Mandatory HPV Vacc?

I'm fine with mandatory vaccinations for school against deadly diseases that can be transmitted by casual contact.
HPV is not one of those diseases. It is an STD. I taught my kid how to avoid STD's. I don't need the school mandating that she be vaccinated against one.

ETA: It's not about "sexualizing middle schoolers" or even "morals." I would feel the same if, instead of the the HPV vaccine, it was a vaccine against tooth decay.

Only in America do people let their personal beliefs about sex and politics get in the way of hard science and health. I feel so sorry for these innocent kids being raised by such ignorant, uneducated women :-(

Not only NO but HE$$ NO!!!

Too many deaths associated with it. Neither of my boys will. My daughter is of legal age, so if she wants to do it, fine. It's her body.

I'm all for vaccinations - just not this one.

Not a chance in hell that my kids are getting that vaccine. Rick Perry tried to push that through in Texas and there was quite a bit of fallout, and rightly so. There is no reasonable basis for mandating a vaccine for a disease that is not passed by casual contact (and which is cleared by most people's immune systems over time without any symptoms or lingering health issues).

@ Mel R cervical cancer is one of the most easily detected and, when detected early through routine exams, treatable cancers out there. This is not, contrary to the marketing, a cancer vaccine. It's a vaccine for a few strains of a virus that are sometimes one of causes of cervical, anal and throat cancers. Marketing this as a cancer vaccine carries the risk of women not getting pap smears as often as they should because they now think they are "immune" to cervical cancer. An HPV vaccine is NOT a cancer vaccine.

@ Mamazita, only is America are "science" and "health" bought and sold by the pharmaceutical companies who put profits above safety.

I am pro vaccine and I have participated in all vaccines for our daughter as she grew up with the normal vaccines. We opt out of flu vaccine.

However, there is no way in hell she will get the Guardisil vaccine. At this point, she is past the age of being "required" by school because she turns 20 in Dec.

I do not feel like it has been tested enough, some children who get it have very bad side effects and some have died.

My personal opinion is: you do not need this extra vaccine if you are proactive with your health and maintain your preventative care. However, is someone never gets preventative care, does not take a proactive approach with their health, then maybe they are an ok candidate for this vaccine and can out dumb themselves.

I have seen in past questions about Guardisil that it is viewed as a "gift" to their children. Well, I don't know what that "gift" will do to my child long term so we do not consider it a gift.

I am SO glad we are past the point of facing this issue with our Dr.'s. and schools. My Ob/Gyn has 3 girls and he said there was no way he was making his girls guinea pigs.

i'm fine with most vaccines. i'm NOT fine with ones that are new, unproven and hinky as hell. and there have been a lot of issues with the HPV vaccine for a very low return.
i'd kick back on this one (and chicken pox, and flu.)
ETA 'science, people' should include an admonition to find out as much as you can about the actual pros and cons of a vaccine (to the degree you can in a money-saturating industry) and weighing your options thoughtfully, not just running screaming OR cheerfully accepting everything 'science' tells you is 'good.'

khairete
S.

There is no way any of my four boys will be getting the HPV vaccine.

I know there are people on here who say it's a gift to their future daughter in laws. Tyler and I do NOT believe that.

If it was mandatory to enroll? I would find another school, private or home school. No way is the state going to force me to vaccinate my boys with the HPV "vaccine"

Hope that helps.

S.

Oh HELL NO. I would flat out refuse to give that vaccine and put up a MAJOR stink if a school tried to kick my kids out because if it.

That vaccine defends against VERY FEW cancerous strains of HPV. There are many documented cases of severe side effects. HPV rarely turns into cancer with regular check-ups anyway. There are too many injuries and deaths attributed to that very new and largely useless vaccine.

Again. Hell no.

Would never do that one due to some horrible side effects.

I don't want my daughter to die of cancer if it could be prevented. This is a vaccine that has been proven to prevent certain kinds of cancers. She's gotten 2 of the 3 shots and will be getting the third on schedule.

