Merck Gives Up on Forcing HPV Shots on Little Girls
It appears that Merck's profit motives got in the way and they are having to back down. Story is in the WaPo.
I'm a mom of two girls and I understand the HPV vaccine's value, but if Merck was really concerned about preventing girls/women who are sexually active from catching HPV from boys/men they have sex with, the vaccine would have been for the carriers. The vaccine would have been for the men and boys who spread HPV.
Ahhhhhh....but we wouldn't want to stigmatize all the precious wit'le boy carriers now would we? What a load of crap. Prevent disease at its source.
I understand why they went after the girls. Parents of girls will take this seriously since it is their daughters who might die from cancer. Parents of boys don't have that same motivation. Still, if the vaccine is going to be required by law as Merck would have liked, it has to target the source and not the victim - or the source as well as the victim. (I know...victim is a little harsh. I'm just saying....)
I fortunately have a little bit of time before we will make this decision with our girls. I figure if we talk with them about birth control options with their doctors at a certain age, then we can talk with them about HPV.
I'm a mom of two girls and I understand the HPV vaccine's value, but if Merck was really concerned about preventing girls/women who are sexually active from catching HPV from boys/men they have sex with, the vaccine would have been for the carriers. The vaccine would have been for the men and boys who spread HPV.
Ahhhhhh....but we wouldn't want to stigmatize all the precious wit'le boy carriers now would we? What a load of crap. Prevent disease at its source.
I understand why they went after the girls. Parents of girls will take this seriously since it is their daughters who might die from cancer. Parents of boys don't have that same motivation. Still, if the vaccine is going to be required by law as Merck would have liked, it has to target the source and not the victim - or the source as well as the victim. (I know...victim is a little harsh. I'm just saying....)
I fortunately have a little bit of time before we will make this decision with our girls. I figure if we talk with them about birth control options with their doctors at a certain age, then we can talk with them about HPV.
posted by B. Muse at
2/21/2007 05:39:00 PM
2 Comments:
Thank goodness.
Time will tell. These guys don't just give up something that cost them this much.
They will be back.
Hopefully, they will be back with a more comprehensive vaccine. From what I've been reading, there is a new vaccine being researched/developed by the same doctor/scientist responsible for this first vaccine. The 2nd and 3rd generation vaccines will cover more strains of HPV and are intended to be therapeutic as well as prophylactic.
The scientists are at least serious about preventing and treating.
The push to require the vaccine is a knee-jerk reaction. This is not an air-borne, nor water-borne disease. It is contracted through sexual contact. Hopefully, not too much sex is going on in grade school.
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