Melissa Harper is a senior majoring in biological sciences. She can be contacted at [email protected].Last Friday, I spent the majority of my early morning hours driving back from stuffing my face at Grandma’s house. It was four glorious hours of weaving down unfamiliar roads and trying not to run over Ole Miss-flagged SUVs.
Fixed on the road and with a desire to make it to the Egg Bowl on time, I tuned my radio to a little station I will just call ultra-conservative talk radio – I can’t remember the station’s real name.
Normally, I would flip the station, because talk radio either puts me to sleep or makes my blood boil. However, I kept it on because within the first ten seconds, I could hear what sounded like a much older lady spouting off about sex and teenagers.
Curious like a cat, I turned it up and listened in. Oh, the horror! Think Tammy Faye Baker on speed talking about Jesus and intercourse.
The topic of the day was a Texas law regarding the human papilloma virus vaccine and young girls. There is a controversial law requiring young female Texans to get vaccinated before entering sixth grade, so they can be protected from contracting HPV and developing cervical cancer just in case they were ever to fornicate. Perish the thought.
I can’t remember the radio host’s name, so I’ll just call her Tammy. Tammy really had a problem with the new law and vaccine. She gave the classic abstinence-is-the-only-way-to-go argument and quickly received a hallelujah from her co-host. She said that good girls shouldn’t be forced to undergo an unnecessary vaccination because, after all, they were waiting for marriage.
As for the rest of her rant against this law, it was filled with repeated bursts that parents had lost control and the state had no right to force this vaccine. But there is clearly a provision in the law that states parents can opt out for religious or other philosophical reasons.
She also said the flu killed more people annually than cervical cancer, but there is not a law forcing people to get flu shots.
This is where I got quite outdone with Tammy. You can’t get the flu from sexual contact, unless your partner was influenza-stricken of course, and that would just be gross. She was trying to compare apples and oranges. You cannot compare a sexually transmitted virus with a virus that virtually everyone and their neighbor has come in contact with.
You also cannot compare deaths caused by sexually transmitted infections and deaths caused by airborne pathogens. Of course flu deaths surpass HPV-caused deaths, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try to vaccinate young girls so we can try to control HPV.
It also doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try and combat both viruses. It is simply harder to control a virus that can be spread as easily as the flu.
This lady was grating on my nerves, but her ignorance still kept me listening. What is ridiculous is that many other people were probably listening to her and probably agreed with her. I am absolutely and positively in favor of required vaccinations for this virus, and here is why.
HPV is the fastest growing STD in the country. There are dozens of strains of this virus, and several of them have been directly linked to causing cervical cancer in women, among other things. By other things, I mean unsightly cauliflower-like lesions below the belt.
HPV is a public health concern. By that I mean, if you have a sore throat and don’t get treated, it really doesn’t matter to anyone else but you. However, if you contract HPV, you can knowingly or unknowingly transmit it to other people causing outbreaks that lead to more serious health problems.
Women who get cervical cancer have been infected with HPV somewhere down the road. They have gotten it from someone with whom they have had relations.
I am not saying that all people who get cervical cancer are promiscuous or careless in the bedroom. I am just saying that HPV is a virus and causes a cancer that can be prevented. It can be prevented by educating young girls about sex and vaccinating them, to protect them from dangerous strains of HPV.
What I don’t understand is why so many people have a problem with adding this to the list of vaccines that children already get.
Yes, I know that there are a handful of people who think vaccines are the devil and cause autism and all that jazz, but according to the National Institute for Health, there is no scientific proof that any vaccine or combination of vaccines causes autism.
As far as other harmful side effects go, there are always risks associated with vaccines and medicine. When it comes to vaccinations, don’t the benefits far outweigh the what ifs? If you could save 100,000 people’s lives with chances that one or two might be subject to harmful side effects or even die, what would you do?
Merck’s Gardasil vaccine and the newest vaccine that is still being tested, nine-valent, together will protect against even more strains of cancer-causing HPV.
This is huge. The only drawback is that it works best when administered to young girls before they are sexually active. These days, kids are getting horizontal sooner than ever, so why not get your offspring vaccinated before she is deflowered in high school?
So what if you believe in abstinence? Today’s kids are quick to do other things that fall under the category of sexual contact and can still contract this virus. Just because one doesn’t believe in sex before marriage doesn’t necessarily mean there is a Medieval-type chastity belt involved.
With radical conservatives polluting the airways with unrealistic ideas about teenagers and sex, somebody needs to take up for these girls.
I think some parents live in a cave and don’t want to believe what may be going on in their kids’ lives. I am not saying that all teens are having sex, but I am definitely not saying they are all angels. Why not be in favor of protecting them against this virus just in case?
If you feel your child doesn’t need to be vaccinated as early as 11 or 12, there is always the choice to opt out and wait until they are “ready.” Just make sure they get it before prom.
Of course, some readers say I have radical ideas myself, and because I have yet to breed, I should probably shy away from topics like this.
But I think having children doesn’t automatically make someone an expert on social issues regarding children. I’m pretty sure I used to be a child myself.
Looking back, I would want my parents to protect me from getting a virus if they could, especially a virus that causes cancer.