Science, people. SCIENCE.

google guardasil complaints and read up for hours. There is no way in HELL I would ever let my child reieve the HPV vaccine. Complete garbage.

Ahhhh, we ALMOST got through this without blaming "Big Pharma". For the love of god, does anybody know the pipeline of drug discovery of millions of compounds that are not viable and the billion of dollars spent researching them hoping to find solutions and get them to market to save your children.

The HPV vaccines are for certain strains of the virus...the high risk ones, the ones that cause cancer! Do you know how many stupid physicians are out there that think they can eyeball who has HPV and who does not (prior to testing). I had to convince them to follow testing and boy everyone was in a shock. Ahhh, ignorance is bliss :)

I can tell you from my perspective working on OB/GYNs office every day I saw many, many more complications in women that had their head in the clouds and thought it couldn't be them.

I've been thinking about this for a while. I guess when Michael Douglas came out that his throat/tongue cancer had been caused by HPV I really starting thinking about how we are reacting to this vaccine.

We could have a cure for all cancer and there'd be people refusing to take it because they were afraid of the side effects. Ummm, possible cancer and death.

Anal cancer...90% from HPV

Oral cancer, vaginal/cervical, and possibly more. Google celebrities that have HPV or celebrities that have died from HPV. There are a lot more than you think.

HPV kills people. A virgin can kiss a boy who has it and get oral/throat/tongue cancer and more. A virgin can get raped and get HPV from her attacker.

I can't see any valid reason to not get it, really. Is there any proof that it's harmful? I get the Guinea Pig idea, I do. But if thousands have had it and there haven't been serious side effects then why not get it?

I don't know yet if we'll get it for my granddaughter, she's not old enough. I do plan on doing a lot of research on side effects to see if the vaccine itself is harmful. If it's not then we will definitely get it for her. I'll talk to her of course but the decision is ultimately mine.

Her mom has had this and it was burned off. A friend of mine that has been with one man and he's only been with her got this, they don't know how. But they did a hysterectomy on her. She was devastated because they planned on having more kids.

HPV is a deadly disease, not just something that can be treated easily. It kills people every day or so. I'll be keeping an eye on the research for sure for the next couple of years. And watching what happens to people that have it and fight it.

Added:
Seeing some responses along the lines of "my kids aren't sexually active" and "I'll let my kid decide for her/himself as an adult": Have you talked with your pediatrician about that? The reason why this vaccine is recommended for kids in the 11-13 age range is because for the protection to be most effective in adulthood, the patient needs to have this vaccine in that age range, around 12. It doesn't do an adult, even an older teen, nearly as much lifetime good as it would if administered at around 12. Just want to be sure that folks are actually talking with doctors about the "why" behind the timing of this vaccine, and not going on misinformed ideas about its having the same effectiveness later, or any belief that it's only needed at some older age when one becomes sexually active. The protection is optimal if the patient has the vaccine around age 12. Later on, it won't confer the same level of protection. Ask the pediatricians. Ours explained it all to us in detail. I think some parents just hear that Gardasil is about a sexually transmitted virus and immediately dismiss it because their children are "too young for sex."

Original:
Though I believe in this vaccine totally, I would not see any sense in making it mandatory. The ones that are, and should be, mandatory are the ones that protect the whole population from fairly easily communicable diseases such as measles, mumps and whooping cough -- things that could devastate a community's kids within weeks if they went unchecked. Herd immunity is what it's all about. But that's not what the HPV vaccine provides. It is about individual protection against a disease (not just HPV but the cervical cancer it can cause) and not about herd immunity.

But did you check out that survey? Do you know who actually was asking the questions and who paid for the questions to be asked? Did you ask how they got hold of you personally?

I get survey calls very frequently; everyone in our area does. Often they are NOT from official organizations like the public school system or even a political party; they are from tiny fringe groups (or huge, well-funded national political groups) trying to gin up "statistics" to back their very specific agendas.

