Kathy Castor: “I thank Chairman Pallone for yielding the time. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of my bipartisan legislation with…”

“I thank Chairman Pallone for yielding the time. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of my bipartisan legislation with Representative Kim Schrier, the PREVENT HPV Cancers Act. Mr. Speaker, if Dr. Francis Collins, the head of the NIH, called a press conference today and announced that we had found a cure for cancer, there would be cause for celebration. Well, since 2006, there has been a safe and effective vaccine that prevents six types of cancer, including HPV-related cancers, including cervical cancer and throat cancer. It has been a remarkable development. The problem is that with these HPV-related cancers, there are no screening tests for many of these cancers, other than cervical cancer, for which there is a screening test. So you have to rely on prevention in order to avoid ever contracting these types of cancers. The other problem is that during the pandemic, there has been a dramatic drop-off in childhood vaccinations. It is very troubling. All childhood vaccinations have fallen way off, but particularly with the cancer-preventing HPV vaccine. According to data from CDC, HPV vaccinations fell by almost 64 percent for children ages 9 to 12, and they fell 71 percent for young people ages 13 to 17 compared to the previous two years. Last year alone, more than 1 million doses were missed. Mr. Speaker, here is what is also troubling, the trends that are here: There is a distinct rise among men and HPV-related cancers.…”