Rhode Island mandates HPV vaccine for seventh-graders

This is not a communicable disease, so why is the State involved??

HPV most certainly is a communicable disease. You can only get a virus from someone who is infected with it.

I was surprised that boys are being pushed to get the vaccine too now. I declined at my son's 12 y/o well visit b/c I was unaware and wanted to research it more.

I am in New York and a couple months later I received a stern letter from the Department of Health that they KNEW what I had done. :/

But youth who are not having sex are not at risk. That being said, HPV is a direct contact infection. If you come into contact with HPV, via a contact to a ‘glandular/secretory area of your anatomy’, you will get the HPV. I once asked a researcher why guys aren't tested for HPV and was told the Dr would have to swab the whole male genital area. HPV is only detected if the actual infected area is swabbed. Gyn HPV is not detected in a blood test. HPV Gyn testing is done on cells in the vial from which the pap is taken, I.E., the specimen is basically centrifuged and the cell sediment creates the slide with the cells that may exhibit the virus. Just FYI-no daughter of mine would be getting Gardasil......at least not until the long term side effects are well established.

My student paper was on women with high grade dysplasia (the immediate precursor to cervical cancer) in women under 20. I had one case where a nineteen year old had full blown cervical cancer. She also had 4 children already.

So sorry to enlighten you, but this vaccine was tested on young women 25 and older.

In order to sell a drug for use in patients of a particular age group, the drug must be tested in that age group. The FDA will not approve any drug for use in an age group in which it was not tested.

Maybe kids should be discouraged from having sex at 12??

I don't think many people are encouraging kids to have sex at age 12 (unless they are Planned Parenthood operatives). The HPV vaccine must be administered to virgins in order to have the best chance of preventing future HPV infection; the probability that a 12 year old is still a virgin is very high as opposed to (for example) an 18 or 20 year old.

Some young women have died after this vaccine.

There is no verifiable or credible evidence that anyone has died from this vaccine. The "evidence" comes from anti-vax groups who do not want anyone to be protected from any disease. You might want to look into the history of anti-vax groups--their objections to vaccines always were based on the belief that God wants us to die from infectious diseases, and to prevent the diseases that would have otherwise occurred is to thwart the will of God. There is no reason to think that the motivation of current anti-vaxxers is any different (even if they appeal to "nature" rather than to God).

And yes, around 75% of the cervical cancers are from a couple of the HPV strains, but if you know anything about viruses......they always mutate.

It is my profession to know about viruses. Papillomaviruses are DNA viruses, which do not mutate as fast or as easily as RNA viruses such as influenza. The fact that 75% of cervical cancers are caused by only a couple of the >100 existing strains of HPV means that a lot of cancer can be prevented with a simple vaccination.

And the other 25% of cervical cancers can still be deadly.

The other oncogenic strains of HPV do not progress to cancer as rapidly as strains 16 and 18 in causing cancer. Some of them might not ever progress to a full cancer in every person who is infected. The vaccines protect against strains 16 and 18, which are known to progress rapidly to cancer.

From 18-49, now only once every 3 years. Age 49-65, only once every 5 years. And after 65, only if you have symptoms.

No offense, but that doesn't even make sense. The whole premise of PAP tests is to catch the cancer or pre-cancer before symptoms occur--which would negate the very purpose of waiting until there are symptoms before doing a PAP test in women over 65.

And I have to say that I am very happy that I will not have to have another PAP test for 5 years. Even though I was treated for an early cervical cancer when I was in my 20s, I was recently tested negative for HPV and will not have to have another PAP for 5 years. It is difficult to express just how much I hate and resent PAP tests, and how much joy I feel at not having to undergo one of those demeaning and violating tests again for 5 years. All of the indications are that the new guidelines are science-based, not based on a desire to limit healthcare expenditures. I am very aware that limiting costs by limiting care is a fundamental premise of Obamacare, but my opinion as a medical professional is that the new guidelines are science-based.

maybe kids should be schooled to be more chaste

Honestly... when, throughout human history, has enforcing chastity ever been successful? In Muslim countries, the penalty (at least for girls) for extra-marital relations is death... if the threat of execution is not sufficient to ensure virginity, then what *is* sufficient?

Keep in mind, the kids getting vaccinated against HPV have no clue that the major mode of transmission of oncogenic HPV is sexual. All they know is what their parents and the doctors tell them...that the vaccine will protect them from some cancer.

I hate it when the government does something to me for my own good.

According to government, even the most harmful edicts are "for your own good". A government that can force you to do something "helpful" (relax, perfectly safe, very small chance you will be one of the ones to become sick/crippled/dead from the potential side effects) can also force you to do something detrimental.

The "evidence" comes from anti-vax groups who do not want anyone to be protected from any disease. You might want to look into the history of anti-vax groups--their objections to vaccines always were based on the belief that God wants us to die from infectious diseases, and to prevent the diseases that would have otherwise occurred is to thwart the will of God. There is no reason to think that the motivation of current anti-vaxxers is any different (even if they appeal to "nature" rather than to God).

There are plenty of people today who don't oppose vaccination in general but who oppose particular vaccinations on moral grounds (made from aborted fetal stem lines) or medical grounds (the particular adjuvants used) or just a cost-benefit analysis (i.e. letting a kid just get chicken pox instead of the varicella vax).

