We Have a Newsletter! (Also, Thoughts on HPV)
Submitted by Boys and Schools Blog
Before I begin, I wanted to let you know that we will be starting a regular e-newsletter very soon. While our resident internet geniuses work on creating an easy way to sign-up, however, I am forced to resort to sadly low-tech methods. So, if you want to make sure that you receive our newsletter (which will be only slightly less awesome than a boys-oriented e-newsletter penned by a committee consisting of Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Dave Barry), please be sure to send us an email at schools@menshealthnetwork.org. (Just put the word “subscribe” in the subject line or text–nothing else is necessary.)
Now, on to the main event.
In the grand scheme of crunchy parenting, I’m really not that crunchy. Sure, I only use unbleached organic baby wipes made from cotton that grew myself and wove into a re-usable pad using a specially-purchased Mayan baby wipe loom. But other than that, I’m a pretty mainstream parent. (If you are a crunchy parent, that’s cool–I only tease out of love, I swear. I do think that a lot of the things that are considered “crunchy” in parenting reflect some great changes in parenting philosophy in general.) The reason that I start with this disclaimer is to make it clear that, in general, I don’t have any issues with immunizations or the usual childhood vaccine schedule, or anything like that.
However, for the past several months, I have been watching the growing debate over requiring the HPV vaccine for boys, and as a result, I want to run in yelling, “Whoa, let’s just hold on a sec here.” Now, I don’t mean to suggest that it isn’t a great thing that they’ve found a way to prevent HPV and some forms of cervical cancer. And I have no intention of entering the moral debate, which is beyond the scope of my objection and also tends to provoke a lot of angry mail. I’m not even going to weigh-in on whether it should be required for girls to enter school. My concern is mostly that we don’t allow our exultation at this treatment to override our care for boys’ health. At present, the FDA has not yet fully tested the vaccine on boys and men, and we know next to nothing about the possible long-term side effects for boys. Now, it may well turn out to be nothing but beneficial, and I certainly hope that will be the case. But until we get some actual, you know, scientific research on the issue, I think we should be cautious about passing any mandates about boys and the vaccine.
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