Vigilant and healthful behavior also prevents most to all diseases...I am an educator and havent had the flu in 16 yrs bc my natural immune system is able to do its job. My children, 8, 6, and 1 have never had the flu either. So sad that health care professionals try to scare people into vaccinating when truly not all children come through it ok. Safer sex can also lead to NO cervical cancer and the shot doesn't prevent all types of HPV or all types of cervical cancer.

Even if your child is monogamous their entire life, their single partner can still expose them to HPV they acquired either natally or conjugally. This isn't measles which can be deadly or polio.

This vaccine protects against cancers in both genders, and cancer is a condition which is invariably in opposition to continued human life.

Also, vaccines aren't all about you. Just because you don't get the flu doesn't mean you are above spreading it. The same with vaccine preventable diseases. Sometimes, and this has been observed with measles, diseases can spread from unvaccinated children to vaccinated children because having a reservoir of infection to reside in allowed it to mutate to a form unaffected by antibodies cultured through typical measles vaccination.

I also have an immunity to the flu. I haven't had the flu since I was a child but I know for a fact that I am not immune to other contagious diseases.

And as a nurse, you do realize that this vaccination does not protect against all forms of HPV, does not replace regular PAP/pelvic exam and does not come without risks of SE. My daughter is grown, but would never have had this on my watch. Instead, she was educated about STD and protection, female health and being comfortable with her own body/sexuality and going to the gyn. yearly.

@Mel, you are spot on. My children used to get the flu shot and each time they got the shot, they got the flu. Then I woke up to reality and stopped getting them the flu shot -- neither they nor I have gotten the flu in the 6 years since we stopped.

To everyone else, do you realize that none of you adults that were vaccinated in the 60's or 70's are now immune to any of those diseases??? That includes polio and measles, @Aaron

I think its funny big pharm wants boys to get the shot. Based on the cervicle CA rates 100 girls could drop dead in the US every year from the vaccine and it would still be a greater benifit than risk for girls, but with boys no side effect is acceptable becausse of no personal benifit.

To kdinla-3875647, FYI, you have been brainwashed by the pharmaceutical industry.

DontDrinkTheWater, that is why if you travel abroad to parts of the world where these diseases are still endemic the state department recommends getting reimmunized. Because of near universal vaccination polio is no longer endemic in the United States although in Nigeria and other areas polio still cripples children.

Since I don't travel abroad, I did not know that Aaron-R. Thanks for the information. I'll keep that in mind should I ever travel abroad.

Aaron R: 1) If a person is monogamous his or her entire life, there is NEVER a single partner. Go back to school and learn English. 2) If these vaccines are so great for both male and female, why is it only the female or parents of females who are pressured to receive them. Could it be that the establishment is not interested in protecting the girls from the fallout, but only the precious boys?

how do you know its the vaccines? perhaps your putting your children's lives at more risk by not vaccinating them thoroughly. its unfortunate your children had health problems, but it could be a number of reasons.

Mel... are you stupid or something? You are who is actually being scared by the doctors and what is unknown. Ever doctor knows there is a risk associated with vaccines but the risk of letting your child become exposed to something that could kill them is much worse. And your children are still YOUNG and still have years and years of things to happen to them and get sick. So for you to say that your kids are fine with the oldest being 8. Yea right. Talk to me when your eldest is in his/ her 20's after going to school for years. So take your head out of your a**. You may not have to think about vaccinating your children yet... but you really need to think about it. Because one day they might look back at you and say Mom, why didn't you vaccinate us... This might have been prevented...

And FYI one of my best friends waited till marriage (24) and both her and her husband were virgins when they married. And she still got HPV! Guys can get the vaccine for HPV and are highly recommended to get it because there is no way to test for HPV on a guy. The only way to know he has one of the 1000's of strains of HPV is if he gets genital warts. Otherwise there are no symptoms or signs. And it's important to know that doctors usually assume that ANYONE sexually active is carrying the virus because it is so prevailent. But there are so many strains and most of them clear up entirely on their own. The biggest problems are for women getting either genital warts or cervical cancer. My biggest thing is that women should get tested reguarly especially after changing partners. That is the ONLY way to prevent/ treat at the early stages.

Happygolucky, let me ask you something. Had you ever even HEARD of HPV until GSK came out with a vaccine that supposedly "prevents" cervical cancer???

Did you also know that 70 percent of all HPV infections resolve themselves without treatment within a year. Within two years, the number climbs to 90 percent. Of the remaining 10 percent of HPV infections, only half will develop into cervical cancer.

