Two for One
February 21st, 2007 at 9:01 pm
The Public Health Committee wasted little time promoting HB 1098, which would overturn Perry’s HPV vaccine mandate, to the big show. A few minutes ago members voted it out of committee with a favorable recommendation less than 24 hours after a marathon testimony session. The vote went 6-3, with Reps. Cohen, Coleman and Gonzalez, all Democrats, voting against.
And in the few hours since the debate ended, the bill may have seen its chances of being vetoed dwindle, should it reach the governor’s desk. All the papers today carried the news that Merck would no longer lobby states to adopt mandatory vaccination. The company line was that backlash from their lobbying efforts was only hurting state proposals and could ultimately lead to less girls receiving the vaccine. No word from Perry’s office yet, which can be surprisingly quick with press releases when it wants to be.
After HB 1098 passed, Rep. Garnet Coleman, more or less rhetorically, asked why the bill explicitly forbids requiring girls get the HPV vaccination to enter school and doesn’t just take aim at Perry’s executive order. The implication is that the bill’s author, Rep Dennis Bonnen, is also trying preempt HPV vaccination legislation that Democrats filed early in the session.
Assuming Bonnen’s bill goes on to pass the House, which he is confident it will, one question for supporters of a vaccination requirement is: Did Perry’s executive order make too big a splash, preventing some kind of compromise measure from being chiseled out? Or was any measure not brought by a Republican destined never to see the light of a full House chamber?
After the big bill was through, the committee voted unanimously to also pass out a bill that on HPV education. So at least everyone agreed that we should all know about a virus that the majority of people have at some point in their lives.
