Most medical organizations have strongly advocated using the HPV
vaccine Gardasil for girls 11 and 12 years old. But an editorial to be
published in the New England Journal of Medicine has outlined some
serious concerns about the vaccine.
First, Gardasil's long-term effectiveness is unclear. And because
cervical cancer takes years to develop, critics say the current
information is insufficient to determine whether Gardasil works.
Gardasil is also expensive, costing about $400 to $1,000 for the
necessary three doses of the vaccine, and the vaccine only protects
against some of the viruses that cause cervical cancer.
There is also the issue of side effects. FDA records reveal that,
since Gardasil's approval, nearly 9,000 girls had "bad health events"
after receiving their shots.