Did you know that every time a new vaccine comes out, companies use your baby as their guinea pig? It is true that vaccines have to be tested and approved by the FDA. But as science advances, or frankly, even as more research is done, some vaccines are found to have undesirable side effects and are then quickly pulled from the market, like the rotavirus vaccine.
Well now Suzanne Garland, a specialist in the field of the microbiology of infectious diseases is meeting in the United States with doctors to convince them that giving the new HPV vaccine to babies is a good idea.
The Controversy
The HPV vaccine is already surrounded in controversy. Many conservative parents feel that there is no need to vaccinate their daughters because HPV, the virus that causes a few types of cervical cancer, is a sexually transmitted disease and abstinence, not a vaccine is the best way to protect against STD’s.
However, a bigger concern to me is that there are numerous unanswered questions about vaccinating babies for HPV.
First of all, doctors don’t know if it’s safe for babies. It’s only been tested on kids older than 10 years old. Secondly, doctors don’t know how long the vaccine lasts. It is possible that if they start vaccinating babies, then girls will need a booster shot later on in life.
Why My Daughters Won’t Be Getting It
As many of you know, I have four daughters, and so for us, this will be something we will be deciding on in just a few years. Or rather I should say we’ll be discussing it, but at this point I remain unconvinced that this is a vaccine that my daughters need.
First of all, there are several strands of HPV that cause cervical cancer and the vaccine protects against two. It is not the golden ticket to avoiding cervical cancer. Second of all, I don’t like the idea that it’s so new. I want to see it tested for several more years before I’ll allow my daughters to be guinea pigs. (And honestly, they may well be too old before I consider it safe.) And finally, there are better ways to protect against STD’s than to fill one’s own immune system with an offensive attack so that their systems will know how to fight it off later.
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