# We could eliminate cervical cancer, but then more people might screw! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 18, 2005, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-could-eliminate-cervical-cancer-but-then-more-people-might-screw/299837 "2005-04-18T02:59:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-could-eliminate-cervical-cancer-but-then-more-people-might-screw/299837/21 "2005-04-18T11:29:14Z")
> [@DoctorJ](#): > > No, but occasionally my fury gets re-ignited. Well, I for one, am glad that you are still fury-iable. It means you haven’t lost your passion for knowledge and the truth. I hope you never lose it. I didn’t know that Cervical Cancer was essential a STD. HUH. Does this mean that the infector person, assuming male, has a higher shot of weiner cancer? I know there is testicular cancer…is their dick cancer? Or is it the conditions of the cervix that make it the perfect breeding ground for Really Bad Things? ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-could-eliminate-cervical-cancer-but-then-more-people-might-screw/299837/22 "2005-04-18T11:32:43Z")
> [@Little Nemo](#): > > But admit it - with the American people being so overwhelmingly anti-cancer, you have to admire the courage of those few willing to publically take a pro-cancer stance. Maybe someone should send this group a couple pallets of filterless camels. That might help channel their negative energy towards another negative energy and eventually take their breath away. ---
**Author:** ![calm\_kiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-could-eliminate-cervical-cancer-but-then-more-people-might-screw/299837/23 "2005-04-18T11:56:13Z")
> [@Little Nemo](#): > > But admit it - with the American people being so overwhelmingly anti-cancer, you have to admire the courage of those few willing to publically take a pro-cancer stance. I need a slap about the face from non Americans. I am fully able to accept that because I am kinda anti-doctor that I perceieve Americans to be doctor obsessed. But am I wrong? It seems to me that the more people are exposed to availability of tests etc the more they become obsessed with their health. I may be THE freak but the intensity of medical hysteria sometimes shown here is alien to me. Go to the doctor if you are sick. If you go to the doctor for millions of tests you will definitely end up sick. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-could-eliminate-cervical-cancer-but-then-more-people-might-screw/299837/24 "2005-04-18T12:00:27Z")
Let me preface this by saying - I am _not_ a member of the Religious Right. I’m a good liberal, like so many other Splendid Straight-Dopers. That said- _If_ you absolutely believe that it is your God-given mission on Earth to keep people from getting it on, wouldn’t you _want_ to promote the HPV vaccine? As one of the other posters pointed out, most people probably have never heard of it - or at least, don’t understand that it basically acts as a cancer-STD. That’s some scary shit. So if I were John Q. Nutjob, I’d try to get a message like this in every newspaper in the country: “The Coalition of Self-Righteous Nutjobs applauds the development of the HPV vaccine. HPV causes cervical cancer, which kills X number of women every year, and is primarily spread through sexual contact. We urge women in particular to get this vaccine - although, since the effectiveness of the vaccine is unproven, abstinence from sex before marriage remains the surest precaution against cervical cancer”. With a message like that, the nutjobs could sound compassionate while still scaring women. Now, more women know HPV exists, and the brimstone nuts manage to spread FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) about the vaccine without condemning it directly - the effectiveness is “unproven”, after all. So now women have something new to worry about, and if the nutjobs are “lucky” this sort of campaign can spark a run on what will presumably be, in the beginning, a relatively rare vaccine. The shortages, in turn, could cause additional women to become afraid - and from the Nutjob Right’s position, nothing looks better. Scaring women into doing what they want is what they’re all about, after all. Or maybe there’s something I’m missing here. This is how I’d play it if I were a nutjob - but then again, nutjobs don’t think as clearly as I do, by definition. 🙂 (Disclaimer: By “nutjob”, I mean the radical religious right, the people who believe in government-facilitated evangelicism. I have nothing against religious people of any stripe, so long as they don’t try to force their religious beliefs on my, my friends, or loved ones.) ---
**Author:** ![Telperien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@Telperien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperien)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-could-eliminate-cervical-cancer-but-then-more-people-might-screw/299837/25 "2005-04-18T12:11:12Z")
So these wackos basically think the mere practice of–gasp!–premarital sex is more harmful than cancer? Or am I processing this wrong? > [@](#): > > “Giving the HPV vaccine to young women could be potentially harmful, because they may see it as a licence to engage in premarital sex,” Maher claims, though it is arguable how many young women have even heard of the virus. That’s the same reasoning that keeps condoms and such away from people, because then they’ll have sex! Oh, no, what do we do? ---
