Andrew Jones :: Feeds

I dont need a new Mac

I know tomorrow's launch of the new Mac and Macbook Pro will have a lot of people ooohhing and aaahhhing but the fact is, my Mac is still rocking after nearly 2 years and I dont intend to replace it. Even if I had the money to do it. Unless there was a spectacular reason to do so.

Macrumors suggests that a new port will be available on the Macbook Pro. But the rumor that interests me the most is the release of a potential docking station. Lets wait and see.

"Sex Jab" HPV Story is Express Front Page

The Daily/Sunday Express was another paper that contacted us about our story. When I went down to the supermarket to get some veges for our roast, I was surprised and a little intimidated to see that our ordeal was on the front page on the Express. Headlines were "Girl gets sex jab against her will" which is a little more spicy than I would have wanted but the story is good, iand the Express did a great job of keeping our wish that our daughter's name be anonymous or simply "Gail". They also agreed with us to keep the geographical details out of the picture.

Can I just say - THANKS DAILY EXPRESS - you treated us better than the other 5 newspapers around the UK and we respect you for that!!!!!!!!

For those confused about the title, "sex jab" refers the HPV immunisation program rolling out across UK to help prevent a STD that can cause cervical cancer. I talked about what happened to us earlier on my blog but if you want to join the conversation on this particular Express article, then jump into this chat at Above Top Secret. Hopefully it wont be nearly as mean and nasty as the Sunday Herald discussion yesterday [thanks to those of you that stuck up for us]

Best quote from the From the Express article was this:

"Medical expert Dr Richard Halvorsen, author of The Truth About Vaccines, yesterday said he has fears over the safety and effectiveness of the new vaccine.

His worries are backed by US drug regulators, who have refused to licence the UK version of the controversial jab, manufactured by drug giant GlaxoSmithKline, because they believe its safety record has not yet been proven. He said: “The version we are using contains an immune stimulating ingredient – AS04 – with which we have little experience and which may lead to immune related problems in later life.
“I would not give it my daughter. This is being rushed in and it will make billions of pounds for drug companies.”

Technorati Tags: hpv, human papillomavirus virus, immunisation, immunization

Facebook Facts

10,000 machines run the facebook site
100,000 facebook applications in the UK
100,000,000 facebook users worldwide

Mark Zuckerberg talks about Facebook at Future of Web Apps Expo. I dont use facebook very much. I started my account in 2006 because I was speaking at a Fusion student event and this was the way they were communicating with each other. As soon as I joined, my email box was inundated with trivia about who was saying what to someone else and I found it all quite invasive and time-wasting. Then some decent games came along and I was a bit more positive about Facebook, but not enough to spend hours inside it. Now, my facebook account is updated daily by my twitter and there is still a fair amount of internal email that I need to read. I have over a hundred groups that people think I should join and an army of faces and names I dont recognise who want to be my friends. But still, its an amazing platform and an amazing story.

Technorati Tags: facebook

HPV Coercion story in Herald, page 3

That wife of mine . . . always complaining about something . .

NAAHHHH actually the opposite is true - She really hates to rock the boat and was hesitant to tell the story when she was asked about it. And the fact is that everyone we have talked to in Orkney is really sympathetic and cooperative. We actually didn't contact any newspapers, but when my a recent blog post about our daughter's coerced HPV jab went viral and ended up in chat rooms and forums all over the country, the newspapers heard about it and our phone has been going crazy ever since.

The Sunday Herald also ran the story of our daughter today. Here's the story. Click to enlarge and join the chat about it here at the Sunday Herald.

Technorati Tags: cervical cancer, hpv

The Sunday Times HPV Story on page 6

That 13 year old Orkney girl in the papers today is our daughter. Heres the skinny.

Sunday Times did a good job covering the story of our daughter's coerced HPV jab. Other families were involved but for some reason our story got the headlines. Page 6 in the paper version. Not sure about other papers. We dont get them all up here in Orkney. I will post it or scan the Sunday Times article or something, as soon as I get the Sunday roast in the oven.

Any ideas on a topside roast? Slow roasting, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall suggests. Thank God for Hugh who tells us how to cook the cheaper cuts of beef. In the meantime, if you read it and have any questions or comments, feel free to write them down below and either Debbie or myself will try and respond.

OK - heres the story from the Times.

Technorati Tags: hpv, human papillomavirus virus, sunday times

The Return of the Drop Spindle

No, its not a fad. Not yet, anyway. But drop spindles are a fun way to start spinning your own wool. Debbie just made some that are really unusual. Heres the story.

I told you about our piano dilemma a while ago: Gorgeous antique piano with an ancient and warped sound board. It would have been a sin to dump it. It was just too precious to throw away so we decided to carefully dismantle it and make some imaginative things. Out of all the products we made, the funnest have been these drop spindles. You know, those twirly things that spin wool so you can knit.

The bottom of the spindle is the hammer from the piano. And Debbie (who is a fantastic potter) threw some clay on her wheel and created these funky pottery discs that look really amazing when you twirl them around to spin your wool. They are very cool! But of course, there are only as many drop spindles as there are antique piano hammer keys. People can buy the drop spindles on Debbie's online shop called Gone 2 Pot . Debbie also wrote a little booklet on how to use the drop spindle which she includes in the kit, along with some wool from the Orkney Islands.

