If 75% of people of reproductive age are exposed to a virus, does the fact that it was not caught through "casual contact" really have any meaning in the overall scheme of things?

"About 8 billion dollars are spent annually on management of sequelae of HPV infections, primarily for the management of abnormal cervical cytology and treatment of cervical neoplasia. This exceeds the economic burden of any other sexually transmitted infection except human immunodeficiency virus." (source CDC)

Clearly there is a problem. Some of it might have to do with definitions. There is likely a wide area between "being in the same room with someone" contagious (smallpox) and "direct sharing of bodily fluids while having a small tear in the skin" contagious (HIV) and "who the hell knows but it almost never happens" contagious (Hansen's Disease aka Leprosy...which is probably caught through casual contact, but still rarely).

I agree that these distinctions can be complicated. I'm not specifically concerned with the HPV vaccine, although I think it was mishandled. No one should have been trying to mandate it in the first few months after it went on the market.

We are very, very fortunate to have the life-saving vaccines that we do.

But just because some people went off to an anti-vax extreme doesn't mean we have to back into the opposite corner, abandoning all common sense in the process.

Massive amounts of money are involved, and we all know what greed can do. So this: So the decisions regarding the need for a vaccine or a mandate should be driven by the CDC and/or the FDA, not Big Pharma.

Yeah, got it.

1 in 4 people in the US are infected with HPV which can lead to all sorts of health problems, not the least of which is cervical cancer. So forget the fact that it can be effectively treated by vaccination saving millions of lives and potentially billions in health care costs, let's send a big fuck-you to "big pharma", because it's not like you can get it by getting coughed on.

And the rate of cervical cancer was already plummeting because of the success of pap smears, which will continue to be necessary for strains of virus not covered under the vaccine.

http://www.cdc.gov/std/hpv/stdfact-hpv.htm

they have it. And they're only contagious through bodily fluids, like HIV.

Diseases like measles and mumps cause serious illnesses and are spread through casual contact.

Most people get over the flu with no lasting problems. Some will die from it. The same is true for pretty much everything else we vaccinate for. To say this isn't true without even explaining why is worthless gibberish.

Whether some people get over HPV without even knowing it isn't all that relevant to the over 25,000 people each year who will get cancer from it.

Unlike the HPV virus, which usually goes unnoticed.

In 2012 only 12,000 women were diagnosed with cervical cancer and most are caught in the early stages, due to the widespread use of pap smears. Pap smears have been a hugely successful public health advance.

So I don't know where you're getting your number.

http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/cervical/statistics/

I didn't limit the number to cervical cancer and I've already posted the link to where I got that "number" elsewhere in this thread.

17,500 + 9,300 = 26,800

and my children were always fully vaccinated except for the single vaccine their doctor stopped after they had reactions.

So I am definitely pro-vaccine.

I'm just not a vaccine fanatic.

You just use empty rhetoric like "Big Pharma" and "Big government" to incite distrust in a system that's serves the public's interests. Meanwhile the HPV vaccine has already reduced the rate of HPV infection by 56% in teen girls, even with people (you know, like you) who are stoking mistrust in the vaccine. And despite your attempts to minimize the impact of HPV, 10% of the people who are infected will develop health problems as a result. Over 25,000 people develop new cancers directly attributable to HPV every year, and cancer isn't the only health risk.

Despite your implications the HPV vaccine solely serves the greedy interests of "Big Pharma", the CDC actually provides a wealth of information on the subject which you conveniently fail to mention:

http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd-vac/hpv/vac-faqs.htm

all ten percent persist long enough to result in cancer.

Might wanna go back and read it again

Here's what I wrote:

Here's what you wrote:



So if you want to allow this strawman nonsense to stand, be my guest.

So it's ridiculous this is marketed/sold to them.

I have posted the scientific facts regarding this years ago.

So the vaccine SHOULD be marketed sold primarily to women over the age of 19 who are concerned about the risk of contracting the few strains of HPV the vaccine works for.

...the relentless barrage of deceptive advertising/propaganda. The kind that employs peer approval strategies like mass vaccinations in response to exaggerated 'danger'.

I have always been mystified that a community dedicated to social progress would so readily embrace the shallow and ineffective model of free-market medicine. And insist it is because "science" is on their side.



.

as you point out, this is the first vaccine mandated for a disease not spread readily in the public square (hepb is in the same category). the job of public health officials is to protect us from contagious diseases we may be exposed to without even realizing it.

now that the government has established that their criteria are now different for mandates, what is to stop them from requiring any vaccine or treatment that they want to because it is in "the public good"?

those worried about overintrusion and personal bodily autonomy should be very concerned.