Recommendation: Research

If the HPV vaccine is going to continue to be given to young girls, research is needed on its efficacy and outcome expectancies.
The government has clearly not taken into account the fact that Merck Frosst does not even know yet how effective the vaccine is and whether or not another shot will need to be given to young girls 5 years or so after their first round of shots; this is just asking for the government to provide more funding in the future for a vaccine that may not even be 100% effective.
Additionally, the research that has been done on the vaccine itself is insufficient. Instead of Merck Frosst doing it’s own testing, comparisons of different vaccines carried out in “government supported research programs, free from any conflict of interest” needs to occur. In order to effectively make health care decisions, and evidence based policy decisions, research needs to show that the vaccine is in fact, cost effective and overall effective enough to be given to girls 9-26 across the board. The original testing of the vaccine only tested around 1200 girls, this number is clearly too low and testing needs to be expanded to more girls across all ages.
Before implementing a nationwide vaccination program, the long term side effects of Gardasil need to be discovered. Currently, they are “waiting” to see if there are any long term side effects from the HPV vaccine; using young Canadian women as guinea pigs.
Research findings also need to be available to the public in order for young women and their families to make informed, evidence based decisions and be aware of all possible short term and long term side effects.