And if are interested in Debbie's most recent creations in the pottery studio, take a look around.

Technorati Tags: pottery

Technorati's State of the Blogosphere

"blogs are a global phenomenon that has hit the mainstream."
Technorati, State of the Blogosphere
I was in Las Vegas a few weeks ago at Blog World Expo and one of the highlights for me was the State of the Blogosphere presented by Technorati representatives. The whole session is up on their site. Totally worth reading if you are interested in the blogosphere.

Also, Future of Web Apps in on in London right now. HT: Tim Anderson who is blogging it.

Technorati Tags: blog, blogging

Jab Update

For those of you following our story about the coerced jabbing of our daughter with an HPV immunization shot, tomorrow in the Sunday papers around the country there will be an official apology from the health department and hopefully some practical steps to ensure our story, and those of a few other families around the UK, will not be repeated. Good!

We are hoping they will take the immunizations out of the schools - where the school authorities really don't know what the heck is going on anyway, and give the authority back to the family physicians - which is what usually happens with immunisations. We set up a small blog to track the progress - Its called the Jab Blog

More tomorrow along with links [hopefully] to the papers. We really hope everyone is fairly treated in the media. We hope that the truth emerges. And we hope that we can all be part of making healthy decisions for our children. You can help us by offering good advice and information on the HPV immunisations, by praying for good outcomes, and also by keeping our daughter's identity private - ie - don't mention her name in these posts. Thanks.

Technorati Tags: hpv

Social Media Sabbaticals

[photo by andrew jones to make you say "I need a sabbatical!]

UPDATED [Oct 13] with huge apology to my friend Rhett Smith who blogged some excellent thoughts on social media breaks and boundaries.

ORIGINAL: Marcus Goodyear is taking a social media sabbatical, the Pyromaniacs are taking the month off and Darren Rowse of Problogger has just suggested in an email that we should take a RSS break:
"I'm not advocating that we all stop using RSS - but perhaps this week set aside some time to just sit with your own ideas. Get offline completely, take a paper and pen and start writing - see where your thoughts lead you!"

RELATED: The Spirituality of NOT blogging and blog fasting.

Technorati Tags: blog, blogging

Blog Action Day: Oct 15

Blog Action Day is an opportunity to blog about poverty. Start thinking about what you would like to SAY and DO for October 15. HT: Devlounge

Technorati Tags: bad2008, blog action day, blog action day 2008, poverty

Church 2.0 Tour

Greg Atkinson is setting up a Church 2.0 Fall Tour in preparation for a book in the near future on the subject. More on Facebook and DJ Chuang's blog.

Even though you might be getting tired of hearing about EVERYTHING 2.0, and the term is probably only continuing due to the O'Reilly conferences and their huge web presence, the concept of Church 2.0 is good and worthy of consideration. You might also want to check out my original blog post from 2005 called Church 2.0 and an article I wrote called Linking to Cyberchurch

Technorati Tags: emerging church, church 2.0

Cleaning Up

Cleaning up the blog at the moment. Feels good! Actually, my bedroom is messy right now and I am compensating by de-cluttering the blog.

We've Only Just Begun to Emerge, and more.

Mark DeVine points to an excellent chapter [download PDF] he wrote for a forthcoming book called E3: Evangelicals Engaging Emergent.
Welcome to the Common Root that launched last week with a less confusing name.
Paul Roberts demurs regarding The Great Emergence
IMG church emerges into the Lancaster newspaper
Jake is going to reclaim Paul this month with the Emergent Village crowd
October is Convergent month for Friends and Quakers.
And finally,
Jonny Baker reports on the emerging church in France, suggesting that it has only just begun. Which brings everybody's favourite song to mind . . . Come on . . EVERYBODY!! . . . One Two Three . .

Technorati Tags: emergent, emerging church

We've Only Just Begun to Emerge, and more.

All kind of things emerging . . .

- Mark DeVine points to an excellent chapter [download PDF] he wrote for a forthcoming book called E3: Evangelicals Engaging Emergent.
- Welcome to the Common Root that launched last week with a less confusing name.
- Paul Roberts demurs regarding The Great Emergence
- IMG church emerges into the Lancaster newspaper
- Jake is going to reclaim Paul this month with the Emergent Village crowd
- October is Convergent month for Friends and Quakers.
-And finally, Jonny Baker reports on the emerging church in France, suggesting that it has only just begun.

Which brings everybody's favourite song to mind . . . Come on . . EVERYBODY!! . . . One Two Three . .

Technorati Tags: emergent, emerging church

HPV vaccination and the coercion of our 13 year old diabetic daughter

We are a bit shaken up over the HPV Vaccination, sometimes called the HPV Jab. It supposedly immunises young women against sexually transmitted disease that can lead to genital warts and cervical cancer but is not yet proven. However, for a number of reasons, my wife and I "opted out" by checking the 'No' box on the consent form, and our 13 year old daughter also decided NOT to get the jab. We figured with both parents and daughter against the idea, the jabbing would pass us by. But then she went to school and some anonymous doctor jabbed her anyway.

