Archive for June 10th, 2006

2006.06.10

Drugs and Religion Don’t Mix

Wow. I would have thought that two of the most influential lobbying groups in America would have loads in common. The drug industry and the religions “right” have untowards influence in American government, one with money and one with noise.

Yet it appears that to get a cervical cancer vaccine approved, Merck and GlaxoSmithKline are kowtowing to various conservative religious groups. Here’s a vaccine that can save the lives of millions of young women in America (and billions around the world). Saving lives seems remarkably “pro-life” to me, but apparently the virus that causes cervical cancer is caused by *gasp* sexual contact so the fundamentalists are likely to freak out and do what they do best: yell, scream and whine until they get their way.

It appears that where sex is involved you just have to deal with the consequences, like unwanted pregnancies or cervical cancer. Never mind that these things can be prevented. Their warped morality thinks that sex is evil. Sometimes I wonder how they got here; I’m sure not all of them were born in wedlock or were even wanted.

Anyways, I’m going to propose a theory. In overt politics it doesn’t matter how much money you have, it’s how much noise you can make. Remember to make as much noise as you possibly can.