The best and only proven method for early detection of cervical cancer is an annual PAP smear.

Avoid this vaccine like the plague it is. Do some research before you blindly say yes. Find out about the injuries and deaths this vaccine has caused.

DontDrinkTheWater = the problem is that most people dont get treatment. youre assuming everyone has the means to have regular paps. you would be very wrong.

Most women might be able to afford to, rockmebritney, if Republicans weren't hell bent on completely defunding Planned Parenthood. Most of what PP does is provide low cost birth control, PAP smears and breast exams, not abortions as they claim.

stan, everything you put in your body has the possibility of consequences.

MOST people do not have an adverse reaction. I had a worse reaction to my tetanus shot than gardicil.

Mel

I agree. I do not vaccinate either because of vaccine damage to my Daughter.

The chances of contracting what they fear-monger about is less then getting injured by the vaccines or someone vaccinated.

Immune to the flu????? That, right there, is the funniest statement I have ever heard...Nobody is immune to the flu. You just havent contacted the germ.

Unfortunately a peculiar strain of pseudoscience that affects the portion of the left that frequents HuffPo health is a complete aversion to vaccination. It amazes me that people who trust science on climate change and evolution refuse to trust medicine, not just in vaccinations but across a variety of disciplines. As someone who generally leans rather left this blame it all on pharma strain disturbs me (although pharmaceutical companies are a major contributor to increasing healthcare costs through excessive marketing expenditures).

Pharm companies have repeatedely marketed lethal drugs to the American public. How many drugs have they sold to us as safe, tested, effective, etc. that have been proven to be none of the above?

Those of us on "the left" who don't "trust medicine" are the ones who are paying attention to the fact that Big Pharma is killing us with drugs.

So I am amazed, that you are amazed by our healthy skepticism about vaccines. Afterall, we've been sold some questionable vaccines too.

I agree with Mel; I'd trust my immune system before I'd trust Big Pharma.

Travel, the immune system does not fight cancer. Almost all cancers suppress the immune system or cause it to become hyperactive. No one has ever cured cancer by taking vitamin c and staying in bed for a week.

These are cancer vaccines, not virus or bacteria vaccines.

If you think we as a society are better off without vaccines/medicines....you are fooling yourself. Think about the middle ages. Simple changes and pro actions to our human behaviors created better living conditions and increased our life expectancies. Cleanliness was understood to be a health issue. Vaccines and medicines through trial and error came to fruition and saved populations. Simple illnesses turned into plagues that later were controlled with medicines and nearly erraticated.

I am a firm believer in healthy life choices of eating healthy, exercise and enough sleep to ward off minor germs that can take hold and make one ill. I know the human machine is amazing and even admirable in it's own fight to ward off illnesses.......but......even a perfectly healthy body can succumb to disease, viruses and germs. For that, I am thankful for medicines to assist in my healing.

Face it......simple germs killed a hundered years ago. Now we survice due to medical advancements.

@Aaron, it amazes me that you blinbly follow the "science" of the medical industry.

Doctors are PAID by big Pharma to push drugs and vaccines on their patients. Big Pharma even pays doctors to push drugs on children when those drugs have not been aprroved for use on children under 18.

Most clinical drug trials are done by the drug manufacturers themselves, not an independent board. Why do you think there are so many drug recalls these days? Because big Pharma only publishes studies that benefit them and destroy any evidence of trials that show these drugs are ineffective or dangerous.

The FDA has been bought and paid for by big Pharma.

Big Pharma now does most of their drug trials outside the U.S. because other countries laws are not as strict as ours.

And since when was cervical cancer an infectious disease? Since big Pharma decided there was money to be made in scaring parents into believing their lies.

Heard that argument from a co-worker. I asked how she would feel if her daughter was raped and contracted HPV and developed cervical cancer as a result. I was probably one of the first in line to have my daughter vaccinated. However, that in no way took the place of my educating her about safe sex, birth control and morality. I know of two young ladies who had to have parts of their cervix cut away due to HPV induced cancer. One of them had not had children yet and was very concerned about her ability to carry a child after that. Also, I never explained to my daughter that she was receiving Hep B or polio vaccines or any other. I just told her the shots were to keep her from getting sick. If you are that worried about planting the idea of sex into your young daughter's mind, why would you even explain exactly what the shot is for?

Wow really Ieonhl? so you blindly just had the dr.s give your childrne shots without explaining what they were. you are worse than most drs. that is pretty sad. what else do you hide from your children that could potentially damage their lives? way to go. at least be honest with your children about what you are having put in their bodies. I assume you tell them McDonalds is just food and they need to eat right?

