Cervical cancer is already 100% preventable through regular GYN exams. Precancerous cells can be removed easily.
Right, you’re officially full of shit.
The preventative measures involve freezing, burning or cutting out affected areas, which is invasive, has risks (bleeding, infection) and are far from “100%” effective, often requiring repeat treatments and still not offering anywhere near your mythological figure. Regular screening has an estimated prevention of up to 90% of cervical cancers but that’s assuming perfect doctors and perfect patients. The only 100% effective measure is… hysterectomy! A radical operation that not only comes with the usual risks associated with any major operation but leaves women unable to have children and impairs many women’s sexual function, temporarily and permanently, due to nerve damage.
Never mind that it’s not an either _ or _ proposition and women should have both the vaccine and regular exams.
Never mind that the HPV virus can be transmitted to others, men included, and can cause more than just cervical cancer.
Never mind that those cancers can be lethal, or at least the cancers and treatments (one of which being hysterectomy but also chemo and radiation therapy) can be incredibly painful and have long-term health consequences.
Why take the risks of a new vaccine?
Because the risks are negligible. Over 40 million people have been given the vaccines and you’d be lucky if > 100 people will experience/have experienced side effects worse than the roughly 4500 cases of cervical cancer they’ll prevent (450, if we were to assume the maximum theoretical efficacy of screening and 100% of women were regularly screened) and the roughly 2500 lives they’ll save (250, again, making wholly unrealistic assumptions).
And that’s just counting the people who were directly vaccinated and not the people who will never be infected due to their vaccinated partners not transmitting it to them.
And that’s just counting cervical cancer and not all the other cancers that could be prevented by practically making those affected strains of HPV extinct. Just by including head & neck cancers, you could probably double the figures.
And that’s just counting current vaccinations, the first 40 million recipients, 1/100th or 1/200th (if boys were also vaccinated) of the theoretical maximum number of recipients.
This shit isn’t hard. 15 minutes with wikipedia and a few clicks of a calculator is all it takes to both inform yourself and avoid making an arse of yourself.
