Except that, she’s the one who put it out there. She didn’t leave the conversation in the exam room. Can’t put it out there and then tell people they can’t talk about it.

How much of a choice was the child given over whether or not she was going to get the measles vaccine? Or any other vaccine that wasn’t for – *gasp* – an STD?

This kid had zero autonomy over getting any other vaccine. She was never asked to consent to getting any other vaccine. Why is it so horrible that she didn’t have autonomy over this particular vaccine?

HPV vaccines should be a mandatory just like measles and polio vaccines are mandatory. There’s no damn difference.

What I don’t get is the added level of, yes, hysteria about it being the HPV vaccine.

You know what? It’s a vaccine. It doesn’t implicate the child’s sexuality any more than getting rabies shots implies that this child wants to go tease a rabid dog until it bites her. It’s a *vaccine*. The level of hysteria over this particular vaccine is ridiculous and this column is one more idiotic entry into that hysteria, all parenting issues aside.

When I was caregiver to my mother, I ended up getting my own copy of the chemo orders and double-checking them against the nurse because they almost gave her the meds in the wrong sequence. This was a big damn issue because she was highly allergic (as in almost died in the treatment room) to the primary drug and could only take it buffered with steroids. They came in to hook her up to the medication, I asked about the steroid, and the response was “Oh, I guess I better read the order.” No sh*t.

Then there was the time I got hit in the face with the backwash from the injection to the IV. I was very glad I wear glasses because otherwise I would have gotten Carboplatin in my eyes.