corrvin | HPV vaccine: a disturbing comparison.

So, the big debate raging these days is about giving our kids the HPV vaccine.

The vaccine is "recommended" for female people ages 9-26, having been tested on people of that age range. It's been found to be 100% effective in trials-- that is, of the thousands of female people to whom it was given, NOT ONE contracted HPV, where some of the control group did, over the course of 16+ months.

Now, here's my question. If the vaccine has been tested on 9 year olds, and HPV is sexually transmitted, wouldn't that imply that for a 9 year old to get it, they'd have to have sexual contact? Is the "no infections" result because the vaccine is effective, or because the children in question weren't having any sexual contact for the year or two during which the study went on? The same thing applies with the 16 year old girls in the later studies-- not every teenaged girl is sexually active and having intercourse!

We don't know anything about the longevity of the protection, about side effects on future fertility, about effects on the rest of a growing girl's body. Now I've seen a lot of folks protesting that having this protection will make girls more likely to have unprotected sex. I don't think this is the case, but I don't think it's fair to compare it to contraceptive availability and sex education-- those things are meant to give teenagers CONTROL over their own sexuality, and help them protect themselves even if their parents aren't ready for them to be doing what they're doing. I don't think that forcing every girl to get a series of shots is giving her CONTROL over her sexuality at all, I think it's telling her that we don't trust her to make a good decision about her sexuality, and so we're going to push her into that world long before her body makes that decision for her. It's the OPPOSITE of contraceptive information and sex ed.

So, an act of questionable safety is being promoted to us as "good for" our girls' sexuality, and we're swallowing it whole*. And we claim not to know what impulse makes parents take their little girls in for genital mutilation?

*Yes, I'm aware that "this vaccine is good for girls" is a matter of opinion, and you may feel that it's sufficiently proved that you wish to give it to your girls or take it yourself. You're free to feel that way and I'm free to feel that it's a Bad Thing to do, and as long as it's not a mandatory vaccine, we can both do our own thing, hey? Freedom of choice, that's what it's all about.