Mandatory STD Vaccination considered

Earlier this month, the FDA announced that it was approving Gardasil, a vaccine designed to counter the effects of HPV, a sexually transmitted disease, and its side effects (including cervical cancer).

Press coverage is playing this up as a necessary vaccine. Here’s one sample article:

Clinical trials showed Gardasil prevented 100 percent of cervical cancer related to the two HPV strains most often associated with the disease, HPV types 16 and 18.

Based on this, the national Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is scheduled to decide Wednesday whether this vaccine will be recommended as a routine vaccine. If they give the affirmative, state legislatures will then be free to decide whether to mandate the vaccine as a necessary vaccine to take before children can attend school. The target market for this $360 vaccine will be girls between the ages of 9 and 15.

There’s only one problem. The FDA press release contains a disclaimer buried deep in the text. After mentioning that four studies had been conducted on 21,000 women and stating that the vaccine proved effective in eliminating most lesions and warts, the press release went on to say:

While the study period was not long enough for cervical cancer to develop, the prevention of these cervical precancerous lesions is believed highly likely to result in the prevention of those cancers.

So now the government is considering mandating this STD vaccine for all schoolchildren (or perhaps only all girls), despite the fact that it has not been tested long enough to know whether it actually prevents what is supposed to prevent?