**Author:** ![PinkMarabou](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ec9cab/32.png) [@PinkMarabou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PinkMarabou)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-could-eliminate-cervical-cancer-but-then-more-people-might-screw/299837/26 "2005-04-18T12:15:13Z")
> [@Shirley Ujest](#): > > I didn’t know that Cervical Cancer was essential a STD. HUH. Does this mean that the infector person, assuming male, has a higher shot of weiner cancer? I know there is testicular cancer…is their dick cancer? Or is it the conditions of the cervix that make it the perfect breeding ground for Really Bad Things? Unless you’re whooshing me here, this should answer that (and for anyone else who doesn’t know the specifics of this): Cervical cancer can start from HPV (also known as [Genital Warts](http://www.ashastd.org/stdfaqs/hpv.html)). But only a strain of it can/will turn into cancer. From my understanding that’s how MOST (not all) cases start. **DoctorJ** , do you have any further insight on this? ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-could-eliminate-cervical-cancer-but-then-more-people-might-screw/299837/27 "2005-04-18T12:37:29Z")
Cervical cancer is, in the vast, overwhelming majority of cases, a sexually transmitted disease. Specific subtypes of the human papillomavirus have been conclusively implicated in the development of precursor lesions (cervical dysplasia) and invasive cancer. These are different from the harmless types that cause skin warts. Beyond the abstinence-only/religious fundamentalists who are already opposing the vaccine, threats to its implementation will come from a variety of pseudo-scientific sources. There are the general anti-vaccine fearmongers, who will spread nonsense about the alleged dangers or uselessness of vaccines, including numerous “alternative medicine” advocates. Take for instance [this guy](http://www.mercola.com/2002/dec/11/cervical_cancer.htm), a purveyor of misinformation on many fronts. Note that one of the sources for this article is molecular biologist Peter “HIV Doesn’t Cause AIDS” Duesberg. :rolleyes: Some of the most at-risk individuals for cervical cancer come from lower-income groups, who will benefit from public funding for the vaccine. Don’t doubt that the abstinence-only politicians will try to block this. Beyond the public health reasons, it’d be wonderful if the vaccine received wide acceptance, for I eventually wouldn’t have to look at so many #&^$! Pap slides. **Jackmannii** , MD ---
**Author:** ![YWalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/6f9a4e/32.png) [@YWalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YWalker)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-could-eliminate-cervical-cancer-but-then-more-people-might-screw/299837/28 "2005-04-18T12:59:16Z")
The thing that gets me about this, though, is that even if you have a saintly teen who signs her abstinence contract and remains a virgin until she gets married — the deal is that she is eventually allowed to have sex once she’s married. And they’re willing to risk her life to cervical cancer, after she has waited until marriage before she went forth and got fruitful and multiplied, just like the bible said she should? In other words, deny care to people who need it because possibly some “undeserving” slatterns may take advantage of the care as well? Why, that would be like denying people information about contraception while they’re in school so that they would have the information to have only plan pregnancies once they’re married just so those sluts don’t use the information to avoid unwed pregnancies and STDs while they’re engaging in premarital sex. Oh, wait — we’re already doing that. ---
**Author:** ![zagloba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/977dab/32.png) [@zagloba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zagloba)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-could-eliminate-cervical-cancer-but-then-more-people-might-screw/299837/29 "2005-04-18T13:21:19Z")
Jesus F. Christ! Now they can team this up with abstinence programs’ discouraging of condom use to maximize death among the sexually active. Cervical cancer strikes women of childbearing age, so I assume it must frequently result in the woman being unable to bear a child. Seems to me that makes the banning of the vaccine an contraceptive act – don’t lots of these loonies oppose birth control? ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-could-eliminate-cervical-cancer-but-then-more-people-might-screw/299837/30 "2005-04-18T13:54:01Z")
