[a fool in paradise]

You are myopic in that you are willing to concede ineffectiveness but not willing to volunteer (in that post) potential health impact.

Securing the damn border would do far more to reduce the spread of infectious diseases (many of which had been eradicated in this country, like polio) but there is NO political will to do that.

And the HPV thing was a bogus power grab. MEN and women can BOTH get HPV and BOTH get cancers from HPV but only girls were to be vaccinated. Even if only 'womyn' suffered from the HPV infections, men would remain carriers and potentially put unvaccinated (older or immigrant) women at risk. Making it was "women's issue" was designed to silence male voices. Michael Douglas got cancer from HPV. It happens (throat, testicular, etc.).

"Men's lives matter".

[Mamzelle]

Well, if you want to discuss the HPV vaccine in particular, I agree that it should be scrutinized. I also agree that men are carriers of the virus, which is why *maybe* girls should be vaccinated. It is girls who get cervical cancer, although you may know some men whose cervixes have metastasized.

One thing you may be reacting to is the way the creators of the vaccine have been slow to explain the relationship between STDs and cervical cancer via HPV. This was not necessarily about deceiving you…it was in part to keep from heaping calumny on those women who actually got cervical cancer…which is almost always from some kind of STD. IOW, they did not want to stigmatize cancer sufferers.

Now, with the HPV vaccine in particular, I would agree that it should be absolutely voluntary for attendance in public schools. OTOH, not so for other diseases.