It's important to realize that Gardasil (the HPV vaccine that's available right now) only helps to prevent 4 types of HPV. It's recommended for girls ages 11-26 because those are the only ages that have been tested. What they don't tell you, though, is that those tests only used a few thousand women and didn't last long enough to test the REAL effects of this vaccine (4 years was the longest amount of time tested). Also, the control group wasn't all given a true placebo. The tests surrounding this vaccine are tenuous at best, and the government is being really hasty in recommending it for little girls. Did you know that Texas requires all girls entering 6th grade to get this vaccine now? How do we know that, in 10 years, this vaccine won't be CAUSING cancer?
On the other hand, something like 75% of Americans ages 18-30 have HPV now, and it can be spread even with condoms. There's no easy answer here.
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It's important to realize that Gardasil (the HPV vaccine that's available right now) only helps to prevent 4 types of HPV. It's recommended for girls ages 11-26 because those are the only ages that have been tested. What they don't tell you, though, is that those tests only used a few thousand women and didn't last long enough to test the REAL effects of this vaccine (4 years was the longest amount of time tested). Also, the control group wasn't all given a true placebo. The tests surrounding this vaccine are tenuous at best, and the government is being really hasty in recommending it for little girls. Did you know that Texas requires all girls entering 6th grade to get this vaccine now? How do we know that, in 10 years, this vaccine won't be CAUSING cancer?
On the other hand, something like 75% of Americans ages 18-30 have HPV now, and it can be spread even with condoms. There's no easy answer here.
March 1, 2009 - 10:48amThis Comment
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