Biscuits-3969445, if you get cancer, remember not to go to the doctor. After all, "Big Pharma" is paying him to push chemo, surgery, pain killers, and high fat protein shakes on you to help you recover. No, it's better to just rest, and hope your body can completely fight it off.

Biscuits, I trust doctors because they spend frigging 8 years or more and hundreds of thousands of dollars going to Med school. Have you ever shown conviction like that?

Also, like it or not, we need the medical system unless we want to return to the Renaissance era where sterilizing a wound meant cutting off the appendage the wound was on and lead was an accepted treatment for many diseases.

Males aren't immune to HPV related cancers. It is one of the biggest contributors to head and neck cancer in men. There really are selfish reasons for men and boys (without regard to orientation) to be immunized against HPV.

It took a while in many places for Hepatitis B shots to go from recommended to mandatory. Hopefully the same can happen to HPV.

not to mention anal and penile cancers. there's something i'd like to avoid....

MEN can be vaccinated with Guardasil and should be!! Another big thing that would help is females getting regular tests just because men never have symptoms unless genital warts appear and can't be tested for it.

Larz, my friend married her husband and both were virgins and she got HPV too. So it's not just sex spreading it. It's everything...

I'm starting to think full body condoms are going to need to come out with all these STD's going on... How funny would that look?

Happygolucky you are insane if you think men should take a risk for no possible benifit for themselves.

I think its funny big pharm wants boys to get the shot. Based on the cervicle CA rates 100 girls could drop dead in the US every year from the vaccine and it would still be a greater benifit than risk for girls, but with boys no side effect is acceptable becausse of no personal benifit.

No personal benefit? How about not unknowingly infecting the woman you love? Of course, with that attitude, you probably are getting any anyway.

One reason people don't go back for this vaccine is the high rate of side effects. Look it up.True, many have been nonserious, but there have been cases of fainting, paralysis, anaphylactic shock, and between 30 to 50 deaths connected with it. There are several class action suits in the US, and at least one in France.

Many people are concerned that this vaccine was rushed without thorough testing and want to wait and see. I talked with my kids' pediatrician and at that point he only recommended it should be a case by case decision at this point rather than automatic for all preteen and teen girls. My youngest daughter had been through a rather serious health problem and he was strongly opposed to giving it to her as she would be high risk for side effects.

I have looked it up. Don't assume ignorance. I have had the vaccine.

There is a risk of side effect with EVERY drug you put in your body. There is a list of side effects for EVERY vaccine and drug out there. This is no different.

Stats for Gardicil

• Pain in the area of the injection -- occurring in up to 83.9 percent of people
• Swelling in the area of the injection -- up to 25.4 percent
• Redness in the area of the injection -- up to 24.6 percent
• Fever -- up to 13 percent
• Headache -- up to 12.3 percent
• Nausea -- up to 6.7 percent
• Dizziness -- up to 4 percent
• Diarrhea -- up to 3.6 percent.

For most people, bad side effects wont happen. For most people, your arm will burn for a little bit after getting this vaccine. I got it with the burning, bu no other problems.

On the other hand I got a tetanus booster at the beginning of the summer and my whole arm and shoulder swelled up like a balloon and I couldn't lift anything for a couple days.

Personally I would rather have a sore arm than cancer in my vag.

well said.

Exactly!

Will you blame yourself if she gets HPV and cervical cancer?

While I am glad you are basing your choice off medical opinon rather than religious reasons, I do have a few questions.

Would it not be better to protect your child while she is in the raging teen hormone stage? Now don't take this wrong, I am no way saying your daughter will be out having sex as a teenager. She may be the model teen. But I do know that one of my friends who waited till marriage (both her and her husband were both virgins) and she got HPV. So maybe she stays a virgin but she still gets HPV for not having been vaccinated? Would it not be better to protect her those 15 some odd years until she got to the age where she was either ready to get married, or made her own decisions about sex and protection? I took the vaccination and I had no side affects (I don't have HPV either and I am 24). I'm glad that my mom took me to get it. And I might not be covered by it now, but at least now I understand all the implications and consquences of my actions.

