Damn pharmaceutical companies.

I had seen a lot of commercials about this Gardasil thing... I have a very well-established habit of ignoring pharmaceutical commercials. One day, whilst visiting my mum and grandmother, they tell me I should get that vaccine. I tell them "why" and they tell me it protects against HPV. My response was "yeah, but you don't get HPV by shaking hands."
After listening to some more hype about this new miracle vaccine, I thought I would at least do a little googling. My thoroughly scientific education has taught me that, when it comes to medical things, go for published studies... not opinion articles. So with that in mind, I began looking up studies and medical journal articles. I never once visited the Gardasil website. I decided not to take the Gardasil vaccine, based on the following discoveries:

1. Gardasil does not have any long-term studies published, and was tested on a relatively small population size.
2. Gardasil was rushing to get the vaccine approved by the FDA and as a result, was not tested as thoroughly as they'd like you to believe.
3. Gardasil protects against 4 strains of HPV that can cause cervical cancer, but there are more than that.
4. It's unlikely one would run into any of the cancer-causing strains of HPV, and even if one did, it's unlikely that it would actually develop into cervical cancer.
5. Apparently cervical cancer is one of the most treatable cancers when caught early (annual exams are they key to this), that is, IF one were to actually encounter the bad strain and allow it to develop into cancer at all.

So given that I am in fact not a bimbo who sleeps around, and I [begrudgingly] always visit a doctor for my annual exam... I deduced that, not only is it unlikely I would get infected with a bad strain of HPV, but it would also be caught early. These things, combined with points 1-3... made me think, "why are so many people hopping on the Gardasil bandwagon?" And more importantly, why does my grandma think I'm a slut?

Well I'm glad I didn't hop on the bandwagon because the HSI has brought up some very interesting concerns about the vaccine:

http://hsibaltimore.com/files/2009/04/hsialert.htm

Oh, and PLEASE don't get upset because you've gotten the vaccine. Obviously you're fine and I'm sure you will continue to be. This opinion is meant to address those who WEREN'T fine.