sex life when she's an adult. I don't see how a shot in the sixth grade will make her more likely to have sex at a younger age. But if I can do something to prevent her from getting cancer in her 40s, what's the problem with that?

The Extreme Religious Right's war on science continues: There's a new vaccine which has proven nearly 100% effective in the prevention of the type of infections which can lead to cervical cancer. Guess who opposes vaccination? Jesus Is My Puppeteer...because my heart is pure.

Todd and in Charge: You know Al-Qaida is in its last throes and about to be vanquished when they start running ads in major Arab newspapers for various vacant spots in their PR department.

More on trafficking in human beings. That compassionate conservative, G-DUB, recently waived financial sanctions on Saudi, Arabia for failing to do enough to stop the modern-day slave trade.

A Liberal Dose: Oct 6 was a great day to be a liberal!

THIS LINK SPEAKS VOLUMES!

More on trafficking in human beings. That compassionate conservative, G-DUB, recently waived financial sanctions on Saudi, Arabia for failing to do enough to stop the modern-day slave trade. A Liberal Dose: Oct 6 was a great day to be a liberal!