
The HPV Vaccine Doesn’t Deserve Its Reputation. Get It for Your Kids - bitcuration
http://vitals.lifehacker.com/the-hpv-vaccine-doesn-t-deserve-its-reputation-get-it-1748529758
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DrScump
This is a really sloppy article with a number of factual errors:

1) there is not "a vaccine", there are SEVERAL, each with different spans of
effect.

2) "a vaccine with no serious safety issues, that _prevents cancer_." Um no,
not nearly that simple. Not all such cancers are caused by HPV. What _would_
be true to say, assuming perfect efficacy, would be "a vaccine with no known
safety issues (true enough: since it's a genetic vaccine, unlike an influenza
vaccine) that prevents cancer _caused by an HPV strain that is targeted by the
vaccine_ IF the full course and schedule of treatment is followed."

3) "Human Papillomaviruses cause several cancers, including the cervical
cancer that kills 4,000 women each year." Actually, cervical cancer can occur
absent any HPV infection.

4) "Most people get the HPV virus" is wrong. Most _American women_ show
exposure. Not the same thing.

    
    
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The problem with HPV vaccines is not in the science, it's in the _marketing._
If you were a parent who followed the "expert" instructions from the
beginning, here is what happens:

1) You have your child get Cervarix. Then get it again a few months later.
Then again a few months later. OK, great, now that all that money is spent,
she is protected, right? Um, not exactly. She is protected from Types 16 and
18 (assuming perfect efficacy).

2) Gardasil comes out. It protects against _four_ strains -- the course of
treatment you've already paid for and executed over 6 months is already
obsolete. Now, you do _another_ course of 3 injections over _another_ 6 months
to add protection from Types 6 and 11. Now, a year, 6 shots, and thousands
later, she is protected from 4 types.

3) Gardasil 9 comes out. It protects against _nine_ strains -- the courses of
treatment you've already paid for and executed over 6 months are _again_
already obsolete. Now, you do _another_ course of 3 injections over _another_
6 months to add protection from Types 31, 33, 45, 52, and 58. Now, a year and
a half, 9 shots, and _more_ thousands later, she is protected from 9 types.

But there are _13 types_ that we _know of_ that cause cervical cancer alone;
other subtypes could end up causing cervical or other cancers as well. So you
_know_ she is unprotected from at least four more cancer-causing subtypes...
and, no doubt, you will be a sucker who buys another course of treatment
later.

This is Planned Obsolescence that makes 20th-century Detroit look like
amateurs. GlaxoSmithKline and Merck thank you for your gullibility and
generosity.

Anyway, ditch this article. The FDA has a better info page here:
[http://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-
prevention/risk/in...](http://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-
prevention/risk/infectious-agents/hpv-vaccine-fact-sheet#q5)