I truly doubt that this survey call came from either the school system or the official public health system in your city or state; did you ask what organization was funding it? I would bet that this came from a group that is against this vaccine. By making calls like this and just raising the idea of "Would you want this to be mandatory for YOUR child?" they plant ideas in the community. Soon parents are talking about "Did you hear that there's some talk about making this mandatory...." I know that's not what you're saying here. But there will be other parents out there for whom this becomes the classic game of "telephone" where they hear one thing: "Would you support having to give proof of HPV vaccination?" -- and by the time the "Did you get this call too?" rumors get done, half the parents in the area think it's actually been proposed by someone with authority. Same thing has happened to me several times -- I've gotten calls with surveys about "Would you be in favor of" this or that thing that I know for a fact isn't on anyone's actual agenda, but the group calling would love to get folks thinking it is.

Just something to ponder if you get further calls about it. I bet that if you start asking politely who funded the survey, how they created their calling list, why are they calling in your particular geographic area, who is proposing this in exactly what place (state legislature? school board?) they'll hang up pretty quickly.

By the way, someone said below that HPV is handled fine by most people's immune systems. The point of the vaccine is not just to prevent HPV. HPV is a cause of cervical cancer in women, and that form of cancer is very hard to catch until it's far too late. This is an anti-cancer vaccine, not just a convenience for preventing some easily handled disease.

No - I have a friend whose daughter had seizures as a result of this vaccine, which triggered schizo-affective disorder. This is not "friend of a friend' - this is MY FRIEND's kid.

I am pro vaccine, but I didn't like being pounced on and told my oldest, when he was a newborn, was going to be given a vaccine for an STD and being treated like an idiot for having question about it. My son was less than 24 hours old and NO ONE HAD TALKED TO ME ABOUT IT BEFOREHAND. I felt accosted. This seems to me like that - just not OK.

I just want to say that the HPV vaccine is NOT going to sexualize middle-schoolers. That's just nonsense.

I agree that making the HPV vaccine mandatory is wrong...... Governor Perry tried to do that in Texas, and as far as I know, it didn't get very far.

I'm very thankful that my daughters are past the age of having to look at that as being a "mandatory" vaccine..... I, too, feel that it is too new and unproven.

Japan's Health Ministry stopped recommending Gardasil about a year ago. Japan, the country and its highest medical organization, doesn't endorse that vaccine. Their stance now is "it's available to you, but take it at your own risk."

I think if you do the research and believe giving your daughter the vaccine is in her best interest, then by all means do so. But if you tell me I have to *HAVE TO* give it to MY child, I have a real problem with that.

For what it's worth, I won't be giving this one to my girls.

This is why I love living in PA. We have a "moral/philosophical/religious" exemption, so we've been allowed to selectively vaccinate, including delaying vaccines until I was comfortable that my kids were old enough to tolerate them.

The HPV vaccine hasn't been on the market long enough for me to be comfortable with it, and I do not support any vaccine policy without some kind of exemption.

I also worry about the guinea pig aspect of this. I want to give it some more time before administering it to my children's precious, maturing bodies. It is just such a new vaccine that it gives me some concerns.

My mother in law died from side effects from an FDA approved medication. So hells bells yes we are leery. Sure, my husband's family received a hefty settlement but that does not compensate for the miserable last couple years she lived...nor for the loss of this dear woman's life.

Our kids are not kissing ....nor taking part in sexual activity right now. We don't feel a panic rush to get this vaccine. So we will wait..and watch..and then not be forced or pressured into it.

We are up to date on other vaccines, regularly see doctors for physicals and love our doctors. We whole heartedly listen to their advice and concerns. We share our concerns and they listen to us. They understand, yet still heavily promote this vaccine.

They see worst case scenarios all the time and have our best interest in mind. I get that. I don't believe my doctors are in bed with the pharmaceutical companies. They have a desire to inform and prevent illness and disease. I am so grateful to have wonderful doctors that are within 5 minutes of my home. We are tremendously fortunate!

Husband is in medical school in Texas, which is very conservative, especially when it comes to sex-related legislation, rules, etc. This is a vaccine they are behind.

