Promoting Resources to Expand Vaccination, Education, and New Treatments for Hpv Cancers Act of 2021

Floor Speech

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Ms. CASTOR of Florida. Mr. Speaker, 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. Four out of ten HPV-related cancers occur among men: a lot of throat cancer. There are now 14,000 men annually being diagnosed with HPV-related cancers. That is a five-fold increase over the past 20 years.

We can tackle this problem by helping educate families and parents all across America to avoid these catastrophic diagnoses and save lives in doing it.

The PREVENT HPV Cancers Act builds on work the CDC is already doing to raise awareness about gynecological cancers through Johanna's Law and includes HPV and HPV-related cancers in the national public awareness campaign to educate providers, parents, and the general public about the lifesaving HPV vaccine. This is especially important in rural areas where there has also been a very dramatic drop-off.

I thank my friends back home at the Moffitt Cancer Center, Florida's only NCI-designated cancer center, Dr. Anna Giuliano, who is an expert in the field, for educating me, and for bringing together advocates across the country.

I thank Chairman Pallone, Chair Eshoo, Ranking Member McMorris Rodgers, and Chairman Guthrie very much for their help, and Dr. Burgess as well for his support. Thank you for making this a bipartisan effort.

I also thank Stephen Holland with the majority staff and Kristen Shatynski with the minority staff.

Mr. Speaker, to the parents and families, it is vitally important to know that you can prevent your children from ever contracting cancer through the HPV vaccine. It is safe and effective, and more parents need to understand the import of doing this.

Mr. Speaker, I urge adoption, a ``yes'' vote on H.R. 1550, the PREVENT HPV Cancers Act.

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