January 12, 2007
Morning Roundup: Moving on Up Edition
Buck up, D.C. Of course we're all still reeling from the Justin Timberlake-Cameron Diaz split confirmation, but there's plenty to be cheerful about this Friday before a holiday weekend (especially one that's shaping up to at least be mild temperature wise, if rainy). Why, even a few of this morning's headlines seem downright cheery.
New Taxi Zone Map in the Works: Even while the new District government is considering making the switch from zones to meters, City Manager Dan Tangherlini announced that the existing zone maps would be redesigned in an effort to make them easier to understand. Within 30 days, new taxi zone maps that show more individual street names and show north at the top instead of on the left should be ready to place in D.C. taxis.
Support for HPV Vaccine Law Growing: Despite a few reactionary views being tossed around about the possibility of making the HPV vaccine, which prevents several forms of the virus that causes cervical cancer, mandatory for girls in the District, the idea is growing in popularity around the country, reports the Post. Half a dozen states have also introduced legislation that would mandate the vaccine for students by the time they reach middle school, and Mayor Adrian Fenty has expressed his support for the plan.
Gray Picked for Another Leadership Position: D.C. Council Chair Vincent Gray yesterday was elected to the top post at the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, an association of 21 jurisdictions in the Washington area. He'll be joined by Montgomery County Council Member Michael Knapp and Fairfax County and Supervisor Penelope A. Gross to head its board of directors in 2007.
Briefly Noted: Northbound lanes of Route 29 closed in Silver Spring after fatal accident ... NTSB probe of Metro expanded ... United airlines opens Dulles to Beijing route ... Police arrest 80 Guantanamo Bay protestors.
This Day in DCist: In 2006 we introduced our popular Overheard in D.C. feature, and in 2005 we took a closer look at the state of our drinking water.
Photo by mindgutter.
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wtf dcist? what happened to your standards? this "mindgutter" person uploads 40 pictures in one day and you reward him/her with the Photo of the Day AND the Morning Roundup shot..
If you really want to inforce the 2/3 photos tops per day limit on the flickr pool then you should punish those who break it by not posting photos from that uploaded group that exceeded the limit.
It's a fair point Jim. To be honest I didn't even scroll through the photo pool much this morning when I picked out the roundup photo and didn't realize this guy had uploaded a bizillion photos. I'll be sending him a note asking him to respect the rules.
Anyone else read the Courtland Milloy piece on the HPV vaccination. Is all his stuff like this? Weird.
I generally like milloy's colums a lot but im not sure what he was getting at today. I only know a little about this HPV vaccination craze sweeping the nation but I never really saw it as a race issue. Seemed more like greedy pharma companies trying to push yet another drug onto the populous. Considering that school systems around the country are introducing this, including states like new hampshire and south Dakota, which presumably have small minority populations, im not sure this has anything to do with black kids specifically. Sounds like Milloy didn't do much research on this. If anything I would be more skeptical of letting a school system dictate what drugs should be injected into my daughter's body. Vaccines for measles, chicken pox at least make some sense considering how easily communicable they are. But HPV?
I usually like Courtland Milloy's columns a lot but I was surprised by that one when I read it. In fact I found it borderline offensive.
I did. What a shrew. It sound like he's actually one of those kids who show up round these parts who like to cry "you're all racists" without actually using logic or reason to back it up...
"Vaccines for measles, chicken pox at least make some sense considering how easily communicable they are. But HPV?"
Considering that some forms of HPV cause cancer, and the virus is easily communicable (at least, with sex, which kids are going to do whether you like it or not), I think it makes a lot of sense.
There's a chicken pox vaccine? Why in my day, you got the chicken pox for a week, and you liked it!!
I was actually pretty much on board until he got to this part:
And don't worry about the safety of the vaccine. As Colgrove notes: "During the past two decades, in the face of a sharp increase in the number of recommended pediatric vaccines, unproven theories alleging connections between vaccines and illnesses such as autism, diabetes and multiple sclerosis have been spreading. A social movement involving diverse participants has challenged the safety of vaccinations and mounted attacks in courtrooms and legislatures on compulsory vaccination laws."
The kooks opposed to most mandatory vaccination don't really warrant a place in any column.
But the justification seems slim. Government coercion tied to bodily intrusion certainly shouldn't be casual. So, I'm on board with mandatory polio vaccines (because proven reliable and truly necessary for public saftety). But HPV? You're not at risk merely because you attend public shool.
Not to defend Milloy, because I was really surprised at the shrill tone of his column and don't really agree with him, but given the history of the US gov't experimenting on African-Americans his concerns aren't totally out of line IMHO.
"There is no vaccine for the boys who infect the girls, so just forget about them."
Won't someone think of all the boys with cervical cancer?
The funny thing is that Courtland never directly comes out against the vaccine itself (only a moron would- IT PREVENTS CERVICAL CANCER), he only makes vague insinuations and references to Tuskeegee, because intentionally infecting people with syphillis without their knowledge is exactly like a public campaign for a vaccine that prevents cancer.
>>>Considering that some forms of HPV cause cancer, and the virus is easily communicable (at least, with sex, which kids are going to do whether you like it or not), I think it makes a lot of sense.
