The C-Section: Mandate HPV vaccine, dwelling on sexuality is unnecessary

Recently, the push to mandate HPV vaccines has caused much debate in the media. While the opposition has passionately made a stand against mandating the vaccine, the time has come to make the right choice for society as a whole — mandate the vaccine.

Genital human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted malady, infecting 6.2 million people each year, and has already infected an estimated 20 million people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Also, HPV affects 50 percent of men or women at some point in their lives, according to the CDC.

Fortunately, 90 percent of the time, the body's immune system fights off HPV within two years. But if the virus doesn't clear, it can cause genital warts, cervical cancer, and cancer of the vulva, vagina, penis, anus and throat, according to the CDC.

Moreover, HPV is extremely contagious and can be passed from genital-to-genital contact. And since people have sex — and always will — the virus is bound to continue spreading without a vaccine.

Luckily, the vaccines Gardasil and Cervarix have been created, and the National Cancer Institute has called them "highly effective."

The vaccine is administered in three doses and is considered "safe and effective" by the FDA for males and females ages 9 to 26.

With a staggering number of people affected each year and the availability of an effective vaccine, it seems fewer people should be contracting the virus.

But the opposite is true, proving the vaccine must be government-mandated for young boys and girls.

"I personally think the government should mandate the vaccine for males and females," said Elizabeth Shirtcliff, a research professor in biopsychology at the University of New Orleans.

Shirtcliff said she thinks the vaccine should be lumped in with vaccines for polio and measles that all children get at a young age. If administered when the child is young, they will simply grow up with an immunity to the virus.

The government should also help pay for the vaccine, which costs around $400 for all three doses.

"The goal of the vaccine is to get people to not get HPV," Shirtcliff said. "Vaccines benefit a population."

Some critics, particularly Republicans, have argued that mandating the vaccine would increase pre-marital sexual behavior, but this is not that case.

"I don't think there's any evidence that [getting vaccinated] supports sexual behavior," Shirtcliff said.

Also, Shirtcliff noted that children should get vaccinated months before they are sexually active.

If the vaccine gets lumped in with others, children would never get the chance to consider the vaccine. As a matter of fact, parents do not even need to discuss what the vaccine does to children, so sex does not even need to be brought up.

Finally, the vaccines' safety has been brought into question. Michele Bachmann claimed the vaccine could possibly cause mental retardation, according to ABC News.

But, of course, she was very, very wrong.

"HPV vaccines were studied in thousands of people in many countries around the world, including the United States.

These studies found HPV vaccines were safe and cause no serious side effects," according to the CDC.

Overall, the argument to mandate vaccines is overwhelmingly positive.

If cancer can be prevented by a vaccine, why not mandate the vaccine?

In an age where cancer and diseases are extremely prevalent, our government should take the proper steps to protect the public from them. And since we can vaccinate for HPV ­— the leading cause of cervical cancer — let's mandate it.

There's a way to prevent the reported 6.2 million new cases a year.

Chris Grillot is a 20-year-old English and mass communication junior from New Orleans. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_cgrillot.

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Contact Chris Grillot at cgrillot@lsureveille.com