We have no overt moral or spiritual issue with the immunization itself and, along with the FRC, we don't believe that the HPV immunisation necessarily leads to promiscuity. We do, however, have a problem with mandatory or coerced vaccination against the will of the child or the parents. But we were told we could "opt out" so we didn't give it much thought.

On the day, our 13 year old daughter, who by the way has Type-1 Diabetes, was taken aside from the other girls and told by the doctor that she was the only girl in her year who had handed in a consent form with a cross in the 'No' box. As they started to talk, and without being asked if she wanted it, the doctor jabbed her.

We have serious issues with this relatively untested and unproven drug Cervarix. Finding answers to basic questions like "How will it affect our Type-1 diabetic pre-adolescent daughter?" has proven impossible for us and I can only assume, unless the one of the 158 pre-adolescent [10-14 year] test candidates had Type-1 diabetes, that our daughter is now the gullible guinea pig who will test this product for the much larger international market.

On the internet we call that "beta testing", although we are talking about our daughter, not a new web application.

"Coerced vaccination is not justified because there is no public health emergency. Similarly, forcing an intervention over an adolescent's objections is not justified because it fails to respect the adolescent as a maturing individual." BMJ (British Medical Journal)

We shared our story with a social worker and he suggested reporting it to the police as a case of abuse. We went over to our school today to discuss it with them. The head teacher was shocked and apologetic and offered to talk to the NHS. Obviously the school is not to blame and has been kept in the dark.

The BMJ suggested that "the most controversial situation is when an adolescent seeks the vaccine without parental permission." But even more controversial is what happened to our child in Scotland, when the vaccination was given AGAINST the written permission of both the parents AND against the will of the adolescent, or in this case, the pre-adolescent.

Opting Out
The Government says that the vaccine will be offered to all girls in the selected age range but that parents will be given the opportunity to "opt out" if they do not want their child to receive the jabs. "It will be voluntary" the Telegraph reports, and yet the paragraph following states that "non-compliance" could undermine the project.

I guess we were "non-compliant"
but I like to think of it as "pro-choice".

I was thinking that maybe we could have prevented the abuse of our daughter by not sending in the consent form at all. But then we chatted with one of our kid's friends who also got jabbed, despite her not wanting it and despite her father refusing to sing the consent form. I guess we are not the only ones.

Can We Really Opt Out? The brochure given to the 12-13 year olds called "Arm Against Cervical Cancer" [download as PDF] promises that parents can "opt out". It reads:
"You may be given a consent form that your parents should sign giving permission for you to have the vaccination. It’s important that you return the signed form before your vaccination is due. If your parents are not sure that you should have the vaccination you should still return the form and speak to your nurse, doctor or other healthcare professional. Having the vaccination now will help protect you against the most common causes of cervical cancer for many years."

What does that mean, anyway? If your parents say 'No', then you should speak to the medical professionals to get a second opinion? Sounds like we were outranked by someone with a stethoscope around their neck!
But surely its illegal, even in this country, to ignore the parents consent when the 'young woman' involved has only just turned 13 years old?

So, from our experience with the first jab, this is how it looks to me:
- If your daughter refuses the vaccination, she is young and incapable of making the right decision so JAB HER ANYWAY. [So says Dr Frank on Yahoo Answers]
- If your parents refuse to permit the vaccination, they are old and too stupid to make the right decision so JAB HER ANYWAY.
- If both daughter and parents refuse the vaccination, JAB HER ANYWAY and hope that no one says anything.

Any way you look at it, our daughters are going to get jabbed unless they have the gumption to stand up for their right to choose for themselves. Or someone else stands up for them. Or we keep them out of school on the jabbing day.

Side Effects?
The brochure suggests the side effects are " quite mild – usually just stinging and soreness in the arm that soon wears off. Hundreds of thousands of young women in the USA and other countries have already had their vaccinations. Studies have shown that the vaccination is very safe." But what the brochure doesnt tell you about those young women in the USA is that over 20 died and thousands of others now have serious permanent injuries.

After the jab, our daughter and 2 friends had immediate side effects, including a hot and cold flashes and dizziness, but they was told it was in their minds. Headaches have continued almost daily since the jab and a few days ago she had a very serious seizure during the night. We were just glad she was sleeping in our bed. She slept in our bed last night also, just in case another seizure happened, and she will probably sleep in our bed again tonight. And we dont really know if the seizure or headaches are related to the jab or rather to her diabetes. But we are still worried and information is scarce.

My advice?
1. Do Your Own Research!
2. Find information websites that allow comments and stories of real people who are not paid to say only positive things about HPV vaccinations.
3. If you don't want your daughter jabbed, or if she doesnt want to get jabbed, don't send her to school on the day of jabbing because the permission form might not be worth the paper it is written on.
4. Make a copy of your consent form before your daughter hands it in and it disappears into space.
5. If your story is similar to ours, tell someone.

Read on to see some of the things I found about about this vaccination.