Also, I don't know about you, but I hope that if you don't vaccinate your daughter you at least encourage or tell her that once she becomes sexually active or 21 (whatever is first) that she gets regular gyno check ups. Early detection is also key to protecting women. My doctors have told me that pretty much anyone sexually active are assumed to have HPV just because it is so prevalient. I will say that having an abnormal PAP and then having a biopsy from your cervix is not fun from what I have been told. OUCH!

happygolucky - The vaccine only protects against less than 20 of well over 100 strains of HPV. They can still contract HPV. If you've ever had a wart then you have a strain of HPV. Cervical cancer can and will still occur if even if the vaccine had been administered. The fact that they are touting this vaccine as a "cancer vaccine" is total horsesh*t. In the years to come when a woman gets cervical cancer you'll hear quite a lot of "but I got the vaccine, why is this happening??".

I have 2 young daughters, and lived in Texas when Perry was pushing this to be administered to all girls in 6th grade. I promptly got the paperwork for vaccination exemption. This "vaccine" will NEVER touch my girls. Ever. What I will do is walk them into the doctors office and ensure they start doing regular exams. When I gained the title of mother I gained the responsibility to ensure that my children are taken care of and learn to take care of themselves.

Bravo, well said. You are not alone.

Rather need it and not use it, than need it and not have it! Good!

Your sons got it? What are you sleeping with them? The shots could kill 100 girls a year and it would still be worth them getting overal for the risk- benifit ratio. No risk is acceptable for boys as they get no personal benifit. HPV kills women but your sons would have to live past 80 to have a possible benifit.

Steve, the benefit for them is not passing on the virus to someone they love.

Your sons got it? What are you sleeping with them? The shots could kill 100 girls a Year and it would still be worth them getting overal for the risk- benifit ratio. No risk is acceptable for boys as they get no personal benifit. HPV kills women but your sons would have to live past 80 to have a possible benifit.

Steve, you just repeated the same post. Is every woman now sleeping with her sons if she considers the future women in their lives?

Folks who decide not to use this vaccine are being accused of sticking their "heads in the sand"---but it's exactly the opposite. The cheerleaders of this vaccine have swallowed the marketing scare tactics employed by Big Pharm and have chosen not to research the claims made by these companies.

If the cheerleaders had done their research they would have found out:

It doesn't cover all cancers caused by HPV while at the same time if you do get a vaccinated they say girls don't need to have an annual pap smear.

• Gardasil is approved for girls as young as nine years old, despite the fact that the youngest girls participating in clinical trials were 11-12 years old.
• A recent study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, also questioned the general effectiveness of Gardasil. Additionally, there has not been a chance to study long term side effects of the vaccine.

They don't know how long it will keep a girl immune and yet they've set up a false sense of security by telling girls they won't need to get a Pap test once they get vaccinated.

Boys are the carriers of HPV and yet they decided to vaccinate girls first....why?

No "wacko religious" beliefs here---just a healthy distrust of Big Pharm and their cozy connections to the FDA.

Who is telling girls the won't need a PAP? If they go on birth control, they will have to have one at their yearly, vaccine or not.

Our physician who was going by some new guidelines. However, I did further research (thanks for your point) and found this via Ms. Magazine:

A recommendation for less frequent Pap tests does not mean a recommendation for less frequent pelvic exams, yet I cannot help but wonder: How many girls and women will interpret the new guideline of “No cancer screening until 21″ as “No need to get an annual exam until 21″?

And also at American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists:

ACOG Announces New Pap Smear and Cancer Screening Guidelines

On Friday, November 20, 2009, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists announced that women should have their first cancer screening at age 21 and can be rescreened less frequently than previously recommended.

So I guess we're not the only ones who are hearing these guidelines.

BTW: Some girls(because of blot clotting issues) cannot be on birth control pills so they wouldn't be followed as closely.

You can also wear tin foil on your head is you are afraid of Big Brother reading your mind.

And you can continue to stick your head in the sand and refuse to do something as simple as an internet search. CDC's own website has these statistics, it's not like I pulled them out of thin air. This article is misleading and dishonest and it took me all of 30 seconds to prove it.

You cannot prove me wrong with facts to refute my statements, so you resort to stereotyping. Typical of someone who doesn't know how, or refuses, to think for themselves.

Big pharm isnt happy with just makeing money on those that might benifit. If what they say is true rhe shots could kill 100 girls a Year and it would still be worth them getting overal for the risk- benifit ratio. No risk is acceptable for boys as they get no personal benifit. HPV kills women but your sons would have to live past 80 to have a possible benifit.

I'm not sure whether you're agreeing with me or not, SteveM.

Are you saying it's worth killing 100 girls even though the death rate for cervical cancer is only 2.4/100,000 cases? You're OK with a 240% increased risk of death from a vaccine? Do you really think that's an acceptable risk/benefit ratio?

