We were asking this as soon as we heard about the HPV vaccine...
If your little snatch Susie is getting the vaccine--
I want my little Bobby vaccinated too!!
Why aren't gay boys getting the HPV vaccine?
Slate's William Saletan pens this in response to the British Medical Journal ( which stated: boys don't need to be vaccinated):
Why vaccinate girls but not boys? The authors cite several factors. First, HPV is more likely to harm girls. Second, the vaccine is more effective in girls. Third, the rate of viral transmission depends on the virus's prevalence "in the opposite sex at any given time." If girls are routinely vaccinated, there's nothing for boys to catch or transmit.
In other words, boys don't have to get vaccinated for the same reason they don't have to wash dishes, do laundry, buy birth control, or think about other people in general: Girls will do it for them.
Why do HPV vaccines work better in girls than in boys? Because they were designed for and tested in girls. It's true that HPV affects girls more than boys, but the same can be said of pregnancy. There's still a male in the equation somewhere. Boys certainly share the pleasure. Why not share the responsibility? And what about that infant respiratory condition? Shouldn't men do their part to prevent it?
In other words, boys don't have to get vaccinated for the same reason they don't have to wash dishes, do laundry, buy birth control, or think about other people in general: Girls will do it for them.
Why do HPV vaccines work better in girls than in boys? Because they were designed for and tested in girls. It's true that HPV affects girls more than boys, but the same can be said of pregnancy. There's still a male in the equation somewhere. Boys certainly share the pleasure. Why not share the responsibility? And what about that infant respiratory condition? Shouldn't men do their part to prevent it?
Also:
The authors of the BMJ paper concede that they "only represented heterosexual partnerships and therefore did not reflect HPV transmission among men who have sex with men, who face a high risk of anal cancer and may realise a greater benefit from HPV vaccination." But the argument for vaccinating gay men isn't just that they might benefit. It's that vaccinating women won't help them. They can't count on somebody else to take care of the problem.
What would happen to straight men if women weren't vaccinated? The authors played out that scenario in their mathematical models. "If coverage in girls ends up being low, then vaccinating boys became much more attractive," the lead author concedes.
We want the vaccine. Demand it.
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