Technorati Tags: cancer jab, cervarix, cervical cancer, family research council, genital warts, hpv, human papillomavirus virus, immunisation, immunization, jab, nhs, std

More info
Having done a little research to see exactly what substance they shot into our daughter's arm, we are a little worried. And we have a feeling we are not the only ones. If you are looking for more information on the subject, this is what I have found so far:

The HPV immunization process rolled out a few weeks ago across England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. They are starting with Scottish 12-13 year old girls, like our daughter, and then working upwards over the next few years. I heard the next jabbing where we live (Orkney Islands, Scotland) is October 31, 2008.

HPV stands for human papillomavirus which affects the skin and mucous membranes. There are about 130 types but about 30-40 HPV types are typically transmitted through sexual contact and some may cause genital warts. Persistent infection with "high-risk" HPV types may progress to lesions and cervical cancer. Wikipedia suggests the Cervarix vaccinations given in the UK protect against two types of HPV (16 and 18).

But there is no proven clinical evidence that it actually works and the side effects can be dangerous and even fatal.

It reminds me of the movie Idiocracy.
Attorney General: “Brawndo’s got what plants crave.”
Secretary of Energy: “Yeah, it’s got electrolytes.”
Joe: “What are electrolytes? Do you even know?”
Secretary of State: “It’s what they use to make Brawndo.”
Joe: “Yeah, but why do they use them to make Brawndo?”
Secretary of Defense: “‘Cause Brawndo’s got electrolytes.”
[Script] [MP3]

I agree with Alan Johnson of the Department of Health who said "prevention is always better than cure" but the vaccination is not the only way and it is not even the best way to prevent infection. The Cancer Society has said that "the vaccines don't prevent infection with all types of HPV" and the best form of prevention is either abstinence from sexual activity and/or a monogamous relationship with an uninfected individual. Why cant the medical authorities offer the possibility of abstinence or fidelity as a reasonable alternative to the vaccination? Why cant they even mention it in their publications? Its that "non-compliance"?

Some quotes
"Twenty girls died within a few days of receiving Gardasil, which has a similar make-up to Cervarix, although the deaths were dismissed as coincidence by the manufacturer, Merck." Why I won't let my girls have these cancer jabs

“This big push is making people crazy — thinking they’re bad moms if they don’t get their kids vaccinated,” Dr. Abby Lippman, McGill University, BlogDial: Sticking it to the kids

The Department of Health refused to reveal the cost of the vaccine, which it said was "commercially confidential" Telegraph

Some answers
In the USA, HPV immunization is required of immigrants seeking a green card but not of citizens. But there are some public schools pushing for mandatory vaccination for their students. Gardasil is the drug of choice. The Family Research Council has an excellent resource page on HPV with a page of questions and answers. These three questions seemed most appropriate.

Q: How is genital HPV infection associated with cervical cancer?
A: Sexually transmitted HPV has been shown to be present in virtually all cases of cervical cancer and is the leading cause of cervical cancer. High risk HPV types 16 and 18 cause 70 percent of cervical cancer cases. [Human Papillomavirus: HPV Information for Clinicians, PDF, page 1]
Q: How can a person be best protected from acquiring genital HPV?
A: Limiting sexual activity to the context of one faithful and monogamous long-term relationship with an uninfected individual is the single most effective method of preventing HPV infection.
Q: Does FRC support mandatory HPV vaccination?
A: No. We feel that a mandate infringes on the right of parents to make decisions regarding their children's medical care. Since genital HPV is not spread by casual contact, but rather is a sexually transmitted infection, there is not sufficient public health justification to require vaccination for school attendance. It may also lead them to believe that the vaccine is the only available way to reduce the risk of cervical cancer, which is untrue.

Some links worth checking out
Pharmalot reports: A Catholic school banned the immunisation on its premises
Serious Health Concerns about the cervical cancer jab, Mail Online
Parents Refuse "Cervarix" cervical Cancer Jab, Trusted, MD
BBC article shows that Cervarix won over Gardasil in the UK.
The Times has a good article.
Vaccination of schoolgirls for HPV using Cervarix ® should be stopped. NOW
Video: Number One Google Search Result today is Gardasil HPV Vaccine Hoax Exposed
Is HPV Vaccine Safe? [Gardasil side effects)
HPV Jab side effects

I have some questions:
Why are they jabbing our kids in the schools by anonymous medical teams when our family doctor, who we know and trust, could adminster or at least oversee the vaccinations?
Why use the schools when the school authorities are completely powerless and cant even tell us when the next jabbing will occur?
Why sign and submit a permission slip when the doctor is going to jab them anyway?
Why is the government and the NHS so insistent that everyone get jabbed with a relatively new and untested vaccine?
Has the vaccine ever been tested on young girls with Type-1 diabetes like my daughter and what were the results?
And most importantly, Are there any other parents out there who chose to "opt out", crossed the "No" box on their consent form, and yet watched their daughter come home from school rubbing her arm?

