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Comment by acomjean | Hacker News Reader

There is a cancer vaccine (HPV) for cervical cancers. Its a touchy subject but reports are vaccinations are declining.

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/13/well/live/hpv-vaccine-chi...

"that parental intent not to vaccinate their adolescents against HPV rose from 50.4 percent in 2012 to 64 percent in 2018. Many parents resisted the vaccine despite their doctors’ recommendations, Dr. Sonawane said. Ironically, parents were most resistant — at 68.1 percent — to vaccinating girls, the very group for whom this vaccine was initially developed to prevent cervical cancer."

https://www.cdc.gov/hpv/parents/vaccine-for-hpv.html

When in a doctors office with a cancer diagnosis, people will take it.

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When the research showed it was useful for men (in both self- and other-protection regards), it was still not an easy task to get my doctor to prescribe it for me. Zero hesitation on my part to get it, even with the extremely high price tag.

My doctor told me I was too old for it. I went to CVS instead and got it for free, zero questions asked.

If you already have HPV I'm not sure it does any good.

I'm curious how long ago this was for you?

When my 15 year old son went to his new doctor earlier this year, they immediately strongly suggested it as a very good idea.

Approx 3 years ago, but I was in my late 30s.

I got it for my daughter the instant she was eligible last year, because cervical cancer is awful and it seemed stupid not to.

My experience suggests that it was something the doctor's office wasn't actively pushing -- they made it known that it was available without me having to ask, but it was presented very much as a "do you want to?" thing, rather than as part of the "of course you'll be getting this" set of earlier vaccines.

Then it was sort of a pain to actually get, because it required an extra doctor visit for the second shot in the series.

I can see all that adding up to hurting uptake.

> When in a doctors office with a cancer diagnosis, people will take it.

That's a bit late.

It may not even be true - cancer has a denial phase.

Men too :)

HPV is most commonly known for being a cause of cervical cancer, but it can lead to other sorts of cancer that men are also prone to. HPV vaccines are good for everyone!

https://www.cdc.gov/std/hpv/stdfact-hpv.htm

My trump loving father-in-law tried to deny my niece from getting the HPV vaccine because it would 'increase promiscuity'. It's literally a cure for cancer and they don't care.

The logic of "I'll make sure my minor child doesn't have sex with the threat of an untreatable STD and substantially higher lifetime risk of cancer" is so incredibly insane to me I have a hard time empathizing on any level.

Seems akin to "I'm going to forbid my child from wearing a seatbelt to ensure they pay attention while they drive."

Ask him if he's removed his smoke detectors because they encourage children to play with matches.

I hope you set him straight on that count.

Boromir meme: One does not simply set a trumpy FIL straight.

Source: have a trumpy FIL.

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