Yesterday the Illinois Senate Human Services Committee voted 6-4 along party lines (Democrats for; Republicans against) for mandated HPV vaccines of all 11- and 12-year-old girls. The bill now goes before the full Senate. Here was the most interesting exchange of the hearing.
Question from unnamed state senator:
It is often said that although breast cancer is not hereditary, if there is a history of it in the family you are more likely to get it. Is that similar to cervical cancer also?
Answer from proponent, L. Stewart Massad, Associate Professor, Division of Gynecologic Oncology, at SIU in Springfield:
Not to the same degree. There's some minor link, but it's more that people who live from underprivileged backgrounds, people who smoke, people who have multiple partners, those characteristics tend to run in families....