HPV vaccination and the coercion of our 13 year old diabetic daughter

We are a bit shaken up over the HPV Vaccination, sometimes called the HPV Jab. It supposedly immunises young women against sexually transmitted disease that can lead to genital warts and cervical cancer but is not yet proven. However, for a number of reasons, my wife and I "opted out" by checking the 'No' box on the consent form, and our 13 year old daughter also decided NOT to get the jab. We figured with both parents and daughter against the idea, the jabbing would pass us by. But then she went to school and some anonymous doctor jabbed her anyway.

We have no overt moral or spiritual issue with the immunization itself and, along with the FRC, we don't believe that the HPV immunisation necessarily leads to promiscuity. We do, however, have a problem with mandatory or coerced vaccination against the will of the child or the parents. But we were told we could "opt out" so we didn't give it much thought.

On the day, our 13 year old daughter, who by the way has Type-1 Diabetes, was taken aside from the other girls and told by the doctor that she was the only girl in her year who had handed in a consent form with a cross in the 'No' box. As they started to talk, and without being asked if she wanted it, the doctor jabbed her.

We have serious issues with this relatively untested and unproven drug Cervarix. Finding answers to basic questions like "How will it affect our Type-1 diabetic pre-adolescent daughter?" has proven impossible for us and I can only assume, unless the one of the 158 pre-adolescent [10-14 year] test candidates had Type-1 diabetes, that our daughter is now the gullible guinea pig who will test this product for the much larger international market.

On the internet we call that "beta testing", although we are talking about our daughter, not a new web application.

"Coerced vaccination is not justified because there is no public health emergency. Similarly, forcing an intervention over an adolescent's objections is not justified because it fails to respect the adolescent as a maturing individual." BMJ (British Medical Journal)

We shared our story with a social worker and he suggested reporting it to the police as a case of abuse. We went over to our school today to discuss it with them. The head teacher was shocked and apologetic and offered to talk to the NHS. Obviously the school is not to blame and has been kept in the dark.

The BMJ suggested that "the most controversial situation is when an adolescent seeks the vaccine without parental permission." But even more controversial is what happened to our child in Scotland, when the vaccination was given AGAINST the written permission of both the parents AND against the will of the adolescent, or in this case, the pre-adolescent.

Opting Out
The Government says that the vaccine will be offered to all girls in the selected age range but that parents will be given the opportunity to "opt out" if they do not want their child to receive the jabs. "It will be voluntary" the Telegraph reports, and yet the paragraph following states that "non-compliance" could undermine the project.

I guess we were "non-compliant"
but I like to think of it as "pro-choice".

I was thinking that maybe we could have prevented the abuse of our daughter by not sending in the consent form at all. But then we chatted with one of our kid's friends who also got jabbed, despite her not wanting it and despite her father refusing to sing the consent form. I guess we are not the only ones.

Can We Really Opt Out? The brochure given to the 12-13 year olds called "Arm Against Cervical Cancer" [download as PDF] promises that parents can "opt out". It reads:
"You may be given a consent form that your parents should sign giving permission for you to have the vaccination. It’s important that you return the signed form before your vaccination is due. If your parents are not sure that you should have the vaccination you should still return the form and speak to your nurse, doctor or other healthcare professional. Having the vaccination now will help protect you against the most common causes of cervical cancer for many years."

What does that mean, anyway? If your parents say 'No', then you should speak to the medical professionals to get a second opinion? Sounds like we were outranked by someone with a stethoscope around their neck!
But surely its illegal, even in this country, to ignore the parents consent when the 'young woman' involved has only just turned 13 years old?

So, from our experience with the first jab, this is how it looks to me:
- If your daughter refuses the vaccination, she is young and incapable of making the right decision so JAB HER ANYWAY. [So says Dr Frank on Yahoo Answers]
- If your parents refuse to permit the vaccination, they are old and too stupid to make the right decision so JAB HER ANYWAY.
- If both daughter and parents refuse the vaccination, JAB HER ANYWAY and hope that no one says anything.

Any way you look at it, our daughters are going to get jabbed unless they have the gumption to stand up for their right to choose for themselves. Or someone else stands up for them. Or we keep them out of school on the jabbing day.

Side Effects?
The brochure suggests the side effects are " quite mild – usually just stinging and soreness in the arm that soon wears off. Hundreds of thousands of young women in the USA and other countries have already had their vaccinations. Studies have shown that the vaccination is very safe." But what the brochure doesnt tell you about those young women in the USA is that over 20 died and thousands of others now have serious permanent injuries.

After the jab, our daughter and 2 friends had immediate side effects, including a hot and cold flashes and dizziness, but they was told it was in their minds. Headaches have continued almost daily since the jab and a few days ago she had a very serious seizure during the night. We were just glad she was sleeping in our bed. She slept in our bed last night also, just in case another seizure happened, and she will probably sleep in our bed again tonight. And we dont really know if the seizure or headaches are related to the jab or rather to her diabetes. But we are still worried and information is scarce.

My advice?
1. Do Your Own Research!
2. Find information websites that allow comments and stories of real people who are not paid to say only positive things about HPV vaccinations.
3. If you don't want your daughter jabbed, or if she doesnt want to get jabbed, don't send her to school on the day of jabbing because the permission form might not be worth the paper it is written on.
4. Make a copy of your consent form before your daughter hands it in and it disappears into space.
5. If your story is similar to ours, tell someone.