Ray, people will fuck Ray. They’ll fuck to Iowa for reasons they can’t even fathom. They’ll fuck your driveway not knowing for sure why they’re doing it. They’ll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the fuck. Of course, we won’t mind if you fuck around, you’ll say. It’s only $20 per person. They’ll pass over the money without even thinking about it: for it is money they have and fucking they lack. And they’ll walk out to the bleachers; fuck in shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon. They’ll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they fucked when they were children and fucked their heroes. And they’ll watch the fucking and it’ll be as if they dipped their things in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they’ll have to brush them away from their faces. People will fuck Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been fucking. America has rolled by like an army of fuckers. It has been fucked like a blackboard, rebuilt and fucked again. But fucking has marked the time. This fuck, this game: it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh… people will fuck Ray. People will most definitely fuck. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-could-eliminate-cervical-cancer-but-then-more-people-might-screw/299837/31 "2005-04-18T13:55:07Z")
The point **YWalker** raised was exactly what bothered me (well, just one of the things that bothered me) about this story. Unless they’re advocating young women staying abstinate _after_ they’re married too then this reasoning makes absolutely no sense. It’s not like the act of marriage innoculates you against HPV. Sex maybe, but not HPV. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-could-eliminate-cervical-cancer-but-then-more-people-might-screw/299837/32 "2005-04-18T14:06:03Z")
This makes me sick. and yes, I blame the conservative Christians. I would very much like any of them to come in here and defend this. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-could-eliminate-cervical-cancer-but-then-more-people-might-screw/299837/33 "2005-04-18T14:07:54Z")
> [@SHAKES](#): > > Jeez, what amazes me is; “HOW MANY TIMES WILL IT TAKE BEFORE YOU REALIZE THAT ABSTINENCE DOES NOT WORK.” And even when kids take the issue of abstinence seriously, a lot of them define it narrowly to mean only “standard” vaginal intercourse. If i may refer to a [thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=307740) i started about this a few weeks ago: > [@](#): > > The latest study, published in the April issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health, found that teens pledging virginity until marriage are more likely to have oral and anal sex than other teens who have not had intercourse. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-could-eliminate-cervical-cancer-but-then-more-people-might-screw/299837/34 "2005-04-18T14:21:32Z")
Because, as every teenager and Bill Clinton know: sex is penis in vagina, nothing else counts ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-could-eliminate-cervical-cancer-but-then-more-people-might-screw/299837/35 "2005-04-18T14:25:14Z")
And let’s not forget that a girl can be virginal and still get raped. ---
**Author:** ![wonderwench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/35a633/32.png) [@wonderwench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonderwench)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-could-eliminate-cervical-cancer-but-then-more-people-might-screw/299837/36 "2005-04-18T14:27:07Z")
Q) Why are Evangelicals against premarital sex? A) It might lead to dancing. ---
**Author:** ![wonderwench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/35a633/32.png) [@wonderwench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonderwench)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-could-eliminate-cervical-cancer-but-then-more-people-might-screw/299837/37 "2005-04-18T14:28:27Z")
These people can always refrain from using the vaccines themselves. If others choose to use it, it is none of their bloody business. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-could-eliminate-cervical-cancer-but-then-more-people-might-screw/299837/38 "2005-04-18T15:03:46Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > And let’s not forget that a girl can be virginal and still get raped. The slut had it coming, walking around in that white blouse with a Peter Pan collar, knee-length plaid skirt, bobby sox, and penny loafers. She knew how hot that virgin look can make a guy and she was just begging for it. Bitch deserved whatever she got. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-could-eliminate-cervical-cancer-but-then-more-people-might-screw/299837/39 "2005-04-18T15:08:06Z")
> [@wonderwench](#): > > These people can always refrain from using the vaccines themselves. If others choose to use it, it is none of their bloody business. And yet in other threads your think other people’s lives are not only your business, but that you should have a say in the disposition of it. Hypocrite. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-could-eliminate-cervical-cancer-but-then-more-people-might-screw/299837/40 "2005-04-18T15:09:36Z")
> [@wonderwench](#): > > These people can always refrain from using the vaccines themselves. If others choose to use it, it is none of their bloody business. But you forget that, for folks like this, there _is_ no such thing as other people’s business. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-could-eliminate-cervical-cancer-but-then-more-people-might-screw/299837.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-could-eliminate-cervical-cancer-but-then-more-people-might-screw/299837.md?page=3)