| District Mandates Gardasil Vaccination for Schoolgirls |
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| Education Archive | |||
| By Norma Porter - WI Assistant Editor/Education Writer | |||
| Thursday, August 20, 2009 | |||
 The Gardasil vaccine has been mandated for all incoming sixth graders in the District’s public and charter schools. However, parents have the right to opt out. Courtesy PhotoHowever, this year will be slightly different for Gabrenedhin, a mother of four. There’s one vaccine that she refuses to have administered to her 11-year-old daughter – Gardasil. Gardasil is the new cervical cancer vaccine recommended for females ages nine to 26, which is administered in a series of three shots and purportedly protects against four strains of the sexually transmitted Human Pappilomavirus (HPV). Gabrenedhin, a stay-at-home mom, said that she and her husband, Haile, decided against the vaccine for their daughter. “Our family decided that Sahmira is not getting the vaccine. I don’t have enough information, and I don’t feel that it’s necessary for her to have it,” Gabrenedhin, 32, said. Sahmira will enter the sixth grade at KIPP DC Key Academy, a public charter school, in Southeast. “It hasn’t been researched enough. I already know the dangers of other vaccinations so I’m not going to subject her to that,” the Northeast resident said. The Gardasil vaccine has received mixed-reviews from parents and politicians alike. So far, the District and four states have mandated the vaccine for girls. The D.C. Bill 17-30, the “Human Pappilomavirus Vaccination and Reporting Act of 2007,” requires female students in the sixth grade who are enrolling for the first time in a public, charter, private or parochial school in the District to be vaccinated before they can attend classes. But local watchdog groups and critics of the Gardasil vaccine have documented cases of fatalities and life threatening episodes linked to the vaccine. Judicial Watch reported in June “that it had obtained records from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that documented 28 deaths in 2008 associated with Gardasil, up from 19 deaths in 2007. The total number of Gardasil-related deaths is 47 since the vaccine was approved in 2006. Overall, the FDA documented 6,723 “adverse events” related to Gardasil in 2008, of which 1,061 were considered “serious,” and 142 considered “life threatening.” Judicial Watch is a public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption. It is headquartered in Southwest. At-Large Councilmember David Catania (I) penned and pushed the legislation through the Committee on Health in April 2007. Catania chairs the committee. D.C. has the highest rate of cervical cancer in the United States and it is more than 60 percent higher than the national average. Ninety-two percent invasive cervical cancer diagnoses are among minority women,” Catania said during a Council hearing two years ago. “It is based on the recommendation of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices,” he said. Others object. Ward 7 Councilmember Yvette Alexander, who also sits on the Committee on Health, said that although she was not on the council at the time that the legislation was enacted, she disagrees with the mandatory nature of the law. Alexander said that girls aged 10 to 12 are too young to receive the vaccine. “This vaccine should not be a mandate. All mandated vaccines are for communicable diseases, and HPV is a sexually transmitted disease,” Alexander said. “The implementation of this vaccine makes too many assumptions that a young lady between the ages of 10 and 12 will be sexually active. This vaccine was tested on women 18 and over, not on girls ages 10 to 12. We don’t know the long-term effects [that] it could have on these girls,” Alexander said. The Gardasil vaccine has been mandated by the District, and will be enforced by the Department of Health (DOH). But, parents have the right to opt-out. Parents can refuse to have their daughters vaccinated based on the following: religious reasons, if the child’s physician submits a written statement that indicates that the vaccine is inadvisable, or if parents themselves submit the HPV Vaccine Refusal Certificate. While the opt-out provision is available, Alexander said that doctors in the District are administering the vaccine without informing parents that they have a choice. “A lot of parents think that this is just an additional vaccine. They are not being told that they have the option to submit the opt-out form and refuse the vaccine for their daughters,” Alexander said. It’s uncertain what will happen to parents who fail to comply with the new vaccine requirement or submit the HPV Vaccine Refusal Certificate, as District Public Schools and Public Charter Schools have taken different positions as it pertains to school attendance. For further information on how to obtain the HPV Vaccine Refusal Certificate go to the Department of Health’s Immunization Program website, at www.doh.dc.gov.
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