The problem with a wait and see attitude about HPV, is that it is a very commonly acquired, sexually transmitted virus. The CDC says that in their lifetimes, 80% of the entire (300million) American population will have had or have some version of it. Since the vaccine only works if you have NOT BEEN EXPOSED to the virus, then waiting until a child becomes sexually active greatly diminishes the odds that it will be effective in them, as they likely will have encountered the virus already, negating the positive of the vaccine and making it useless.

Here are some questions that you should ask yourself. When you have answers to them, please compare them to the risks of this shot. Post them here so that everyone can have a frame of reference.

How many kids die from a bee sting in the US each year? Is their any way, before you take your child to the park for the first time in their young lives, that you can know if they are one of the few that will have a catastrophic event associated with being stung? If there is a way to know, did you do it?

How many people died from the polio vaccine, or had an extreme adverse reaction to it? Compare that with the Guardasil numbers. And this is the most successful vaccine ever produced. Nobel prizes given for its discovery.

How many children die in the US each year from an anaphylactic reaction to peanuts? Is there any way that you can find out they are going to have this happen before you give them their first PB and J? If there is a way to know, did you do it?

How many individuals spontaneously die before the age of 25 with no known risk factors, like a heart issue or the like? How many do we have the opportunity to prevent?

When you know the answers to these questions please post them here. I am not going to do this exercise for you, though I know the answers. But what I want people to get out of it, is to learn, and to be able to evaluate for themselves, the lesson of proportionate thinking and risk taking. I bet you took your daughter to the park without knowing the answer to the bee question. I bet she also had her first PB and J without you knowing that either. This doesn't make you a bad person, It makes you normal. So why be driven by a minority, alarmist, heard mentality on an equally important subject?

Lastly your list of the HPV's that cause cancer is not correct. There are some in that list that have been associated with cancers, but as a synergistic sub-type, and not the causative agent. So the list isn't actually as long as you make it seem. There is a difference between those that produce direct oncoproteins that change a cell, and those occasionally are found in synergy in cells where a primary known oncogenic HPV has done the damage. More so, THIS IS IMPORTANT - oncogenic HPV's are site specific. If you looked at a peer reviewed paper, and there are some benchmark ones in the New England Journal of Medicine, that talks about oncogenic HPV's as they have been researched in cervical cancer, most of them are not found in oral, anal, penis, or other cancer sites associated with HPV. So the question is, what is important to THIS group of oral cancer people? Only one, and that is HPV16. Bottom line, there are 9 known oncogenic HPV's all but one are not of our concern. There are 5 suspect versions that have yet to be proven oncogenic, but suspect in other anatomical sites (not oral). I just got off the phone will Gillison at JH to confirm that what I am saying is fact.