Bachmann on whether HPV vaccine causes mental retardation: ‘I have no idea’
GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann appears to be backing off suggestions that the HPV vaccine could cause mental retardation.
Here's what she told Fox News last night:
"There's a woman who came up crying to me tonight after the debate. She said her daughter was given that vaccine. She told me her daughter suffered mental retardation as a result. There are very dangerous consequences."
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She used the same anecdote on the Today Show this morning.
But Bachmann backed away from the comment later when she appeared on Sean Hannity's radio show. Hannity asked Bachmann whether side effects from the HPV vaccine include mental retardation.
"I have no idea," Bachmann told Hannity. "I am not a doctor. I am not a scientist. I am not a physician. All I was doing was reporting what a woman told me last night at the debate."
The HPV vaccine became an issue after Bachmann and other GOP presidential candidates criticized Texas Gov. Rick Perry for issuing an executive order that would require girls to get the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. The mandatory vaccinations never materialized because the Texas Legislature rescinded the order. Perry's Chief of Staff later became a lobbyist for Merck, which manufactures the HPV vaccine. It's been an issue that has haunted Perry's campaign.
Conservative activists have been skeptical of efforts to require the vaccine because it takes away parental rights and could encourage young women to engage in sexual activities. Efforts to require the vaccine in Minnesota have been defeated.
The medical community has been pushing young men and women to get vaccinated against HPV, a sexually transmitted disease, because it would prevent genital warts and some cases of cervical cancer.
MPR reports today that some members of the medical community say Bachmann's recent comments are troubling and potentially dangerous.
"HPV vaccine is an extraordinarily safe and effective vaccine," said Dr. Bill Schaffner, who chairs the Department of Preventative Medicine at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and has an international reputation as an immunization expert. "It's a huge advance is women's health because it will prevent about 70 percent of the cases of cancer of the cervix."
Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh also criticized Bachmann.
"That's jumping the shark on this," Limbaugh said. "There's no evidence that the vaccine causes mental retardation."