Quote Originally Posted by Lisa S.H. View Post
I do hear what you are all saying. I'm no fan of cervical cancer, and I'm not generally anti-vaccine. I just think about this one differently. I think a minimum 10 year study on some volunteer young girl subjects would be ethical before mandating injecting the entire nation of millions of young girls. At least find out if it leads to later fertility problems or birth defects first.
By what mechanism do you think it is going to cause birth defects or fertility problems? The vaccine is designed to stimulate the immune system against the virus. If the vaccine has the potential to cause those problems, then the virus itself would have the same effect and I don't think there have been any reports linking HPV to birth defects or fertility problems (other than the obvious one that occurs after you've had half your insides taken out because of cancer).

I agree that there should be more discussion before any proposal for mandatory vaccination is considered but more from a cost-benefit perspective than a risk of adverse reactions.