The vaccine prevents several forms of cancer. HPV is easily transmitted, so even if you are a virgin, if you have oral contact with someone who has it, you can still get it. If you have stayed a virgin and not been vaccinated with it, then you have sex with them, you still can get it.

I hadn't thought about mandatory, though. I could see this for high school, perhaps middle school because kids ARE sexually active. Not all of them, but enough that I wouldn't want my child endangered by a simple middle school kiss.

I'm going to check in with him on this one and see what the docs are thinking.

Heeeeeckkkk no!!!!!

I did some reading on this awhile back, and like JB, what I read indicated that the cancers that the vaccine protects against are a few strains out of hundreds, and that the strains that are covered are some of the most easily detectable AND treatable strains. I've also read a lot of anecdotal accounts of terrible side effects (including infertility, seizures, and more).

My children have not had, and will not get this vaccine. When they are adults, if they decide they want it, then it will be up to them, but I am not doing this "for"/to them.

I think the ones that should be mandatory are ones that will be easily spread by more casual contact (measles, polio, meningitis). I think HPV should be decided family by family. We did get if for SD (her dad and mom decided) and it hasn't come up yet for DD. The sks' colleges did require them to be vaccinated for meningitis before living in the dorms.

My girls have not and will not get this vaccine under my watch. If they choose to do so at 18 that will be their decision.

Gee, F., so glad you don't get "reported" for asking a question about this vaccine.
I have tried.
TWICE.

My ped recommends it for my son.
My PCP confirmed that position.
But I'm holding out.....
Should it be "mandatory"? I don't think so.

One question --

Have you heard that all the immunizations you get as kids (MMR, etc), even when they get booster shots later on some, that those immunizations lose their effectiveness as adults get older? So, how can this one be a guarantee for a lifetime?

I would be against it because I am not giving it to my children. When they are adults (and more information about it is in) they can decide for themselves, but it is not one I feel my boys need to get right now.

Mel R.'s response below was great.

I don't know about making it mandatory, but my daughter just got her third shot and finished the dosage a week or so ago. No reaction other than a sore arm for a day. My pediatrician highly recommends the vaccination - no hesitation when asked if she had a daughter of age would she give her the vaccine.

As Mel said, the reason the shot is recommended for 12-yr olds is because that is the age that allows for the best immunity throughout their lives.

I have thought about this one a couple times actually. My older girls are 15, and my oldest son is 15. It is up to them if they would like to get the vaccine for HPV. My girls say they will but not right now. They have time to think about it and weigh it out. However, I do not think it should be mandatory. I totally agree with others that those that are mandatory should be those that easily pass by being around others like measles, mumps, etc and tetanus since there are so many things that can impact that. I would be pretty upset if especially middle school decided my kids must be vaccinated. Middle school by us is 6th to 8th, meaning 11/12 to 14/15. The vaccine is for ages 13 to 24 or 26. Plenty of time to get it. And no I do not think getting the vaccine is going to tell my child to go have sex, anymore than teaching them about being the facts of life and birth control etc.

I agree with Karin below... and I wondered when they were going to try and pull this......... I already feel like my son's doctor tried to intimidate us into getting the vac and I refused.. then the next year, she did it again.. I don't like drug companies, doctors or the like forcing this kind of stuff on us...

hmmm, well there are over 30 types of hpv, and the vaccine only protects against one type, and there are side effects to the hpv vaccine, and the best protection against hpv is condoms or abstinence..hmmm K. h. i would pass on the "mandatory"hpv vaccine, not enough studies have been done to prove a broad spectrum protection against hpv, and since its entirely preventable..i would pass..i know what you mean about doctors trying to intimidate parents about hpv vaccines, our daughter is 4..4, mind you , and her ped tried bullying me into giving her the vaccine, i said NO..she is 4, the hpv vaccine only protects against one of at least 30 different types of hpv, and there can be horrible side effects, death, seizures, rashes, swelling..course when i asked the ped to show me the studies involving the side effects of the hpv vaccine..she decide to stop pushing it..