I believe that giving kids condoms encourages sex, mostly because it is an adult affirmation that you are expected to be having sex. Also, to the degree you might be scared of getting a girl pregnant or catching a disease, the condom removes that fear.
But I don’t buy that people are deciding not to have sex because of HPV. So I don’t think getting a vaccination that only protects you from half the HPV cases would change that equation.
I have never been impressed by Gardisil, but it is amazing the large number of women who end up getting HPV. Assuming Gardisil didn’t have side effects, and was effective, unless you were certain to marry someone who was a virgin, it might well be worthwhile to get vaccinated.
Virginia required HPV vaccinations for a while, I think they stopped. My daughter never got the vaccine, it’s up to her now since she’s 18.
I can’t remember gardasil being an issue when my daughter was in VA public schools (graduated h.s. in 2000). So if it was being given in VA, it had to be in the past decade. But I don’t think it’s your daughter or mine, who one presumes have high levels of common sense, that the mandate was effected.
I don’t necessarily have an opinion on gardasil, but I DO understand why a governor would sign a mandate, if that was what was required to make it available to poor, undereducated, no-hope-for-the-future, sexually active teens.
As a society we have a lot of work to do to turn around the current “culture” and, frankly, widespread lack of morals. But, I think this is quite a different issue.