02.05.07
Perry & HPV, Doing A “Solid” For An Old Buddy?
Kuff asks the question, If you do a good thing for a bad reason, is it still a good thing?, with the link to this HChron article, Perry orders cancer vaccine for young girls, on the subject. Here’s the “money” part.
Mike Toomey, former chief of staff to Perry, is a lobbyist for Merck. The pharmaceutical company has donated $6,000 to Perry since 2005 and $38,000 to legislative leaders and lawmakers. Merck spokesman Ray Kerins downplayed the company’s role in Perry’s order, saying “we’re working in all 50 states to achieve the widest vaccination possible.”
Of course why 39% did this we’ll probably never know. But just the fact of knowing that he’s pissing off his “conservative” base is almost worth just blowing this off. One side note, several months ago me a my wife asked her OB/GYN about this because I’d heard about it and thought, “why not if it cures cancer”? He cautioned on a few things. This vaccine only works on one type of uterine cancer, it’s expensive, and takes three rounds of shots. He wasn’t saying don’t do it or that he was against it he was just giving us the facts. It does seem rather hypocritical, no pun intended, that when it comes to this controversial vaccine Perry is willing to go against his base when it’s a client of his former chief of staff.  He also doesn’t seem very worried about how much this will cost taxpayers either. Just saying, that’s all.