When you start talking about mandatory vaccines, you are taking the choice away from the parents and putting it in the hands of a bureaucrat. So you are not only signing up for the full vaccination schedule now, you are signing up for any schedule that the "experts" deem necessary in the future. If you push for mandatory ones now....what, pray, are you going to do when there's something about the official schedule that you don't like?

I was arguing once online with a person who turned out to work for the vaccine industry. Even SHE had to admit that although she vaccinated, she did not follow the CDC guidelines in full but selectively chose what was appropriate for her children.

‘In order to sell a drug for use in patients of a particular age group, the drug must be tested in that age group. The FDA will not approve any drug for use in an age group in which it was not tested’

Nope. This one was tested in France and the group tested were all mid-twenties.

’ Papillomaviruses are DNA viruses, which do not mutate as fast’

But they still mutate.

‘Some of them might not ever progress to a full cancer’

Trust me. We were diagnosing cervical cancer before HPV exploded. The reason HPV exploded was the sexual revolution of the 60’s. When I started in my field, HPV was the newest thing. Before HPV, many in the medical community thought cervical cancer was caused by Herpes.

‘I hate and resent PAP tests, and how much joy I feel at not having to undergo one of those demeaning and violating tests again for 5 years’

Well then I hope you do not develop a uterine cancer after you are 65. You will not survive uterine cancer if you wait until you have symptoms to have your pap smear. We fought hard to be able to have yearly pap smears. And of course, it is a cost cutting measure.......it's run by the Government.

‘when, throughout human history, has enforcing chastity ever been successful’

Did I say enforce? I said it should be emphasized. Some kids actually listen to their parents and religious role models. Some don't. Doesn't hurt to tell them all about the risks of early sexual contact, does it?

This should not be mandatory.....ever. For those who want their children to have this vaccination, fair enough. But do not tell me that ALL kids will be at risk for HPV. It doesn't have to be that way.

There are plenty of people today who don't oppose vaccination in general but who oppose particular vaccinations on moral grounds (made from aborted fetal stem lines) or medical grounds (the particular adjuvants used) or just a cost-benefit analysis (i.e. letting a kid just get chicken pox instead of the varicella vax).

If a particular vaccine is made using a cell line originally derived from an aborted baby, you can often find another manufacturer that has a different formulation, made using another cell line. You certainly have the right to insist that you or your children receive a more ethically produced vaccine.

Note: vaccines made using cell lines derived from aborted babies do not, in fact, require the killing of more babies to produce the vaccine. Once a cell line is established, it can be maintained indefinitely.

If you care about fetal cows, however, you will have issues with many vaccines, since serum extracted from fetal cows is a common component of cell culture media. Fetal cows are harvested when their mothers are slaughtered.

I should point out that vaccine researchers are, in fact, aware of the objections to using cells derived from an aborted baby to produce vaccines. Many researchers test the suitability of a range of cell lines to find the ones with the best characteristics for growing a specific vaccine virus, and avoid using the aborted baby cell lines. For vaccines that are already approved, however, it is not a trivial matter to change the cell lines used for viral growth. Any vaccine produced using a different cell line than the one used for the FDA approved vaccine has to be rigorously tested and shown to be equal in safety and efficacy before the FDA will allow it to be sold and used.

Even from a cost-benefit analysis, any vaccine is a better choice than the disease. Compare the cost of a chicken pox vaccination--around $80 to $100, according to the CDC--with the cost of doctor visits, medicines, and staying home from work to care for a sick child. Chicken pox kills only rarely, but it can have permanent disabling effects and is more likely to kill or disable unborn babies than school age children (because babies essentially do not have immune systems, which develop after birth and continue developing until the teen years). In addition, once a person gets chicken pox, the virus moves into nerve cells and stays there forever. Everyone who has had chicken pox carries the virus, and about 1 out of 3 will develop shingles at least once.

When you start talking about mandatory vaccines, you are taking the choice away from the parents and putting it in the hands of a bureaucrat. So you are not only signing up for the full vaccination schedule now, you are signing up for any schedule that the "experts" deem necessary in the future. If you push for mandatory ones now....what, pray, are you going to do when there's something about the official schedule that you don't like?

The recommended vaccine schedule is not just a matter of individual health, but of population health. The Supreme Court already ruled, decades ago, that mandatory vaccination is constitutional.

The thing about public health is that it overrides any individual "rights." You do not, for example, have the "right" to drive your car on crowded sidewalks, or to disobey inconvenient traffic laws. By the same measure, you do not have the "right" to expose others to communicable infectious disease. In certain cases, you can be confined or forcibly quarantined if you are ill and deemed to present a danger to others.

PS-MOST vaccines are for easily communicable diseases....sneezing, etc. To contract HPV, a person has to come into contact with the virus....skin to ‘open wound’ type skin. Wart to secretory area. It CAN be avoided. And yes, I know there are flat lesions that aren’t apparent to the naked eye. That’s why kids should be warned about the possibility of contracting HPV from someone who may ‘look’ healthy.

Another thing that is not being brought out here is that even if you test positive for HPV, that doesn’t mean you will develop cervical cancer. If a pap test comes back positive for HPV, the warts can be removed by freezing the area.