Rou

I'm a little bit slow. Sometimes it takes me a long time to really understand things. So I'm asking for a bit of help here. I'm fairly sure u235 already covered this topic, but it's come up again, so I'm taking a swing at it.

There is a virus out there call papillomavirus. It's an STD. If you catch it, it can cause cervical cancer and genital warts. In fact, it's responsible for 70% of all cases of cervical cancer. Cervical cancer has about a 40% fatality rate. So, I think we can safely label it a bad thing.

However, there is a YAY moment here. Scientists, being smart people, created a vaccine. Prevents the spread of this virus. Fewer infections, fewer illness, less cancer. It's an easy to follow train of thought. And the world rejoiced. A handful of states made it required for girls aged 11 or 12. Parents have the ability to opt out if needed (say if your religion has rules against modern medicine or you just don't want your child to get the damn thing). So all was good.

I admit, I'm hesitant about throwing this injection out there and forcing it on a large part of our population when the scientists involved don't know how often booster shots may be required, but in general, it's a good thing, so YAY!

Naturally, there are some people that are against this vaccine. First off, how the fuck can you be anti-vaccine? It that like pro-virus? What the fuck people? That aside, they object. They say that by preventing kids from the risk of an STD, you encourage children to have premarital sex.

My brain hurls itself against my skull at that concept. It wants the bad idea to go away. OK, first off, it's only one STD. You can still point at AIDS that FUCKING KILLS YOU. Preventing this shouldn't put a dent in your ability to terrify your child about sex. Especially given the horrible sex-ed classes many schools in this country have. How can you reasonably justify the idea that vaccinating children against a disease encourages them to have sex? They're not safe from all of them!! And even if they were no risk of infection, you can still discourage them by discussing the problems with teen pregnancy and the emotional baggage associated with sexual relationships.

Honestly, what is the precedent here? What if they found something that would eradicate every known STD in the world with a single injection? Would you forbid your child from getting it because you want the risk to scare them into keeping their pants zipped? Wouldn't a realistic discussion about sex accomplish this with education instead of fear mongering? Teach your children to think and you won't have to make them afraid of sex in order to stop them from having it.

Crazification in action!!