Following Texas's dubious lead, Virginia is poised to mandate vaccination for HPV for young girls.
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said Thursday he will sign legislation requiring all sixth-grade girls to get vaccinated against a virus that could lead to cervical cancer.
Days after saying he had qualms about making the vaccine mandatory, Kaine predicted that the law is "going to be a model for other states to follow " and emphasized that it will be easy for parents to opt out.
There's no mention in the article about why parents might want to opt out or how much the vaccines will cost taxpayers. It seems to me that this is a bandwagon everyone wants to jump on because they think it makes them look "compassionate," as opposed to "reckless."
UPDATE: According to this article, the chairman of the panel that recommended the new HPV vaccine for young girls warned lawmakers not to make it mandatory.
Dr. Jon Abramson, chairman of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's advisory committee on immunization practices (ACIP), also said he and panel members told Merck & Co., the drug Gardasil's maker, not to lobby state lawmakers to require the vaccine for school attendance.
"I told Merck my personal opinion that it shouldn't be mandated," Dr. Abramson told The Washington Times. "And they heard it from other committee members."
Dr. Abramson said he opposes mandating Gardasil, which prevents the cervical-cancer-causing human papillomavirus (HPV), because the sexually transmitted HPV is not a contagious disease like measles and he is not sure states can afford to inoculate all students.
"The vaccines out there now are for very communicable diseases. A child in school is not at an increased risk for HPV like he is measles," Dr. Abramson said.
In addition, Dr. Abramson said a discussion about making the vaccine mandatory should not be had until states show the money is available to vaccinate every child, adding, "I don't see that yet."
The story goes on to point out that there's also some controversy about giving the vaccine to girls so young.
Middle-school girls inoculated with the breakthrough vaccine will be no older than 18 when they pass Gardasil's five-year window of proven effectiveness -- more than a decade before the typical cancer patient contracts HPV, The Washington Times reported last week.
Infectious disease specialists and cancer pathologists say the incubation period for HPV becoming cancer is 10 to 15 years -- meaning the average cervical cancer patient, who is 47, contracted the virus in her 30s and would not be protected by Gardasil taken as a teen.
Dr. Abramson said the panel thinks the vaccine will last for at least 10 years. Even if it provides 10 years of protection, it would still leave girls given the inoculation in the sixth grade vulnerable during their late 20s and early 30s, when most cervical-cancer patients contract HPV. At that point, another round of Gardasil would be necessary.
The vaccine has only been tested for about five years, meaning there's no data on long-term effectiveness or side effects. I'm leary of mandating a vaccine for a non-communicable disease to girls who are still growing. If adults wish to get this vaccine, that can be their choice.
UPDATE x2: Parents of three Texas girls have filed suit over Texas Governor Rick Perry's executive order mandating the HPV vaccine.
UPDATE x3: According to this article, a report from the Centers for Disease Control estimate that 20 million U.S. women have some form of HPV.
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