William Saletan suggests that the current policy of vaccinating girls but not boys is sexist. Dan Savage goes further:
[Y]ou have to vaccinate gay men well before we become sexually active, same as girls. Age 11 [official guideline], remember? And since we don't know at age 11 which boys are going to be gay when they grow up, you have to vaccinate all boys against HPV in order to protect the ones who are going to be gay when they grow up.
It seems like a no-brainer and a win-win: vaccinating all boys against HPV will protect the gays onesgay men are 17 times more likely to develop anal cancer as adultsand help protect girls and women from the deadlier strains of HPV. It would also offer some protection to girls whose parents denied them the vaccine for batshitcrazy religious reasons. That's a win-win-win.
Last week the FDA approved the HPV vaccine for men and boys. The CDC will decide today whether to recommend HPV vaccinations for boys. They should.
Surprise! They didn't.