With the 2012 presidential election looming, candidates are campaigning around the country; but one has been in the news lately, and not for her great speeches. Michele Bachmann made a disastrous comment during a Republican debate in Orlando last month.

   Rick Perry, current Govenor of Texas, is ordering all sixth grade girls to get the Gardasil vaccination, one of the two that may prevent HPV and Cervical Cancer.

   Bachmann said that at the debate, a Tampa, Fl. mother came up to her in tears, and told her that after being vaccinated with Gardasil, her daughter suffered from mental retardation. After speaking with the mother, Bachmann publicly said that Gardasil was a “very dangerous drug.”

   According to Gardasil’s website, there are several possible and common side effects of the vaccine. The side effects are based on several control groups the vaccine was administered to before the CDC ever approved it for use on boys and girls ages 11 to 26, in 2006. These side effects include pain, swelling, itching, bruising, and redness at the injection site, headache, fever, nausea, dizziness, vomiting and fainting. Every vaccination can have adverse effects, but that doesn’t mean they’re common, and only 0.05 percent of people vaccinated with Gardasil in the last five years have had any kind of side effects at all, even minor.

   There appeats to be absolutely no evidence linking mental retardation to Gardasil, but Michele Bachmann has released that rumor into the world, and apparently, the consequences are dire.

   Researchers say that every time a comment is made about a drug, whether it has any validity to it or not, it sets the amount of vaccinations back at least three years. That’s over 17 million people that will not be getting vaccinated by 2014, according to the numbers. Gardasil only prevents 70 percent of the more than 100 strains of HPV, and the risk of HPV in young people has sky rocketed.

   After her comment, Bachmann defended what she said at the debate, saying “I am not a doctor, I’m not a scientist, I’m not a physician. All I was doing is reporting what this woman told me last night at the debate …”

    But, the damage may already be done.