Cervical cancer, the fourth most common cancer in women worldwide, kills about 350,000 people annually — but for the last two decades, there’s been a robust, cheap and simple way of preventing much of it: the HPV vaccine. For nearly two decades the shot has shown that girls who are vaccinated under the age of 16 are 80 percent less likely to develop cervical cancer.
Yet, under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s leadership, a vaccine advisory committee, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), recently announced plans to conduct a “comprehensive review” of the vaccine’s efficacy, effectiveness and safety. Specifically, it will discuss the “wording of the age for routine HPV vaccination,” vaccination schedule, and draft policy recommendations.
Kennedy, who founded an anti-vaccine non-profit, Children’s Health Defense, has personally attacked the HPV vaccine. In 2021, Kennedy called the Gardasil vaccine “dangerous and defective,” falsely saying that it increases the risk of cervical cancer. Kennedy once earned referral fees from Wisner Baum, a lawfirm known for its litigation against vaccine companies, which is currently suing the biotech giant Merck, alleging the company failed to properly warn the public about risks from its HPV vaccine. Following backlash, Kennedy has since distanced himself from Wisner Baum, but turned his stake over to his son Conor Kennedy, who works at the law firm.
Last month, Senators Edward Markey, D-Mass., Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md., wrote to Kennedy and Attorney General Pam Bondi, demanding he recuse himself from work related to vaccine injury compensation.
“You appear to be undertaking a dangerous backroom overhaul of the vaccine courts that is hidden from public scrutiny and raises significant conflict of interest concerns,” the lawmakers wrote. “The direct financial stake your family and Wisner Baum may have in pending vaccine litigation casts a cloud over any changes you may make to VICP,” referring to the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. Medical experts agree that the HPV vaccine does not need further scrutiny.
“Cervical cancer is largely caused by HPV, and therefore any forced ‘re-review’ is not based on any new scientific evidence,” Dr. Melissa Simon, an obstetrician-gynecologist at Northwestern Medicine, told Salon. Instead, such a “review” by the re-populated committee “is purely based on ideology and political whim,” she said. “It is disheartening, and further provides evidence to the public and American people that HHS does not have true concern for protecting the health of women and girls based on scientific evidence.”
Since its approval in 2006, the HPV vaccine has long been stigmatized and demonized due to its connection with sexual activity. Between 70 and 80 percent of all sexually active people will at some point contract the HPV virus, which is transmitted via skin-to-skin contact. Most types of HPV are harmless, while some are linked to an increased risk of certain types of cancer, including cervical cancer. The Gardasil 9 HPV vaccine protects against types of HPV that can cause cancers of the mouth, throat, vulva, vagina, penis and anus.
“It’s always faced slightly challenging connotations, because it is preventing a sexually transmitted infection,” Helen Bedford, a professor of children’s health at University College London, told Salon. “For some parents, they feel, well, my daughter is very young, and why do I need to protect them against a sexually transmitted infection?”
People typically clear the virus on their own and often don’t even know they’ve been infected. But in some people, HPV remains in the body and may cause several types of cancer. Some people believed that the vaccine could cause young girls to become sexually active at a young age — but multiple studies have debunked this.
If HPV vaccination rates fall, it’s possible cervical cancer rates can rise.
While details on how the ACIP committee plans to revisit the “wording of age” are still being worked out, Bedford said it is better to be vaccinated younger. The U.S. has historically recommended two doses of the HPV vaccine before age 15 and three doses if they start after age 15. Vaccinations usually start at age 11 or 12, but can be as early as nine. In the United Kingdom, it’s offered around 12 and 13 years of age, and it’s usually part of a school-wide vaccination program.
“It’s always good to re-review vaccine programs, and it may be that it’s felt that if it were given slightly older, you might get higher uptake,” Bedford said. “But certainly in the U.K., it’s offered around 12 to 13. When it was first introduced, the uptake was very, very high.”
Bedford said vaccination rates have declined in the U.K. since the COVID-19 pandemic because schools were temporarily closed. But even for those who missed the window, adolescents can be vaccinated later in life and still be protected.
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ACIP said it also plans to reassess the vaccine’s safety and efficacy. But recent data substantiates that the vaccine is highly effective and safe. According to a modeling study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine earlier this month, those who were vaccinated between the ages of 12 and 24 may need cervical cancer screening only once every 15 to 25 years, suggesting that the vaccine coverage is so effective that cancer screenings could be reduced in a population.
In November 2025, Cochrane published their own review stating HPV vaccines are effective in preventing cervical cancer, especially when given to young people before they are exposed to the virus, and the vaccine has no “serious safety concerns.” According to a study from Public Health Scotland (PHS) published in 2024, there were no reported cervical cancer cases in fully vaccinated women who received the vaccine between the ages of 12 and 13, since the program started in Scotland in 2008.
In Kennedy’s revamped childhood vaccine schedule, the CDC is already recommending one dose of the HPV vaccine instead of two. The World Health Organization supports an off-label recommendation for a one-dose schedule based on recent efficacy data from single-dose trials. Doctors and researchers agree that one dose is fine in adolescents, but two to three doses are still recommended in older and immunocompromised populations.
“The scientific evidence shows that one dose is all that’s needed to confer immunity to adolescents to provide long-term protection against HPV that causes cervical cancer,” Simon said.
Bedford agreed.
“That itself is not a worrying move,” she said. “But of course, you know it’s how that’s recommended.”
If HPV vaccination rates fall, Bedford said it’s possible cervical cancer rates can rise.
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“There’s always an opportunity for people to catch up later, which would be a good thing; if they don’t have it when they’re young, they might catch up later,” Bedford said. “But certainly if uptake falls, that’s a strong possibility, because we know that it is a very effective vaccine.”
Simon said that this is yet another example of Kennedy’s HHS undermining “well-established scientific processes and rigorous methodology for health care.” She said she fears that U.S. health care providers and patients “will not benefit from the knowledge of sound scientific evidence that our tax dollars and many agencies have invested in over decades to ensure the health of all Americans.”
From an international perspective, Bedford said, it’s been “horrifying” to watch.
“We’ve always looked to the United States to see how things are going in vaccine programs,” she said. “We know that, particularly with the HPV vaccine, the evidence is accumulating all the time about the value of this vaccine and how effective it is in preventing cancer.”
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