Despite a barrage of criticism from experts including the American Academy of Pediatrics, Rep. Michele Bachmann refused to apologize for uncritically repeating an unverified, unsubstantiated anecdote from a stranger about how the anti-cancer vaccine Gardasil caused “mental retardation.”
Bachmann explained that she has no relevant expertise or qualifications and is therefore entitled to spout nonsense at will. Call it the doctrine of invincible ignorance:
“During the debate, I didn’t make any statements that would indicate I’m a doctor, I’m a scientist, or making any conclusions about the drug one way or the other,” Bachmann said.
She said she was trying to articulate the “abuse of power” and “crony capitalism” by Texas Gov. Rick Perry when he attempted to mandate the vaccine. [SF Chronicle, via MN Independent]
Bachmann needled Perry about a $5000 contribution he received from Merck. In fact Perry’s financial ties to the company go much deeper. There’s little doubt that Perry was influenced by Merck’s massive national lobbying push to make Gardasil mandatory in schools. Nevertheless, vaccinating girls against HPV would have been in the best interests of Texans.
If Bachmann is giving Perry a hard time for accepting money from Merck, she should explain why her House and presidential campaigns accepted a total $5000 from the GlaksoSmithKline PAC between 2006 and 2007, according to online FEC records. GlaxoSmithKline is the manufacturer of Cervarix, Merck’s only competitor in the HPV vaccine market.
At the time, Merck was pushing hard to lock in Gardasil as the mandatory HPV vaccine of choice before GSK’s vaccine got approved.
I’m pretty confident that Bachmann would have been vehemently anti-Gardasil even if she hadn’t accepted thousands of dollars from the makers of Cervarix. She has a long history of being anti-sex and anti-science.
Bachmann sincerely believes that sexually transmitted diseases should be preserved because they are God’s chosen punishment for sluts. The congresswoman is not usually much of a conservationist, but when it comes to sexually transmitted infections, she’s all about the biodiversity.
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