Persuasive Essay On Gardasil

Gardasil: A Controversial Vaccine for Cancer? When you ask people to think of causes of cancer, there are a few things that most will say. The most common thoughts to hear include genetics and heredity sources, lifestyle choices like tanning or smoking, and just plain random chance. One cause that most people won’t think of, however, is STDs. Sexually transmitted diseases come with a host of problems, but usually cancer isn’t one that is attributed. Certain types of cervical and other cancers, though, are caused almost exclusively by an STD known as the Human Papillomavirus, or HPV. This virus is extremely common and will infect 80 percent of women by their 50s (Bristol). Each year there are 6.2 million new cases, and for most strains of the virus, there are no symptoms. These infections are usually cleared up by the body’s immune system without them ever knowing they had it, and a few cases will cause genital warts in both sexes. However, a few certain strains are carcinogenic, and these cause cervical and other cancers in women, as well as throat, anal and other cancers in men as well. Since the link between HPV and
The Gardasil treatment consists of three injections over six months that costs more than $400 total, and Merck stood to make millions off the mandatory vaccines (Knox). According to Merck, the high cost compared to other vaccines was because they wanted a return on the money spent on development. There may have been another motive behind Merck’s swiftness on promoting Gardasil. GlaxoSmithKline, a rival pharmaceutical company, had been developing their own HPV vaccine, Cervarix, which was approved by the FDA in 2009. This gave Merck a motive to push the vaccine as much as possible, while they were the only ones on the market and before competition might force them to lower their