Merck suspends lobbying for Gardasil vaccine

If the medical/public health community believes that the vaccine should be mandated (with an opt-out choice) for school age girls then the medical community should be lobbying for it, not the pharmaceutical company that profits from sales.

My issue with this.

The vaccine is for HPV, not specifically cervical cancer. And while 70% of cervical cancer is due to HPV, there are other issues that should come into play.

Why is the marketing for only girls to get the vaccine? Females are not the only ones that get HPV. HPV DOES have consequences for males and is incurable. While they may not make as prominent news or be as deadly as cervical cancer, men should be just as required to get the shots to, as they are a major part of the spread of the virus. The EU and Australia have approved the use in young males, but the USA hasn't. It is suspected that prevention of HPV will decrease some cancers found in males.

Why in the USA was this initially tested mainly on females and approved for females, when almost every other vaccine is tested on males or on both genders. Do men not have a stake in this?

In addition, are we requiring the Hep B vaccine in all children of that age? Many of the same activities that spread HPV, also spread HepB, and the illness and deathes that come from that are spread across BOTH genders.