Or are you saying it from the perspective of big Pharma thinking that's an acceptable risk/benefit ratio for them to push the vaccine?

Please clarify, I'm curious.

Do you really think Congress is interested in investigating any evidence of wrongdoing in any government department, Marat? If they were, there'd be a bunch of Wall Street bankers, hedge fund managers and SEC officials in jail, as well as former FDA employees now working for big Pharma. Not to mention former Bush Administration officials who approved the use of torture, and government agencies spying on US citizens on US soil in violation of our Constitutional rights.

Marat---This took me three seconds to find (if this site will allow me to post this link) If not go to pbs.org and look under Frontline--Dangerous Prescription

You think your daughter wont be becoming sexually active until she is 19?

hahahahahahahahaha. Good luck.

I didn't say that, anywhere in my post. My point is that, assuming the shot lasts 10 years, which they aren't even sure about, the effects will be wearing off. The percentage of 19 year old girls who are sexually active is MUCH higher than the percentage of 9 year old girls who are sexually active. So why not wait? If your daughter is sexually active and you want to protect her and you believe the hype from a very powerful company which has another product to sell you, then please do. I personally would prefer to wait. My daughter doesn't even know about sex yet, so it is a bit soon to be injecting her with a shot to protect her against something she isn't even doing, especially when the efficacy is unknown. If they can't even tell us how long the shot lasts, then they clearly haven't done enough trials. What else can't they tell us? I want to know that this product is SAFE before my child gets it. I'm not going to take the word of the pharmaceutical company which has had more recalls and lawsuits than I can count.

Its not a shot against sex. Its a shot against HPV. Which you can get without sex. And telling her it will protect her from certain types of sickness will probably be good enough. Its not like you have to go into detail.

And as far as not knowing about sex, I think you would be surprised what 9 year olds DO know about sex. My school system starts teaching sex ed in 5th and 6th grade. Thats 10 and 11. Only one year away.

HPV is transmitted by contact with the sex organs. So either my daughter already has HPV from me, which she got during her vaginal birth, or she is clean. If she got it from me (I don't think she did, as I've never had an STD, but I also know that some of the strains of HPV have no symptoms), the shot will not do a thing for her. If she is clean, then she will not run a risk of getting it until she is sexually active. It seems prudent to wait until we know that the shot is safe, and at this point in the game I don't think they know that it is.

I'm not a prude, and I'm not a religious fanatic. My decision about this has NOTHING to do with either of those things. I feel like my feet are firmly planted in reality. As of two weeks ago when my daughter told me I haven't given her a baby sister yet because I'm "not trying hard enough" (My husband has been gone on business for 6 weeks), I'm going to assume that she clearly doesn't know ENOUGH about sex if she thinks it is all up to me. However, that said, I do know that I need to have the talk with her soon. Definitely before they teach it at school. My reason for not getting the shot has nothing to do with trying to keep my kid in some sort of sex free bubble. But I guess I can see how you would jump to that conclusion. There seem to be mostly extremists (at both ends) on this site. I just think it is responsible parenting to take into consideration BOTH the benefits and risks of any procedure before allowing them to be performed on my child. This is not Whooping Cough or Tetanus or Diphtheria. It can wait. And until I feel like the product is safe for my child, it WILL wait.

DV....

As a mother of a young tween I agree with some of your opinions, however you seem a bit misinformed.

HPV ( over 100 different viruses) is spread through skin contact...not just via sexual organs. This is a fact.

I too am concerned about it's safety and effectivness as it hasn't had the most aggressive testings, especially on boys. I have one of each.

As for my teens ( at 13 and 16 ) I am waiting too until more info is seen.....but I am very proactive in early discussions about sex, sexual behaviors and diseases that are spread through such actions. No judgment or negative education....just plain and truthful teachings.

Yes, HPV is spread through skin contact. One of the 100 strains that causes warts on your hands is an example of this. The strains that cause cervical cancer are strains that are sexually transmitted. They are not the strains that are passed by a handshake. Not all of the strains which cause cervical cancer are in the shot, only a few. We are getting questionable protection from a product with unknown efficacy and known serious side effects, including deaths. Until they iron out the wrinkles, my child will not be getting this shot. I don't have a problem with my children being educated about sex. Sex education has nothing to do with the fact that they haven't properly tested this product. The fact that they are so desperately slanting these articles in such an obvious attempt to push more sales just makes me question it all the more.