HPV poses no threat of an epidemic. I'm all for teaching kids about condoms (because many of them are going to have sex whether you teach them safety or not). But forcing all students to get a vaccine for a disease (admittedly, a potentially deadly one) that a few are at risk for seems over the top.
Milloy is one of WaPo's best writers...but he does miss the mark here.
The discussion here seems rather moot, as the vaccine would not be mandatory for a child to attend school. A signed (official) note from a child's parents that they have refused to have their child given the vaccine would allow their child to attend school. Seems a simple choice to me: get the shot, reduce your child's chance of getting cervical cancer by 70%. But I'm not a parent . . .
SY - I didn't realize they could just opt out. You're right; that doesn't seem so bad.
As an aside, though, your numbers aren't quite right. I'm not sure, but I *think* that they claim that HPV causes 70% of cervical cancer. The vaccine reduces the risk of transmission when the patient comes in contact with the form of HPV that risks cancer. As most 13-year-olds have a very small chance of coming into contact with that virus in the first place, and the virus itself does not always cause cancer, the average child's risk of getting cervical cancer is certainly not reduced by 70%. More doctorly and more statistical types should feel free to correct me. The risk was small (and gets smaller with the vaccine).
That's good news about the new zone maps, but how many of these stupid-ass cabbies will actually bother to replace the old maps in their cabs? Among the many other violations are nearly impossible to have corrected because of our corrupt Cab Commission, most of the cabs I have been in didn't even have a zone map.
Hoodrat-- You're right, I'm not an expert on the use of statistics. But anyone can make up statistics--40% of the people know that.
Anyways, more on Gardasil here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gardasil
Love the wikipedia. Seems it prevents two of the viruses that cause 70% of cervical cancer cases. Not sure how that breaks down statistically.
What I don't get is the assumption that "if they don't have sex, they won't need this."
I don't know about you, but among women I know, there are a distressingly large number of women who have had sex against their will. Call it rape (I do), call it something else (too many do), the fact remains that women are not always allowed to choose if they are going to have sex or not.
Ross - Quite true. I filed a complaint and the regs say the Taxi Commission has 10 days to get back to me. It's been months.
Hoodrat - HPV is suspected in >90% of cervical cancer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cervical_cancer
To be fair, the vaccine doesn't protect against all forms of HPV that are believed to cause cancer. The reason why it's being given to children is because once you come in contact with the virus, you cannot be vaccinated against it.
"About 12,800 women in the United States are diagnosed with cervical cancer and about 4,800 die each year (Canavan & Doshi, 2000)."
There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics. -Benjamin Disraeli
i've read some information on this. you dont necessarily get this from sex. it can come from touching and the like. also, HPV is supposedly (according to my doctor) fairly rampant in the population, its just that a lot of people dont have symptoms. and boys dont have symptoms at all, they just pass it to the girls.
also, the vaccine will prevent what you may or may not already have from turning in to cancer.
i dont know if i support it in this manner, but that's mostly becuase its brand new. i do agree that pharmaceutical (sp?) companies are probably encouraging the hype. but its still an important breakthrough.
politburo: actually from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gardasil it says:
Gardasil is a prophylactic HPV vaccine, meaning that it is designed to prevent the initial establishment of HPV infections. In worldwide clinical analyses, however, women who were already infected with 1 or more of the 4 HPV types targeted by the vaccine (6, 11, 16, or 18) were protected from clinical disease caused by the remaining HPV types in the vaccine.
actually, boys can have symptoms from hpv: genital warts.
http://www.webmd.com/hw/std/hw105446.asp
on an unrelated note, i think there's no Atlanta-ist, but if there was, could we have a fight? Check out Atlanta's me-too, cuter-than-thou act:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/01/12/panda.debut.ap/index.html
yeah, i'm curious, why is there no ATList? seems like a logical city for the -ist empire.
I've seen those two guys walking around MP. They have a horn section too.
I'm afraid that adding streets to the zone map will make it more complicated. Really the only streets you need to know are the ones that border the different zones. Its not that hard of a system to learn. However i think that a metered system would help with the all too often instances where the cabbie charges way too much. I've caught them a few times, but always argued them out of it, they know i'm right and their wrong. but what about all the people they swindled out of a few extra bucks who don't konw any better?
No Atlantaist for same reason there is no Fargoist, Wichitaist, or Winnipegist. To quote Pavement, "There's no culture." Then they go on to sing "There's no spies," which makes sense when compared to DC, but probably not for the rest of the ist universe.
Good point Ghettoburbs. A huge hole in my theory.
Hater, to quote OutKast -
Step into my shoes, you crews sittin on truths
And those for the hoes only when we rollin through
Atlanta skies be blue
The sun is beamin it seemin
That i glisten, rather gleaming
20/20 got me leaning to the side
Feel the pride, now ain't that somethin
I'm dippin into your hood
This ain't braile, but i'm bumpin
Thumpin out the roaches
Dungeon if ya'll missed it
Big Gimp, Goodie MOb, PA, Outkast
Southernplaylistic
"The sun is beamin it seemin
That i glisten, rather gleaming
20/20 got me leaning to the side
Feel the pride."
Wait a minute, I thought we razed Atlanta in like, 1860-something. Are you guys back again?
haters,
Welcome to Atlanta where the playas play
And we ride on them things like every day
Big beats, hit streets, see gangsta's roamin'
And parties dont stop til' eight in the mornin'
:)