Reichsführer Perry is mad with power. How else can you explain his executive order mandating that Texas girls ages 11 and 12 receive the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine before entering the sixth grade starting in September 2008?
The principled Libertarian view is that Perry's order is an aggression on the bodies of these young girls. But, of course, all forms of compulsory vaccination are an aggression on the body of those vaccinated against their will.
The really odd piece of the Texas Gov. Perry mandate is that HPV is not spread by casual contact, nor is it associated with pandemic or epidemic outbreaks of cervical cancer, or even localized outbreaks of such cancer. It is a disease that requires intimate contact in order to spread.
All vaccinations simply protect the vaccinated from the unvaccinated. If you chose to protect yourself and your children, get your family vaccinated. Otherwise, accept whatever fate awaits you.
Your choice of whether or not to be vaccinated does not affect the previously vaccinated in any way. And, in some cases, the choice to remain unvaccinated is the rational, healthy choice. Healthcare, like all other issues, is within the private realm, and state officials have no moral business in such affairs.
So, what's behind the mandate? From some reports, it appears that Merck is pushing for its vaccine, Gardasil, to be mandated by states for all public school girls.
Yet, that is only half of the story. It's the political ilk such as Perry who see their role as saviors of the masses. Property rights are meaningless when these maniacal lot take on their next crusade.
One saving grace, the vaccine is only required for public school students. So, boycott that wretched school system and you also boycott the mandatory vaccination of your children. For now, anyway.
