If you look at the Gardasil FR threads from those days opposition fell largely into a couple camps: those who are anti-vaccine and those who believe the HPV vaccine was a commentary on the morals of their daughters.
You cannot have an effective opt-in vaccine health policy. The numbers of persons availing themselves are minuscule and do nothing for the public health. Insurance and gov't programs won't cover them. Mandatory vaccinations are nothing new. Neither is an opt-out policy.
Gardasil is so safe and effective it's been approved for males as well to combat several other cancers linked to the HPV strains it targets.
CDC says 7,500 U.S. men are newly diagnosed with HPV oral, genital or anal cancers yearly. CDC also says 12,000 American women are diagnosed with cervical cancer and 4,000 die each year.
I cannot imagine the world where you argue this is not a legitimate health issue when the vaccine can prevent 20,000 new cancer cases every year.
“Gardasil is so safe and effective it’s been approved for males as well to combat several other cancers linked to the HPV strains it targets.”
I’ve said it before, but when Gardasil first made news months ago (sometime last year, I think), a couple of doctors on one of the morning shows said positive and promising things but also said (at that time, anyway) that females needed to receive the vaccine in their teens to effectively protect them (for life), not wait until their adult years as that’s too late.
Now, maybe that’s changed but I’m just reporting what they said. Hence, that could also have been a factor for introducing it to girls that age in Texas.