Read on to see some of the things I found about about this vaccination.

Technorati Tags: cancer jab, cervarix, cervical cancer, family research council, genital warts, hpv, human papillomavirus virus, immunisation, immunization, jab, nhs, std

More info
Having done a little research to see exactly what substance they shot into our daughter's arm, we are a little worried. And we have a feeling we are not the only ones. If you are looking for more information on the subject, this is what I have found so far:

The HPV immunization process rolled out a few weeks ago across England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. They are starting with Scottish 12-13 year old girls, like our daughter, and then working upwards over the next few years. I heard the next jabbing where we live (Orkney Islands, Scotland) is October 31, 2008.

HPV stands for human papillomavirus which affects the skin and mucous membranes. There are about 130 types but about 30-40 HPV types are typically transmitted through sexual contact and some may cause genital warts. Persistent infection with "high-risk" HPV types may progress to lesions and cervical cancer. Wikipedia suggests the Cervarix vaccinations given in the UK protect against two types of HPV (16 and 18).

But there is no proven clinical evidence that it actually works and the side effects can be dangerous and even fatal.

It reminds me of the movie Idiocracy.
Attorney General: “Brawndo’s got what plants crave.”
Secretary of Energy: “Yeah, it’s got electrolytes.”
Joe: “What are electrolytes? Do you even know?”
Secretary of State: “It’s what they use to make Brawndo.”
Joe: “Yeah, but why do they use them to make Brawndo?”
Secretary of Defense: “‘Cause Brawndo’s got electrolytes.”
[Script] [MP3]

I agree with Alan Johnson of the Department of Health who said "prevention is always better than cure" but the vaccination is not the only way and it is not even the best way to prevent infection. The Cancer Society has said that "the vaccines don't prevent infection with all types of HPV" and the best form of prevention is either abstinence from sexual activity and/or a monogamous relationship with an uninfected individual. Why cant the medical authorities offer the possibility of abstinence or fidelity as a reasonable alternative to the vaccination? Why cant they even mention it in their publications? Its that "non-compliance"?

Some quotes
"Twenty girls died within a few days of receiving Gardasil, which has a similar make-up to Cervarix, although the deaths were dismissed as coincidence by the manufacturer, Merck." Why I won't let my girls have these cancer jabs

“This big push is making people crazy — thinking they’re bad moms if they don’t get their kids vaccinated,” Dr. Abby Lippman, McGill University, BlogDial: Sticking it to the kids

The Department of Health refused to reveal the cost of the vaccine, which it said was "commercially confidential" Telegraph

Some answers
In the USA, HPV immunization is required of immigrants seeking a green card but not of citizens. But there are some public schools pushing for mandatory vaccination for their students. Gardasil is the drug of choice. The Family Research Council has an excellent resource page on HPV with a page of questions and answers. These three questions seemed most appropriate.

Q: How is genital HPV infection associated with cervical cancer?
A: Sexually transmitted HPV has been shown to be present in virtually all cases of cervical cancer and is the leading cause of cervical cancer. High risk HPV types 16 and 18 cause 70 percent of cervical cancer cases. [Human Papillomavirus: HPV Information for Clinicians, PDF, page 1]
Q: How can a person be best protected from acquiring genital HPV?
A: Limiting sexual activity to the context of one faithful and monogamous long-term relationship with an uninfected individual is the single most effective method of preventing HPV infection.
Q: Does FRC support mandatory HPV vaccination?
A: No. We feel that a mandate infringes on the right of parents to make decisions regarding their children's medical care. Since genital HPV is not spread by casual contact, but rather is a sexually transmitted infection, there is not sufficient public health justification to require vaccination for school attendance. It may also lead them to believe that the vaccine is the only available way to reduce the risk of cervical cancer, which is untrue.

Some links worth checking out
Pharmalot reports: A Catholic school banned the immunisation on its premises
Serious Health Concerns about the cervical cancer jab, Mail Online
Parents Refuse "Cervarix" cervical Cancer Jab, Trusted, MD
BBC article shows that Cervarix won over Gardasil in the UK.
The Times has a good article.
Vaccination of schoolgirls for HPV using Cervarix ® should be stopped. NOW
Video: Number One Google Search Result today is Gardasil HPV Vaccine Hoax Exposed [but the credibility is challenged by this doctor]
Is HPV Vaccine Safe? [Gardasil side effects)
HPV Jab side effects

I have some questions:
Why are they jabbing our kids in the schools by anonymous medical teams when our family doctor, who we know and trust, could adminster or at least oversee the vaccinations?
Why use the schools when the school authorities are completely powerless and cant even tell us when the next jabbing will occur?
Why sign and submit a permission slip when the doctor is going to jab them anyway?
Why is the government and the NHS so insistent that everyone get jabbed with a relatively new and untested vaccine?
Has the vaccine ever been tested on young girls with Type-1 diabetes like my daughter and what were the results?
And most importantly, Are there any other parents out there who chose to "opt out", crossed the "No" box on their consent form, and yet watched their daughter come home from school rubbing her arm?

