We give vaccines to people to protect them.
But we REQUIRE vaccines, NOT to protect the person we force to take the vaccine, but in order to protect the rest of us from an epidemic.
So, since having widespread outbreaks of smallpox would be dangerous for everybody, we require everybody do get vaccinated.
But HPV will never be an epidemic, because it is not spread by casual contact. Anybody who wants to protect themselves can do so by not having sex, or by having their sex partner get tested before having sex.
And if you pick up the disease, you can’t spread it to another person unless THAT person chooses to have sex with you.
Even HIV, for which we allow people with the disease to freely roam our public schools (unlike smallpox, malaria, or TB — for which we always send the infected home), can be spread through several other methods of contact that are more casual than sex.
There is NO public policy reason to require the vaccination. Requiring the vaccine simply because people aren’t smart enough to take it voluntarily is wrong.
If there were an HIV vaccination, even though I’m married, a proud Grandpa of 7 (and likely greater) grandkids - I’d roll my sleeve up to get the HIV shot.
I’d rather have 30 seconds of a inconvenience, than risk getting something that will slowly kill me, and potentially kill my wife - or be spread accidentally to those around me.
Laws exist to protect the innocent and helpless. How many lives will the HVP vaccine save? There’s really no way of knowing, until a couple decades pass and the data rolls in. How many lives will this cost? So far, none.
Would I legally mandate a HIV vaccine? In a heartbeat.