Advisory Panel Approves HPV Vaccine!

I loves me some good news! And it's about time that science and medicine prevail over ideology and politics. (U.S. Panel Endorses Routine Cervical Cancer Vaccine for Girls)
But the fight is not over...its just beginning.

A U.S. advisory panel unanimously voted Thursday that 11- and 12-year-old girls be routinely vaccinated against the virus that causes cervical cancer! Cervical cancer is the second most common malignant disease in women globally, causing an estimated 290,000 deaths worldwide each year. In the United States, some 10,400 new cases will be diagnosed this year, and 3,700 women will die from the disease.

The National Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices also recommended that the vaccine, called Gardasil, be administered to girls as young as 9, at the provider's discretion, and for women up to age 26 who have not previously been vaccinated against the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus (HPV).

The advisory committee also recommended that the vaccine be included in the Vaccines for Children Program, which provides free vaccines for children up to age 18 who are eligible for Medicaid, are uninsured or are Native American or Alaskan Native.

Some religious conservatives and other critics have expressed concern that giving the vaccine to children could encourage underage sex.

The recommendations will be passed along to the head of the CDC and to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for review, and are expected to be accepted.

However, via Feministing, Madeline Halperin-Robinson states:
"But more hurdles to access must be cleared before we can declare victory over the STI that can cause cervical cancer. Typically, the committee's recommendations are adopted by each state and used as a guide for government and private insurers to decide whether or not to cover the vaccine. But we are not living in typical times. Feministing has already reported about the far right’s opposition to making the vaccine available to poor women and girls, and they may still succeed.
The ACIP committee's recommendations are great news for rational people who believe science should trump political ideology. All but two states allow religious exceptions to mandatory vaccines, and many states allow exemptions for philosophical reasons-- so fundamentalists will be able to say no to the vaccine for their own daughters. But that's not enough for the religious right. They want to foist their religious beliefs on all young girls. We may see individual states bow to these pressures and make the unprecedented move to go against the ACIP recommendations. This would derail efforts to make the vaccine available to all by weakening the incentive for insurance companies to cover the cost of the vaccine."