Excerpt from Mishpacha Magazine:
LAST WEEK I FAITHFULLY WENT FOR MY ANNUAL FLU SHOT, and I have 20 grandchildren who have all completed their vaccine schedules, so I trust that I will not be accused of being an “anti-vaxxer.” But I find the bills currently on the legislative docket in New York mandating vaccinations against HPV concerning, and I believe that mainstream proponents of vaccinations should find them concerning as well.
I’m convinced that not a single Orthodox parent would willingly consent to the vaccination against HPV for their child. The bills have nothing to do with issue of vaccines against contagious childhood diseases. HPV is neither airborne nor contagious through casual contact.
Most important, there is no upside. There are far cheaper, less invasive, and safer ways to prevent cervical cancer than vaccination. The first is following a chaste and monogamous Torah life. That alone dramatically reduces the chances of being infected with any strains of HPV.
The second is going for regular exams and undergoing the appropriate screening tests. Cervical cancer does not develop quickly, and such a regime would identify pre-cancerous conditions and facilitate their treatment. In the developed world, where such exams are the norm, rates of cervical cancer are far lower than in the undeveloped world. Even proponents of the protective effect of the HPV vaccine admit that it should not be relied upon to the exclusion of the physician’s exams described above.
There is even preliminary evidence that HPV vaccines may lead to increased cervical cancer — at least in the developed world. Population cohorts with high rates of HPV vaccination when the vaccine first came on the market in 2006 show higher, not lower, rates of cervical cancer. That could be for one of two reasons or some combination thereof. The first is that those who have been vaccinated may feel that they are protected, and therefore forgo regularly scheduled physician’s exams. The second is that the vaccine may have an amplifying effect on those who have already been infected with one or more of the strains of HPV in the vaccine.
Ultimately, not all vaccines are equal. Most vaccines have been developed to combat highly contagious diseases that can be fatal and have few treatment options. Gardasil, however, targets a disease that is not highly contagious and its results are not backed by long-term data. Most importantly for our community, even mainstream defenders of vaccination cannot defend it as remotely necessary for the average Torah-observant patient.