The federal advisory panel looking at the HPV vaccine has recommended, unanimously, that 11- and 12-year-old girls be routinely vaccinated, with vaccinations for girls as young as 9 up to the discretion of parents and doctors.
ATLANTA – Taking up a sensitive issue among religious conservatives, an influential government advisory panel Thursday recommended that 11- and 12-year-old girls be routinely vaccinated against the sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices also said the shots can be started for girls as young as 9, at the discretion of their doctors.
The committee’s recommendations usually are accepted by federal health officials, and influence insurance coverage for vaccinations.
And this is great news:
The committee also voted to add the HPV vaccine to the coverage list for the federal Vaccines for Children program, which pays for immunizations for the poor. That could mean $50 million to $100 million in additional spending in the first year, government officials said.
What’s interesting is that, despite all the furor over the vaccine in certain influential conservative-Christian quarters (yes, Daddy Dobson, I’m looking at YOU), the actual public hearings weren’t exactly filled with the Sex=Death crowd:
Some health officials had girded themselves for arguments from religious conservatives and others that vaccinating youngsters against the sexually transmitted virus might make them more likely to have sex. But the controversy never materialized in the panel’s public meetings.
Sounds like the Schiavo Effect: entirely too much attention is paid to the whining of a minority of very loud religious leaders on an issue which the vast majority of people, including religious conservatives, feel is a private matter.
Now, the panel didn’t go so far as to recommend that the shots be mandatory for school admission, but you’d never know that from the whining coming out of Colorado Springs:
Another organization, Colorado-based Focus on the Family, was even stronger in voicing fears that states would require schoolchildren to get HPV shots.
“By giving its highest level of recommendation, the panel has placed strong pressure on state governments to make HPV vaccinations mandatory,” Linda Klepacki, a Focus on the Family analyst for sexual health, said in a statement.
“If that happens, state officials, not parents, would become the primary sexual-health decision makers for America’s children. That’s the way things are done in dictatorships, not democracies.”
Oh, but what’s this? Evidence that the wingnut’s main argument against the vaccine, that it would promote promiscuity, isn’t all it’s cracked up to be?
Surveys suggest the shots will have little effect on youngsters’ sexual behavior, said Nicole Liddon, a behavioral scientist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In a recent survey of virgins 15 to 19, only 10 percent of boys and 7 percent of girls cited fear of disease as a reason not to have sex, Liddon said.
So, congratulations to ACIP for making a decision on the merits, not on the noise from the religious right.
Now, if you could talk to the FDA about Plan B…