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Comment by MrFantastic | Hacker News Reader

As gross as it sounds, why wouldn't dipping a finger in the vagina and into the babies mouth work?

50%+ of the population has conducted simular tests and everyone lives.

My uncle is dying of throat cancer that has spread to his bones after getting HPV from a woman via oral sex, so I’m not sure “everyone lives” is correct if your time scales are long enough.

wait... what?

HPV is a truly nasty virus. It is linked to cervical, general mouth, throat, esophageal, and stomach cancers last I checked. It spreads very easily, and can go undiagnosed for a very long time. And cancers that are caused by it have a tendency to be quick to metastasize and respond poorly to treatment. Luckily, there's a vaccine for it, and everyone should get it.

what's strange is they only give it to young people.

It becomes less effective after exposure to the virus. You can get it as an older patient, but it drops to under 50% effectiveness after exposure.

Hence why there is a push to vaccinate children before they become sexually active: the effectiveness is around 95%.

Is that because those who have already been exposed possess natural immunity, making the vaccine less effective?

why is it strange to vaccinate people for sexually transmitted infections before they are old enough to be exposed to them?

I mean, if I get throat cancer this is the same story I'll tell. The cigarettes were so long ago.

They tried it, didn't work as well!

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