Rather than OCF or posters putting out all the contraindications for this vaccine or any other drug, I am just going to say, that the decision to vaccinate or not should be made IN CONJUNCTION WITH AN INFORMED DISCUSSION WITH YOUR DOCTOR AND CARE PROVIDERS. We have already stated that it is approved for boys via the CDC, and that none of the adverse events that have occurred related to this vaccine can be directly tied to the injection, and do not occur at rates higher than in any non vaccinated population. I do not wish the OCF boards to degrade into a discussion of the pros and cons of an given drug let alone this vaccine. They all have potential downsides. To have non science people debating what is on the adverse events list or in the FDA events reporting system, only fosters misinformation. This may not be poster's intent, but it is the ultimate outcome.
These boards were not designed for this, they were designed to help people in the battle of dealing with the disease. Issues related to prevention are part of OCF's mission, but that work is taking place outside the discussion forums. As we have news or outcomes like our successful dialog with the CDC last October that allowed boys to be vaccinated and pediatricians to talk about oral cancers, we will post about it on the web site and in our Facebook pages.
These last two vaccine threads have taken too much time to moderate, (I have gotten over 20 PM's related to them which all require long answers) and I cannot be in the middle of a discussion about something that the answers for are not completely available (or known) yet, nor explain to people that do not understand the workings of the drug and vaccine approval system in the US, why the situation is the way that it is. We allow some discussion of it here in general, but overall, to dissect the adverse reaction list in detail and more is beyond the purpose of these forums, and takes the discussions and the moderator admins time away from helping people that are in the middle of their battle right now.
If you do not understand the vaccine issue, PLEASE DISCUSS IT WITH YOUR DOCTORS. We are all not doctors, but survivors with varying degrees of information about all this. The answers that you get here may not apply to you, and may not offer you a complete picture of your individual situation as it relates to this vaccine or any drug in particular. They may be given by a person that is repeating information from a source outside of OCF that we cannot control the accuracy of.
OCF is a proponent of vaccination against HPV16. Having said that, while we are talking to and working at the NCI/NIH/CDC to further the knowledge of things, only recently have any of the oversight and pubic health agencies taken positions that allow boys to be vaccinated, and consider doing a head and neck based clinical trial. To let this discussion here continue in a manner that does not include all the science, express the completeness of the issues with the CDC, the FDA, or with various other entities, in the end does not put useable information in anyone's hands if it does not come from these sources.
