The interesting part is that only 1/3 of teenaged girls have received the full series of shots. The article suggests that sexually active girls (the ones most at risk for infection) may be seeking out the vaccine in greater numbers, which may account for the larger-than-expected reduction in cases. I suspect something else, too: because they are immune, if the are exposed to an infected partner, they won’t be transmitting that infection to any new partners (who then won’t transmit it to anyone else).
In all seriousness, if Michael Douglas had gotten the vaccine many many years ago, perhaps he would not have developed throat cancer. This points to the need for vaccinating boys as well as girls. Maybe this ought to be as universal as vaccines for tetanus or pertussis?
A few points:
Why do you believe the average person would want to fuck everyone in town once the risk of disease is gone? Is that what you would do if you got immunized?
If the risk of disease is truly gone, and the risk of pregnancy is minimized due to effective birth control, why is promiscuity such a horrible thing?
As an aside, the HPV vaccine doesn’t mean the risk of disease is gone. It’s still possible to contract AIDS, herpes, chlamydia, syphilis, gonorhea, pubic lice, and probably a bunch of other diseases.
Ya got whooshed Elf. The blue-noses always trot out “…but that will encourage kids to screw even more!” any time something is introuduced that makes screwing simply less lethal.
Needless to say, I won’t be mentioning the low sex appeal of the droves of autistic zombies who got the DPV vaccine, and their resulting abstinence resulting in skewed numbers.
Gardasil is approved for men and boys, and the CDC recommends that males 11-21 be vaccinated. The vaccine is approved for men through age 26. (AFAIK there’s no additional danger to getting it past that age, it’s just than an adult man who’s been sexually active for several years has likely already been exposed to HPV.)
I hope this doesn’t just prove to be a temporary dip, with the vacant HPV 16/18 niche soon to be filled in by other high-risk HPV types not covered by any of the current vaccinations. But when we’re talking about cancer, even a temporary decrease is a good thing!
Unless there’s some advantage to the virus in causing cancer (and I can’t imagine what that would be), presumably the niche will be just as likely to be filled by non-cancer-causing strains of HPV.
Reported for forum change.