There was a huge fight in this country to even get any HPV vaccines into trials, never mind actually given to people.
There was a huge fight in this country to even get any HPV vaccines into trials, never mind actually given to people. Why? Sex. The vaccine was going to make everyone a sex monster who couldn't stop doing icky things to themselves and others because now there would be nothing to scare them away from having sex. THINK OF THE CHILDREN who are all going to be having sex and other people will be having sex with them and OMG SODOM AND GOMORRAH THE WORLD WILL END.
I presume you are all listing the endless list of stupid as you read this.
There are similar arguments to the ones mentioned in this article about whether or not a vaccine is efficacious enough to justify spending money on giving it to everybody or making that recommendation that have been used to prevent the vaccine from being available to adults in this country. However, as we know from science, even scientists are influenced by emotional non-science thinking in formulating their approaches and decisions around things. It is important to know that one of the compromises that was made about getting the vaccines into trials was not testing adults. Rationales included that well, everybody has probably been exposed already.
While that is true (there's a more precise science thing there but for colloquial values true is a sufficient statement), when was the last time you heard someone say don't give that kid a vaccine because they've probably already been exposed to [pathogen]? Ok, maybe chicken pox. But they're pushing the Shingles vaccines very hard because it turns out that that latent herpes virus likes to pop out later as something even nastier. Same virus, different vaccines, but you need another vaccine to prevent the later illness caused by the virus hanging around in your body. Gee, I wonder why I mention this example, HPV, cough.
Not even gonna mention all the vaccines we've realized may result in waning immunity once the diseases are mostly controlled due to vaccination programs. #irony
Also, just for the heck of it, you can have repeatedly negative cervical smears by DNA testing for HPV and they STILL will not let you get the HPV vaccine series if you are over whatever our arbitrary age thing is. Also also, note that this is about wimmin. Dudes don't have cervixes. So we, like, never test them for HPV without something already suggesting we're way late to the game.
Know what else is not thinking? Chances are high that most people had been exposed to polio and smallpox and other scary things, even if they had not become actively ill, and yet we vaccinated EVERYBODY who had not been actively ill when those vaccines came out. Why? Well, people died. Nobody dies from HPV cancers, right?
So, yeah. We've got a vaccine series people. We need to flipping use it. You need a new trial to prove that there's a reason to spend a few hundred dollars per person? Fine. But other than safety and dosing concerns, which we've kinda already addressed, you better have an awfully good reason for telling me that there aren't enough people with HPV cancer to innoculate everyone.
Oh, and maybe now that (straight, white) men are dying, we might see that change in attitude toward this vaccine. What, me cynical? Never!
https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/23/health/hpv-boys-girls-vaccine-debate-intl/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/23/health/hpv-boys-girls-vaccine-debate-intl/index.html
I presume you are all listing the endless list of stupid as you read this.
There are similar arguments to the ones mentioned in this article about whether or not a vaccine is efficacious enough to justify spending money on giving it to everybody or making that recommendation that have been used to prevent the vaccine from being available to adults in this country. However, as we know from science, even scientists are influenced by emotional non-science thinking in formulating their approaches and decisions around things. It is important to know that one of the compromises that was made about getting the vaccines into trials was not testing adults. Rationales included that well, everybody has probably been exposed already.
While that is true (there's a more precise science thing there but for colloquial values true is a sufficient statement), when was the last time you heard someone say don't give that kid a vaccine because they've probably already been exposed to [pathogen]? Ok, maybe chicken pox. But they're pushing the Shingles vaccines very hard because it turns out that that latent herpes virus likes to pop out later as something even nastier. Same virus, different vaccines, but you need another vaccine to prevent the later illness caused by the virus hanging around in your body. Gee, I wonder why I mention this example, HPV, cough.
Not even gonna mention all the vaccines we've realized may result in waning immunity once the diseases are mostly controlled due to vaccination programs. #irony
Also, just for the heck of it, you can have repeatedly negative cervical smears by DNA testing for HPV and they STILL will not let you get the HPV vaccine series if you are over whatever our arbitrary age thing is. Also also, note that this is about wimmin. Dudes don't have cervixes. So we, like, never test them for HPV without something already suggesting we're way late to the game.
Know what else is not thinking? Chances are high that most people had been exposed to polio and smallpox and other scary things, even if they had not become actively ill, and yet we vaccinated EVERYBODY who had not been actively ill when those vaccines came out. Why? Well, people died. Nobody dies from HPV cancers, right?
So, yeah. We've got a vaccine series people. We need to flipping use it. You need a new trial to prove that there's a reason to spend a few hundred dollars per person? Fine. But other than safety and dosing concerns, which we've kinda already addressed, you better have an awfully good reason for telling me that there aren't enough people with HPV cancer to innoculate everyone.
Oh, and maybe now that (straight, white) men are dying, we might see that change in attitude toward this vaccine. What, me cynical? Never!
https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/23/health/hpv-boys-girls-vaccine-debate-intl/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/23/health/hpv-boys-girls-vaccine-debate-intl/index.html
Pretty sure it’s what killed my grandfather. Not that I would dare to explain my rationale for that to most of my family members.
ReplyDeleteThat kind of thing makes me incredibly sad.
ReplyDeleteMe, too. For many reasons, one of the more minor of which is that so many people would be appalled at the notion that a twenty-something single man farther away from home than he had ever imagined was even possible, in the middle of a war too big and horrible to wrap one’s mind around, might possibly have, y’know, HAD SEX at some point in his years in the Pacific theater. He wouldn’t even meet my grandmother until he got back, ffs.
ReplyDelete