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Concern for males, or happy for a reason to sell more vaccines?
Here's an article about the upsurgence of oral cancer among males, due to more oral sex than smoking. The article runs like this:
The HPV virus now causes as many cancers of the upper throat as tobacco and alcohol, probably due both to an increase in oral sex and the decline in smoking, researchers say.
The only available vaccine against HPV, made by Merck & Co. Inc., is currently given only to girls and young women. But Merck plans this year to ask government permission to offer the shot to boys.
(snippage) "We need to start having a discussion about those cancers other than cervical cancer that may be affected in a positive way by the vaccine," said study co-author Dr. Maura Gillison of Johns Hopkins University.
Now, I'm wondering where the researchers from John Hopkins got their funding, what types of earlier studies they accounted for, and how many samplings were involved in their reconnaisance of these studies. I think it's great that they're thinking of the men, and I think it's laudable to develop a vaccine for a virus that causes some cancers...but I admit that I'm always suspicious of a pharmeceutical company's motives in developing medicines and vaccines. There's nothing outwardly wrong in wanting to make a profit in preventing cancer...but then again, when it's a monstrous profit that develops only when you apply your female vaccine to males, too. Hey, gives me pause. I wonder about the actual statistics. Is this oral cancer as pervasive as other types of cancer? Does it matter since hey, it's cancer?
This vaccine has gotten some flack from women, and it's one of the most advertised medines I've seen in magazines aimed at mothers with young children (I wonder when the state is going to start requiring babies be vaccinated against HPV in order to go to school).
Anyhow, here's this article for your preusal. Your opinion?
The HPV virus now causes as many cancers of the upper throat as tobacco and alcohol, probably due both to an increase in oral sex and the decline in smoking, researchers say.
The only available vaccine against HPV, made by Merck & Co. Inc., is currently given only to girls and young women. But Merck plans this year to ask government permission to offer the shot to boys.
(snippage) "We need to start having a discussion about those cancers other than cervical cancer that may be affected in a positive way by the vaccine," said study co-author Dr. Maura Gillison of Johns Hopkins University.
Now, I'm wondering where the researchers from John Hopkins got their funding, what types of earlier studies they accounted for, and how many samplings were involved in their reconnaisance of these studies. I think it's great that they're thinking of the men, and I think it's laudable to develop a vaccine for a virus that causes some cancers...but I admit that I'm always suspicious of a pharmeceutical company's motives in developing medicines and vaccines. There's nothing outwardly wrong in wanting to make a profit in preventing cancer...but then again, when it's a monstrous profit that develops only when you apply your female vaccine to males, too. Hey, gives me pause. I wonder about the actual statistics. Is this oral cancer as pervasive as other types of cancer? Does it matter since hey, it's cancer?
This vaccine has gotten some flack from women, and it's one of the most advertised medines I've seen in magazines aimed at mothers with young children (I wonder when the state is going to start requiring babies be vaccinated against HPV in order to go to school).
Anyhow, here's this article for your preusal. Your opinion?
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Considering how many "female complaints" were dismissed as "stop whining" until recently, we have a right to be cynical.
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