Fair Trade Gold and Jewellery

"Customers don't realize that one wedding ring weighs 10 grams and causes three tonnes of toxic waste,"
Greg Valerio, Reuters

My friend Greg Valerio of Cred Jewellery, who I have mentioned before, is in Los Angeles over the next few days, meeting with entrepreneurs and venture capitalists regarding some new social enterprises in the fair trade gold and jewellery sector. If you want to meet with him, email info@credjewellery.com

I saw Greg last August at the wedding blessing I was performing. It was quite intimidating for me because I have heard Greg say that the church is partly to blame for our current injustices since it insists on wedding rings, and usually without thought to where they came from or how they were mined. So when I asked the groom, "Do you have the rings" it was one of those moments when you really didn't want Greg Valerio in the audience. Of course, nothing happened and Greg didn't jump up and demand to know the origin of the rings. [I am sure the bride and groom had thought it through]. Although we did have a good chat on fair-trade and slave-free issues afterwards over a drink and managed to solve most of the worlds problems.

Question:How much more does one pay for a fair trade gold ring?
Answer: About 10% more than common prices and 15% below top luxury brands like Tiffany

Blurb: "Greg Valerio is a prominent campaigner in the Association for Responsible Mining (ARM), currently fighting for the rigorous gold-mining standards he has helped develop to be adopted by the international Fairtrade Labelling Organisation (FLO)." From Developments.

Technorati Tags: fair trade, gold, slave-free

Fair Trade Gold and Jewellery

"Customers don't realize that one wedding ring weighs 10 grams and causes three tonnes of toxic waste,"
Greg Valerio, Reuters

My friend Greg Valerio of Cred Jewellery, who I have mentioned before, is in Los Angeles over the next few days, meeting with entrepreneurs and venture capitalists regarding some new social enterprises in the fair trade gold and jewellery sector. If you want to meet with him, email info@credjewellery.com

I saw Greg last August at the wedding blessing I was performing. It was quite intimidating for me because I have heard Greg say that the church is partly to blame for our current injustices since it insists on wedding rings, and usually without thought to where they came from or how they were mined. So when I asked the groom, "Do you have the rings" it was one of those moments when you really didn't want Greg Valerio in the audience. Of course, nothing happened and Greg didn't jump up and demand to know the origin of the rings. [I am sure the bride and groom had thought it through]. Although we did have a good chat on fair-trade and slave-free issues afterwards over a drink and managed to solve most of the worlds problems.

Question:How much more does one pay for a fair trade gold ring?
Answer: About 10% more than common prices and 15% below top luxury brands like Tiffany

Blurb: "Greg Valerio is a prominent campaigner in the Association for Responsible Mining (ARM), currently fighting for the rigorous gold-mining standards he has helped develop to be adopted by the international Fairtrade Labelling Organisation (FLO)." From Developments.

Technorati Tags: fair trade, gold, slave-free

10 Commandments of Blogging

HT: Clerical Whispers shares the story behind the 10 commandments of blogging loosely developed at the Godblogs event in England which was hosted by the Evangelical Alliance. The commandments were given in a "tongue-in-cheek" manner, a bit like my "Blogger's Prayer" back in 2002, but they are pretty good nonetheless.

The 10 Commandments of Blogging:
You shall not put your blog before your integrity.
You shall not make an idol of your blog.
You shall not misuse your screen name by using your anonymity to sin.
Remember the Sabbath day by taking one day off a week from your blog.
Honour your fellow-bloggers above yourselves and do not give undue significance to their mistakes.
You shall not murder someone else’s honour, reputation or feelings.
You shall not use the web to commit or permit adultery in your mind.
You shall not steal another person’s content.
You shall not give false testimony against your fellow-blogger.
You shall not covet your neighbour's blog ranking. Be content with your own content.

Like the image of Moses? Me too! In fact, I found myself COVETING it! I IDOLIZED it! I would have KILLED for it! And eventually, I decided to dishonor my parents by stealing it and then reselling it on the Sabbath. Nahhh . . just kidding . . God knows my witness is false. Actually, the image is from Times Online.

UPDATE: Richard Hall points to news articles on the Times and Telegraph as well as some other blogger's comments. Running commentary by Phil at ThinkHammer. Even better, Ben at Faith and Theology comes up with his own ten commandments. Where the heck was I when all this was going on? Oh yeah - I was in USA having just participated in GodblogCon, another Christian blogging conference on the other side of the pond.

RELATED: The Spirituality of Blogging

Technorati Tags: blog, blogging

10 Commandments of Blogging

HT: Clerical Whispers shares the story behind the 10 commandments of blogging loosely developed at the Godblogs event in England which was hosted by the Evangelical Alliance. The commandments were given in a "tongue-in-cheek" manner, a bit like my "Blogger's Prayer" back in 2002, but they are pretty good nonetheless.

