Merck seems to be doing well these days. I noticed two Health breakthroughs from them today. One involving a recently discovered compound which acts as a completely new type of antibiotic that bacteria are not "yet" resistant to since it kills them in an entirely new manner. This compound is newly discovered and will need years of study before anything practical can come out of it.

The other news item is about the new vaccine which has proven effective against certain papilloma viruses which are believed to cause some types of cervical cancer among other things. This, ladies, is what you get screened for when you get a pap smear. Though the vaccine does not protect against all types of the viruses (I believe we'll still have to get pap smears) it would offer a certain amount of protection. This is being viewed as a huge breakthrough for medical science, however, there are already symptoms of how touchy a subject this could become.

I believe that if the FDA approved a vaccine for say, the bird flu, tomorrow there would be near riots in the streets of people clamoring to receive the shot. There's no question, everyone and their grandmothers would claim a right to have the vaccine. However, because the virus involved in this vaccine is sexually transmitted the outcries have already started and it hasn't even gotten FDA approval yet. They think that kids who get the vaccine will think they have a blank check for as much promiscuous sex as they can handle. Um, excuse me, are you forgetting the other consequences of unprotected sex? Wasn't there the same outcry when condoms where introduced? Is this what's going to happen if they ever find a vaccine for HIV? As far as I'm concerned this is a completely counter productive fear. Kids learn a lot about how to view sex from their parents. Even if those parents aren't sitting their kids down and explaining the birds and the bees, I'd argue that teens and pre-teens learn a lot more from their parents reactions and actions than they ever will from those often awkward and painful conversations. If you're afraid that you're child will see the vaccine as a path towards more sex, then don't you think that your child will think the same thing? I don't think that "do as I say, not as I do" works when you're dealing with morals or views. I'm not saying that sitting your child down and having "the talk" isn't a good idea, far from it. I'm only saying don't tell your kids that they shouldn't have sex and then turn around and say that getting a vaccine will allow kids to have no fear of the consequences of sex.