The Senate Education and Health Committee struck down a House bill last Thursday that would have overturned the statewide initiative to vaccinate young girls against the human papillomavirus.
The bill, sponsored by Del. Kathy J. Byron, R-Lynchburg, was passed by the House but subsequently rejected by the Senate by a margin 12-3 vote.
"Whether or not this vaccine should be given to young girls is not the issue under consideration in the Virginia General Assembly," Byron wrote in a letter to the editor of the Alta Vista Journal. "Parents should be able to make this decision without the interference or insistence of the government."
Virginia is the only state to mandate the HPV vaccinations, though the District of Columbia also uses them. The vaccinations have been proven to lower the risk of cervical cancer. The commonwealth and the District both have opt-out policies, allowing parents to forgo the vaccine for their children for any reason.
Byron said she believed repealing the mandate would neither prohibit nor discourage use of the vaccine.
"It will instead restore to families and their physicians the right and responsibility to make critical health care decisions," she said, adding that mandating a vaccine is "exactly the type of government intrusion into health care that America rejected at the polls last November."
Sen. Ralph Northam, D-Norfolk, a pediatric neurologist by trade and one of the legislators who spoke out against the anti-vaccination bill, however, said he believes immunizations benefit society. He cited diseases such as polio and meningitis, which now rarely are seen in the Western world because of the widespread use of vaccines.
"[Immunizations] have been good for health and welfare," Northam said. "They've been good for Virginians and people across the world. So when I heard that they were trying to repeal it, I just thought it showed a lack of vision, a general disregard for women's health and even men's health."
Dr. Christine Peterson, assistant dean for medical education and director of gynecology at the University Medical Center, explained there are now two different HPV vaccine options. The first vaccine, Gardasil, manufactured by Merck & Co. Inc., guards against HPV types 6, 11, 16 and 18 and is approved by the FDA for use in females and males ages 9 to 26. The second vaccine, Cervarix, produced by GlaxoSmithKline, targets HPV types 16 and 18 and is approved by the FDA for use in females ages 10 to 25. Both vaccines are given in three doses during a six-month long period.
"All medical interventions carry some side effects and this vaccine is no exception," Peterson said. "Certainly a small percentage of the people who do get the vaccine have one or more side effects, but the side effects that have been reported that have been attributed to the vaccine have been minor, temporary and reversible. [As far] as vaccines go, this one has an excellent record."
Northam agreed with Peterson. "When these vaccinations or any medications are studied, the FDA requires that any adverse reactions get recorded," Northam said. "So I can tell you that upon reviewing the literature and data that the Gardasil shot works as well as any other vaccination."
First-year Engineering student Bei Ni Hua received her first in the series of three vaccination shots last summer. "The ban isn't necessary," she said. "The shot is advisable but should not be mandatory - and it isn't. The program satisfies the parents who want a convenient, safe way to vaccinate their children and the opt-out clause satisfies the rest"
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