Well there have been few developments and clarifications since Monday’s debate.  They are as follows:

Bachmann continued to slam Rick Perry on the morning shows over the mandated vaccination issue.  She added testimony this time.  On the Today show Bachmann said a women approached her after the debate to say that her daughter became mentally retarded after getting the shot.  By the way the shot is the drug Gardasil and is for the human papillomavirus or HPV; a virus know to cause cervical cancer.

There are several issues with Bachmann’s story.  First and foremost the American Academy of Pediatrics as well as other medical agencies have since made statements that Gardasil in no way causes mental retardation or any mental illness.  The bigger issue, in my mind, is the vagueness with Bachmann’s story.  She implied that the women was forced to get the shot for her daughter under the Perry mandate in Texas.  At the very least she did not clarify when the issue was brought up.  It would have been as simple as saying “yes the woman was from Texas” or “no she voluntarily got the shot.”  Bachmann did neither and let the interviewer and audience accept the implication that the girl was a victim of the Texas mandate.  The problem, the Texas state legislature struck down Gov. Perry’s executive order mandating all girls be vaccinated by the age of 14, a week after he signed it.  No one in Texas was ever vaccinated under Perry’s government mandate. Always hard to say a politician is lying.  Willfully disseminating false information is almost impossible to prove.  However if I was forced to make a judgement on Bachmann’s story I would feel comfortable enough to ring her up as pants on fire.

The web site politifact actually uses those type ratings on statements of politicians.  Here is their site: truth-O-meter

There was also an issue with the number of children Bachmann claims from one debate to the next.  In early debates she talked about 23 children, last night only 3.  Turns out she has 5 natural children and had over 20 foster children.  The reason she only mentioned 3 last night, she was referring to her three girls who would have had to get the vaccination under the Perry mandate.  Her two natural boys would not have and of course she would not have been authorized to vaccinate the foster kids, or so I’m told.  So apparently the number of children she has at any one time is directly related to the point scoring she needs during a debate in which she is trashing Rick Perry.

Speaking of Mister Perry, he has some bigger problems revolving around this vaccination.  It seems his statement about how much the drug company donated to him was slightly off.  People who check these sorts of things are still digging but estimates are in the neighborhood of $250,000.  So apparently the pharmaceutical company Merck, run in Texas by Perry’s former chief of staff now Merck lobbyist Mike Toomey, donated a sum much larger than the $5000 Perry claimed.  Oh yeah, Merck also makes Gardisil, the drug that would have been used for the Texas mandated vaccinations.  Imagine that.  No need to dig up Perry Mason for this case, even Stevie Wonder can see where this is going.

Can’t wait for the next debate.