FiveThirtyEight: States Vary Enormously On HPV Vaccination Rates

[brooklynite]

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released its newest estimates of HPV vaccination rates among teens, and the vaccination rates for the cancer-causing virus are far lower than for other diseases. HPV vaccination rates also vary dramatically from state to state.

Only 40 percent of girls and 22 percent of boys ages 13-17 had finished their course of three shots for HPV by 2014. For comparison, 88 percent of boys and girls in the same age group received their Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis) shot.1 The United States has set a goal of vaccinating 80 percent of girls against HPV as one of its Healthy People 2020 objectives, and, according to Shannon Stokley, an epidemiologist in the Immunization Services Division of the CDC, “We have a long way to go to get to 80 percent; it’s hard to tell if we’re going to reach it by 2020.” However, Stokley told me she believes the success of the Tdap vaccine shows that these rates are achievable, if states and doctors keep educating parents about how vaccinations can protect their children from cancer. Although many people who get HPV do not develop cancer, the virus is the cause of almost all cervical cancers and 91 percent of anal cancers.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/states-vary-enormously-on-hpv-vaccination-rates/

Guess which States have the LOWEST inoculation rates...

Alabama 32.5%
Florida 28.5%
Kansas 28.3%
Missouri 26.0%
Utah 24.8%
Arkansas 23.4%
Tennessee 20.1%

[still_one]

1. They want to put their children at risk for cervical cancer