HPV of all forms is spread by contact. Warts you may have on your hands or elsewhere are caused by strains of HPV. Nearly all contract HPV of one form or another. It's ubiquitous. Most of the time a normal healthy immune system deals with it fine.
How do you know if or what strains, of hundreds, you've been exposed to? You don't unless you develop symptoms. For strains causing cervical cancer that can take years even decades and if you want the vaccine it's best to give it before risk of any exposure. The very reason annual pap smears are done is HPV.
Since the Perry debacle there's now a second HPV vaccine (Cervarex) but works against fewer strains than Gardasil.
I think a lot of people are squeamish about STD vaccines because they think it's a comment on their morals, their parenting or in some way gives permission to children to be sexual activity. It's none of those.
The way I see it is there's no way any of us can know if a daughter is going to be molested or raped by a pervert who happens to be a carrier.
I would not want to find out a vaccine may have prevented a cancer problem later and not have taken advantage of that preventative medicine.
“Since the Perry debacle there’s now a second HPV vaccine (Cervarex) but works against fewer strains than Gardasil.”
Fewer than four strains of HPV, eh? Because, that’s all Gardasil worked against. And the effectiveness against those four are somewhat questionable.