The 10 Commandments of Blogging:
You shall not put your blog before your integrity.
You shall not make an idol of your blog.
You shall not misuse your screen name by using your anonymity to sin.
Remember the Sabbath day by taking one day off a week from your blog.
Honour your fellow-bloggers above yourselves and do not give undue significance to their mistakes.
You shall not murder someone else’s honour, reputation or feelings.
You shall not use the web to commit or permit adultery in your mind.
You shall not steal another person’s content.
You shall not give false testimony against your fellow-blogger.
You shall not covet your neighbour's blog ranking. Be content with your own content.

Like the image of Moses? Me too! In fact, I found myself COVETING it! I IDOLIZED it! I would have KILLED for it! And eventually, I decided to dishonor my parents by stealing it and then reselling it on the Sabbath. Nahhh . . just kidding . . God knows my witness is false. Actually, the image is from Times Online.

UPDATE: Richard Hall points to news articles on the Times and Telegraph as well as some other blogger's comments. Running commentary by Phil at ThinkHammer. Even better, Ben at Faith and Theology comes up with his own ten commandments. Where the heck was I when all this was going on? Oh yeah - I was in USA having just participated in GodblogCon, another Christian blogging conference on the other side of the pond.

RELATED: The Spirituality of Blogging

Technorati Tags: blog, blogging

Remembering Blog Martyrs

In Saudi Arabia, blogger "Rania" was burned alive for her new faith in Jesus Christ a few days after her blog post. HT: Open Doors magazine Frontline, Oct 2008.

Technorati Tags: martyr, saudi arabia

Remembering Blog Martyrs

In Saudi Arabia, blogger "Rania" was burned alive for her new faith in Jesus Christ a few days after her blog post. HT: Open Doors magazine Frontline, Oct 2008.

Technorati Tags: martyr, saudi arabia

Jon Abel rocked us

Listening today to a CD from John Abel called More Than This. Jon was the songleader at last weekend's Summit in Tahoe. Lovely guy. Great worship leader. Christianity Today also liked him.

Technorati Tags: jon abel, music, worship

Jon Abel rocked us

Listening today to a CD from John Abel called More Than This. Jon was the songleader at last weekend's Summit in Tahoe. Lovely guy. Great worship leader. Christianity Today also liked him.

Technorati Tags: jon abel, music, worship

Emerging Church: Recent English Language Voices on the Transition

Australia

"While I find much of value in the emerging, missional and neo-monastic conversations there is much that sits uneasy with me too, given where I am and where I have come from. I am seeking an understanding of postmodernity which is less monolithic than what I find the emergent stream is offering, I am seeking an approach to contemplative disciplines which is less Euro-centric than what I find the monastic stream is offering, and I am seeking an approach to church contextualization that is less tribal and more critical of the "homogenous unit principle" than what I find the missional stream is offering."
Matt Stone, Just to Explain . . . Hopefully, Glocal Christianity

South Africa

Regarding the current conversation about the term emerging, let’s just say that I don’t think the term is dead,"
Cobus Van Wyngaard, Emerging Alternative Communities for South Africa, My Contemplations
"When the conversation exploded a couple of days ago, I found Sine's four streams to be of a lot of help as well. As we were busy trying to get some "emerging" folks from around Pretoria and Johannesburg together, I realised that what we call "emerging" encompasses all four of Sine's streams. For us it isn't a tension yet. When we say "emerging" in our context, we tend to understand what it mean."
Cobus Van Wyngaard,, in comments

Technorati Tags: emergent, emerging church

New Zealand

"And I will look at them and part of me will want to cry. How could my efforts to be part of God's work, born for such a time as this, now be called dead. And part of me will want to hit over the head all the people who have stirred and misrepresented and fought over labels and words and used the web to spread disinformation and increase their blog ratings. And part of me will smile. What will they call the next thing, I wonder? And I will respond to the question by suggesting we turn to Acts 2 and Luke 10. I will suggest we stop worrying about what we call these "new forms of church." Instead we think about what it means for us to be obedient to the mission of God, because we are born "for such a time as this.""
Steve Taylor, Why I'm Emergentkiwi (still), EmergentKiwi

UK

"Whether you are catholic, house church, an naissant/proto emerging church, we are all the emerging church, with a deep ecumencalism, helping each other respond to similar contextual problems. Trying to form churches that see people find and grow in love and orientation around Jesus.
. . . But the emerging church can become so broad, that it loses it’s meaning. It does seem that almost anyone and anything is called emerging church these days. I’m still more comfortable with this broader and generous delineation though. But I sense many are thinking of moving beyond the emerging church, due to it’s dilution."
Jason Clark, Beyond the Emerging Church?, Deep Church

Canada

"This present “evolution” of the emerging church may not be (read: is rather known not to be) its final stage, but it does represent a form of maturation from where it was. Not a complete maturation, of course, but the maturation in a specific area. Considering that those within the movement are continuing to pursue this same course of “emerging” into a revised form of church, we may conclude that there remains some life yet in the old dog."
Brother Maynard, Emergent Terminology: It’s Not About Terminology, Subversive Influence

USA

"As for me- I don't know if I'm done with the phrase "emerging church" yet- but just about. I know that when I say it, I'm more often than not now answering a question about what we aren't than what we are about- and that saddens me."
Bob Hyatt, Look who's done with words like Emergent, bob.blog