Quoted in the paper!

Renowned public health professional quoted in the newspaper.

OK, maybe not. Yet. But I did get quoted! It was perhaps the driest of the things I said to her, but probably the safest, too, as I looked back on my conversation with nervousness last night. Is it dumb that I wish there were a way for me to be referenced as a public health person, rather than a medical student? "Medical student" is not a title that garners respect. But I was sort of boxed in; she knew I had an MPH, but when she asked what I DID I didn't have much else to say other than "medical student."

What else did I tell her?
-That I was surprised (albeit pleasantly) to hear that the bill had passed the House, because my impression before coming to KY, and even since coming to KY from Kentuckians, is that this state is behind the times, especially when it comes to public health (heck, there was a bill last week trying to legalize unpasteurized milk in the state, for goodness sake!), and this measure would help show that Kentucky knows what it needs to do to ensure the health of its residents. (When I told Eric I had said this, he said, "Uh oh. Now you're anti-Kentucky." I freaked out, because even though I ended by saying this was a good thing, one might infer that I don't have high expectations. Especially as a carpetbagger. Except really, that IS how the rest of the country views Kentucky, and how Louisville views the rest of the state. Everyone at school also reacted with surprise to hear the bill had passed.)

-That my reference to "parts of the state where people don't have access to regular screening" refers to both the eastern and western ends of the state (although, in reality, 2/3 of KY's counties are medically underserved) where physicians are few and far between, and residents are either uninsured or underinsured -- all of which act as barriers to receiving preventive care.

-That if it were up to me, no required immunizations would have opt-out clauses, but I understand that the tradition in this country is to allow people to make their own choices. That said, I am disappointed in the fact that the opt-out clause included in this bill makes opting out of the HPV vaccine much easier than for any of the other required vaccines, and that at the very least, this vaccine should be treated the same way as all others. (The beginning of that statement was pretty sketchy, as I allowed my Holly-the-Healthcare-Dictator opinions to slip out, but I thought I ended strong.)

How did she end up calling me?
The day before, they ran this story, which said that more people in Kentucky oppose mandatory HPV vaccination than support it. It included this paragraph:

She [a poll respondent named Marie Mazzotta with an 11-year-old daughter] said Gardasil is unlike many other vaccines required for school attendance because it doesn't target a disease that can easily be spread in the classroom. Instead, it protects against strains of human papillomavirus that cause 70 percent of all cervical cancer cases and are only transmitted through sexual contact.

I emailed the reporter to say that I was critical of the fact that while the graf above and below that one were direct quotes from Mazzotta (crazy quotes, I might add), this one appeared without quotation marks, leading readers to the assumption that her statements are factual. In fact, they are not. Hepatitis B is a mandatory vaccine, doesn't target a disease that can be easily spread in the classroom (unless classrooms these days are full of drug-sharing addicts), and also protects against cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma). So instead of presenting Mazzotta's beliefs as facts, the story should have presented actual facts to dispute her beliefs. I actually have no problem with the paper quoting the crazies and their crazy talk, as long as their lies are refuted.

Here is how I would have conducted the interview with Mazzotta:
Me: Why don't you approve of the HPV vaccine?
Mazzotta: Because it doesn't target a disease that can be easily spread in classrooms, like measles. It targets a disease that can only be spread by having sex, and having sex is wrong!
Me: But didn't you vaccinate your daughter against hepatitis B at birth? Don't you know that the only way people get hepatitis B is by sharing dirty needles and having sex? Did you think that vaccinating your 1-day-old against a sexually transmitted disease would give her implicit permission to start sleeping around?
Mazzotta: Uh... duh... Sex is bad!

And that's what I would have printed. And that's why I don't work for newspapers anymore.

Oh, right -- the point of my story. So I emailed Laura Ungar yesterday to air my grievances, though in a much more professional manner, and she thanked me for my thoughts. Later in the day, when the story broke about the bill being passed, she emailed me to see if she could get my thoughts on the issue, so we had a nice phone chat around 6 pm. And thus history was made.

Note: Yesterday's story about the poll was written by the C-J medical reporter, Laura Ungar. She is who I emailed and who I spoke with last night. Deborah Yetter, who has the byline for today's story, is the government reporter. Ungar is given credit in the tagline of today's story.

Note 2: I was quoted in USA Today around this time last year regarding a visit by President Bush to Louisville. Maybe this is going to be my yearly event.