Why did Gov. Rick Perry reverse his pre-election position and issue an outrageous executive order mandating that all girls in the sixth grade receive the human papilloma virus vaccine?

This action took place without a single word of public debate and appears to be a corporate welfare program for Merck, the creator of the vaccine, and will be paid for at the expense of Texas schoolgirls who will be the guinea pigs for this unproven treatment.

Pharmaceutical companies spend hundreds of millions of dollars to lobby politicians for legislation, which will give them financial benefits. Merck's lobbying efforts on Gov. Perry have paid off handsomely. The HPV vaccine has been coined Merck's "How to Pay for Vioxx." Merck manufactured Vioxx, an anti-arthritic drug, which was pulled from the market in 2004 because it had caused 125,000 heart attacks. In lawsuits, Merck was found to have withheld information about the cardiac dangers of Vioxx from the FDA, physicians and patients. In the first of many trials, the jury found Merck guilty of knowingly causing harm and awarded punitive damages amounting to $254 million. Merck lost billions in profits when their corrupt behavior was exposed.

Merck developed a plan to recoup their losses. They organized a strategy to have state governments mandate their HPV vaccine. They contributed to medical organizations and to a group, called Women in Government, to buy support for the mandatory vaccination program, and hired lobbyists to swarm the state capitols across the nation, pushing this legislation. Until now, Merck's efforts had been rejected, but with the help of Gov. Perry's executive order, Merck bypassed the Texas Legislature.

The cost of each vaccination is $360. Perry's mandate will generate more than $100 million every year for Merck in Texas and, if adopted nationwide, would generate billions more each year.

According to the British medical journal The Lancet, the vaccine is only effective for 4-1/2 years. A booster injection will be needed every five years. You can count on Merck to lobby to have this booster shot mandated and paid for with tax dollars. The HPV vaccine only protects against 4 of the 127 strains of HPV. Merck admits in its own literature that it did not prove the vaccine would prevent cancer.

The average age of a woman with cervical cancer is 48. The effectiveness or dangers of this vaccine will not be known for at least a decade. Cervical cancer results in just 3,700 deaths nationally every year compared with heart disease which kills over 300,000 women annually. These facts coupled with the Vioxx fiasco make the motivation and competency of Merck highly suspect. This decision is not based on science but upon personal power, profit and politics. Texans need to think twice before having this vaccine administered to their daughters.

No public emergency existed for Gov. Perry to have assumed dictatorial powers and mandated this vaccine. Perry's arbitrary decision sets a dangerous precedent.

British statesman Lord Acton's words warn us, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Dr. Steven F. Hotze is the president of both the Conservative Republicans of Harris County and the Conservative Republicans of Texas.