FDA Ignores Religious Fundamentalists' Objections

[Cyrus]

By the year 2050, scientists fear that “deaths from cervical cancer could jump fourfold to a million a year … mainly in developing countries.” The good news is that this outbreak and thousands of preventable deaths “could be prevented by soon-to-be-approved vaccines against the human papilloma virus which causes most cases of cervical cancer.” The problem is that HPV is sexually transmitted and “opposition to the vaccines might lead to many preventable deaths.”
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In the United States, religious groups are gearing up to oppose vaccination, despite a survey showing 80 percent of parents favor vaccinating their daughters. Staunchly conservative religious groups like the Family Research Council tacitly oppose the vaccine on the claim that “Giving the HPV vaccine to young women could be potentially harmful because they may see it as a license to engage in premarital sex.”

Thankfully, the FDA seems willing to brush aside such idiotic arguments and decided proceed with the approval of Gardasil, a vaccine that prevents infection by some strains of a virus which can cause cervical cancer.

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"This marks a very important step forward in women's health," said Dr. John O. Agwunobi, the assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services.
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"It will be the first vaccine licensed by the FDA that can prevent a cancer that kills a large number of women each year," said Dr. Michael Keefer, an associate professor in the infectious disease division at the University of Rochester School of Medicine in New York. "If that's not a breakthrough, I don't know what is."

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