Recently, the push to mandate HPV vaccines has caused much debate in the media. While the opposition has passionately made a stand against mandating the vaccine, the time has come to make the right choice for society as a whole — mandate the vaccine.
Genital human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted malady, infecting 6.2 million people each year, and has already infected an estimated 20 million people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Also, HPV affects 50 percent of men or women at some point in their lives, according to the CDC.
Fortunately, 90 percent of the time, the body’s immune system fights off HPV within two years. But if the virus doesn’t clear, it can cause genital warts, cervical cancer, and cancer of the vulva, vagina, penis, anus and throat, according to the CDC.
Moreover, HPV is extremely contagious and can be passed from genital-to-genital contact. And since people have sex — and always will — the virus is bound to continue spreading without a vaccine.
Luckily, the vaccines Gardasil and Cervarix have been created, and the National Cancer Institute has called them “highly population.”
Some critics, particularly Republicans, have argued that mandating the vaccine would increase pre-marital sexual behavior, but this is not that case.
“I don’t think there’s any evidence that [getting vaccinated] supports sexual behavior,” Shirtcliff said.
Also, Shirtcliff noted that children should get vaccinated months before they are sexually active.
If the vaccine gets lumped in with others, children would never get the chance to consider the vaccine. As a matter of fact, parents do not even need to discuss what the vaccine does to children, so sex does not even need to be brought up.
Finally, the vaccines’ safety has been brought into question. Michele Bachmann claimed the vaccine could possibly cause mental retardation, according to ABC News.
But, of course, she was very, very wrong.