THE PUGLIA REGION AND THE VACCINE AGAINST HPV AND SYNCYTIAL VIRUS

Here is the link to a new video on the Puglia regional law concerning HPV vaccination:

 

The Puglia Region is concerned about our health. Very concerned. So much so that the first law enacted in 2024 sought to reassure the citizens of Puglia that “the Region protects public health as a fundamental right of the individual and of the community, and recognises the promotion of citizens' health as a priority, identifying vaccination as an indispensable tool of primary prevention”. Evidently, the Puglia Region intended to outdo the Constitution, which in Article 32 states that the Republic protects health as a fundamental right of the individual and an interest of the community, and guarantees free medical care to the indigent. The subtle conflation of individual right and community interest—that is, the interest of the politicians in office—is indicative of the perilous collectivist drift of our country, which this Apulian law once again demonstrates. To achieve the lofty goals they have set for themselves, Apulian politicians have introduced a broad scheme of individual invitations for vaccination against HPV—the human papillomavirus, a pathogen that usually causes no symptoms and resolves on its own, but which in some cases can lead to cervical lesions that, in rare instances, degenerate into tumours. It is worth emphasising that the HPV vaccine is not among those mandated by the notorious Lorenzin Law. In Italy, there are approximately 2,500 cases of this cancer per year (https://www.salute.gov.it/portale/tumori/dettaglioContenutiTumori.jsp?id=5539&area=tumori&menu=vuoto). Therefore, in Puglia, where around 7% of the Italian population lives, there should be roughly 175 cases a year.

Not content with their efforts to combat this scourge, Apulian legislators felt an urgent need to amend Law 1/2024. With a new law already passed and currently undergoing promulgation and publication in the Official Gazette of the Puglia Region, the Regional Council decided to raise the stakes and establish an extensive indoctrination programme aimed at young people aged between 11 and 25, designed to convince them of the immense benefits of HPV vaccination, in order to overcome any misgivings that might arise from the fact that, while the mortality rate for cervical cancer is 2.3 cases per 100,000 people, the rate of adverse effects of one of the main HPV vaccines stands at no less than 85 cases per 100,000.

For this reason, the valiant Apulian legislators decided to introduce a new concept: that of informed dissent. For the purposes of enrolment in schools or universities, the new Article 4-bis of Regional Law 1/2014 provides that parents of minors and students aged between 18 and 25 must submit, alternatively, documentation certifying vaccination, the initiation of the inoculation schedule, refusal of administration, or completion of an interview in which regional healthcare staff extol the virtues of the vaccine in question. Someone within the Puglia Regional Council must have realised that education is a right, that schooling is compulsory up to the age of sixteen, and that access to schools and universities is open to everyone—even to those who do not share the legislators' enthusiasm for the HPV vaccine. In the new Article 4-bis, a common-sense clause was therefore inserted: “save for formal refusal”.

Consequently, when Apulian parents or adult students apply for enrolment at a school or university and a zealous bureaucrat demands that they comply with the draconian provisions of the new law, they will be able to reply: “I formally refuse to provide any document concerning vaccination against the HPV virus or the refusal thereof”.

Why is it advisable to refuse to provide information?

The purpose of the law is to register and catalogue vaccine refuseniks, and whatever one’s views on the usefulness of this treatment, being registered like a herd of cattle is an appalling idea. Healthcare choices are individual and private; they concern neither the State nor the Region of Puglia. Furthermore, data concerning health and the administration of medicines cannot be processed by school or university staff (Article 2(2)(i) of the GDPR) because they are not professionals bound by professional secrecy, such as doctors, meaning that the processing of information concerning HPV vaccination would be unlawful in any event.

While they were at it, Apulian legislators slipped into the new law a provision that all newborns and infants must be vaccinated against respiratory syncytial virus (a generally harmless form of cold that in rare cases can cause complications). This is not a mandatory vaccination, as it is not included in the extensive schedule of the Lorenzin Law. Therefore, I advise all parents who do not wish to subject their children to this inoculation to be very vigilant and to notify maternity wards in writing that they prohibit the administration of the vaccine against syncytial virus.

Let us always bear in mind that these pearls of regional legislation certainly do not come free of charge. In order to bestow their wisdom upon the population, Apulian regional councillors pocket between 10,000 and 13,000 euros a month at the expense of hapless citizens, who are forced to fund a useless and harmful legislative body—just like all regional, national, and supranational parliaments. We do not need legislators. There are too many laws, nearly all of them useless, and a great many detrimental to citizens' freedom and property. The few that display common sense and deserve to be retained stem from a millennia-old legal tradition and were incorporated into the codes to make it seem as though they originated from the State, whereas they represent nothing more than the State's appropriation of a science—the law—of which it is the destroyer. As Bruno Leoni taught, laws cannot be created; they must be discovered through a long process of evolution.

The best government, as Thoreau said, is that which governs least, and an excellent government is one that does not govern at all. Let us hope that all legislators, in Puglia and beyond, adhere to this wise maxim.