Disease Free

September 30, 2009

Simone Davis, 17, has lived with her grandmother in Florida since she was 3. The grandmother, who adopted Davis after her British mother abandoned her, has applied for U.S. citizenship for the girl. But immigration officials are not only refusing to grant her citizenship, they are threatening to deport Davis. Why? She refuses to get vaccinated for human papillomavirus. Davis and her grandmother say she doesn't need the vaccination for the sexually transmitted disease because she isn't sexually active.

Comments

|10.1.09 @ 3:09AM|#

Woo, hoo! Comments on the brickbats? Love it!

-jcr

|10.1.09 @ 8:06AM|#

Davis and her grandmother say she doesn't need the vaccination for the sexually transmitted disease because she isn't sexually active.

And if your grandmother doesn't know the ins and outs of your sex life, who does?

anarch|10.1.09 @ 9:05AM|#

Wrong reason (maybe Drink! but Shirley Temples only). Officials will counter that she could get raped.

Right reason: She has the right to assume her risks.

'Course the gummint could counter that Typhoid Mary, or Penelope Papilloma, is public-health menace. You can't win with these guys.

And yes, thank you for the Comments Section here but Oh for a preview button.

Naga Sadow|10.1.09 @ 9:40AM|#

Clearly the government knows more about this grandmother's sex life than the grandmother. Get with the program people!

john the conqeroo|10.1.09 @ 3:18PM|#

Like so many reason brickbats, I'm unsure how to take this. I'm going with my gut and say that I should be outraged that they expect to force a vaccination for a non-communicable disease. This is not small pox or the flu. Sex is required for transmission. You can choose whether to be exposed or not. This is hardly a health crisis and this is not a required vaccination in most states. The grandmother should reject on religious grounds or just say the girls is sexually active- vaccination does no good after you've already been exposed. While they threaten to deport her for this, people are bring polio, whopping cough, and tb across our "other borders" completely unhindered. On top of that, we had plenty of warning of the h1n1 and our government completely failed. In the event of a true pandemic, we are screwed.

|10.1.09 @ 5:58PM|#

You do realize that

I'm going with my gut and say that I should be outraged that they expect to force a vaccination for a non-communicable disease.

is contradicted by this,

Sex is required for transmission.

don't you?

john the conqeroo|10.2.09 @ 1:47PM|#

My bad. I misspoke. I was groping for a word that differentiate between a disease that requires intimate contact and a disease that can be transmitted through casual contact.

|10.1.09 @ 9:14PM|#

Of course hundreds of little girls have become permanently injured or even paralyzed from those shots, that should be enough. Welcome to Amerika Girlie.

|10.2.09 @ 7:32AM|#

Sex is required for transmission. You can choose whether to be exposed or not.

Not if the 17 year old girl rapes you. ;)

|10.2.09 @ 7:45AM|#

Naga, I don't think it's the grandmeother's sex life that's at issue here.