HPV? No thanks.

While the article "Should your daughter get the HPV vaccine?" raised many valid points regarding the controversial issue of a vaccine protecting from this common STD, but the father of two John Sexton had it right when he said ‘Hey, this is a different age'. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 47% of grade 9-12 students have reported having had sexual intercourse. Even with more then half of high school students remaining abstinent, the Kaiser Family Foundation approximates that four million teenagers per year are still contracting STDs. We have found a vaccine that could have potentially protected these young women from one of the most common STDs out there, so how can parents honestly disagree with this? It is understandable that some parents may be concerned with promiscuity becoming an issue among young women, but I can't see how this vaccine could possibly play a part in that. The argument is that "the vaccine might promote early sexual behaviour, or unsafe sex, by making teenagers feel they don't need to worry about infection or disease any more". This isn't accurate in my opinion, as there have already been many products exposed to young women preventing sexually transmitted diseases. The most common example would probably be birth control. Condoms are 99.9% effective, and they not only protect against STDs, but they protect against pregnancy as well. In my opinion, these would be far more of a concern for promiscuous behaviour then a vaccine, and you can find condoms at any of your local, family friendly drug stores. They are even advertised on TV as seen in the below video. If this is a socially accepted practice, I can't see why an effective, and potentially life saving vaccine can't be accepted also.



Kaiser Family Foundation
http://www.kff.org/youthhivstds/upload/U-S-Teen-Sexual-Activity-Fact-Sheet.pdf







TROJAN MAGNUM COMMERCIAL

http://youtube.com/watch?v=hSPZ828PbMg