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When it comes to vaccine intervention for disease control, should personal liberty go before the benefit to society?
This question is extremely important when one considers current news on the Human Papillomavirus vaccine. The main vaccine, Gardasil, has been widely used on women ages 9-26 since its introduction in 2006. The vaccine first made waves in 2007 when Texas governor Rick Perry issued an executive order to mandate the vaccine for all young women in Texas. Even though it was met with much opposition and ultimately failed, the question still remained: should we have a mandatory HPV vaccine for all women? The two sides of the argument clash, each bringing significant evidence to bear on the issue. Mathematical models indicate that with a vaccine as effective as this one (about 100%), mandating the vaccine will stamp out the virus types targeted by the vaccine. HPV is the most common STI with 45% of college age women currently infected. Freeing society of such a dangerous virus, the number one cause of cervical cancer, is a highlight of the pro-mandate argument. The opposition suggests that personal liberty is at stake, and that parents should have the choice to vaccinate their children if they believe the vaccine is worth it for them. What do you think? Is it reasonable to limit personal liberty for the good of the community in the face of a spreading killer virus?
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Clinton French
Also, the proposal that it be mandated for women is based on the fact that HPV causes a huge risk for cervical cancer, which men cannot get (for obvious reasons). People ask why not make males get it too, but I ask why not mandate it for all women. If a lot men get the vaccine and women still get HPV, then it doesn't help reduce cervical cancer risks, right? And therefore vaccination is less useful if the non-vaccinated women still get HPV and subsequently cervical cancer , right?
Srdjan Kamenko 50+
Source: http://www.cdc.gov/std/hpv/STDFact-HPV-and-men.htm
We can think of a situation in which both men and women get vaccinated, that way the woman are protected against cervical cancer while the men are 1) stopped from giving it to them (for the most part) 2) protected against the majority of genital warts types.
Boki Zelen
Kevin McNaught
Men can experience genital warts, as well as anal, throat, and penile cancer from HPV infection.
Source: http://www.cdc.gov/std/hpv/stdfact-hpv-and-men.htm
Part of the motivation behind the CDC recommendation for vaccinating men was that so few women, less than 1/3, had been vaccinated and that it would aid in halting spread of the infection to females.
Source: http://www.aafp.org/online/en/home/publications/news/news-now/health-of-the-public/20111026acip-hpv-hepb.html