Dem
47
GOP
53
Harald zur Hausen, for those readers who do not recognize the name, is the scientist most responsible for the discovery that cervical cancer is caused by human papilloma virus (HPV). He shared the 2008 Nobel Prize in Medicine with Luc Montagnier and Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, who were responsible for conclusively connecting HIV with AIDS.
Zur Hausen died in 2023, and so did not live to read a new paper published in The Lancet that would undoubtedly have delighted him, as it makes clear that his work has realized its full potential. His research led to the development of the HPV vaccine, which is now almost universally administered in vaccine-friendly countries. In the U.K., 90% of girls ages 12-13 were given the vaccine when it became available a little over 10 years ago. And from 2020-24, a period of 5 years, the number of deaths from cervical cancer, in that cohort, was... zero. Among older British women, there are also substantial drops, depending on the age of the women and the prevalence of the vaccine.
The U.S. politics angle here is presumably obvious. "Health" and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy has called the HPV vaccine "dangerous and defective," and during his confirmation hearing he refused to say the vaccine is safe. He, and some of the people around him, want to keep the vaccine from being administered. On the other hand, the professionals in his department—you know, the ones who are doctors, as opposed to being lawyers—are working hard on the federal government's stated goal of getting 80% of U.S, adolescents vaccinated against HPV by 2030. And their efforts are being supplemented by blue states which, by and large, are the ones with the big populations. So, there's reason to hope that some young lives can be saved on this side of the pond, despite the quackery of Kennedy and his ilk. (Z)