When did we get so stupid?

OK, check this out:

Merck earlier this month announced that its experimental HPV vaccine Gardasil was 100% effective in preventing transmission of HPV strains 16 and 18, which together cause about 70% of cervical cancer cases.

Hot damn! Great news, right? Let's make sure the thing doesn't have any crazy side effects, and start giving it to everybody!

Only one problem. HPV is present in a huge percentage of the sexually active population, and the vaccine doesn't work, obviously, if you're already carrying the real bug. No big deal, though, at least we can protect our children, who are not yet sexually active. And that's what the drug companies are proposing - giving the vaccine to all 10 or 12 year olds. We'd reduce cervical cancer to 30 percent of its current prevalence. Another win for science.

But no. In walk the usual suspects:

Some parents and health officials object to standardized HPV vaccinations for teenagers and are concerned that children would interpret them as permission to have sex

Gaa! WTF!? Who could be so insane as to risk their own children's health in order to teach them a lesson about sexual morality? Oh. The Family Research Council. From a Knight Ridder story:

Conservative groups including the Family Research Council have already raised concerns that giving a sex-related vaccine to young people might encourage them to have early sex.

Joanne Swift, an ob-gyn doctor for Virtua-Voorhees in New Jersey, said Thursday that she had some qualms about having her own daughters, ages 9 to 13, vaccinated.

"As a mother of children in Catholic school they are very much lectured at home and at school about chastity and the benefits of that," she said.

A doctor and a mother, and she can't see the value in protecting her daughters against cancer? We have gotten dumb.