Have we lost faith in our ability to educate children about sexuality?

Catherine Weitbrecht (Letters, August 20 ) deserves full credit for her cautionary tale regarding the Gardasil cervical cancer vaccination. The possible side-effects of this unnecessary innoculation for pre-teenage girls are stark and disturbing.

Proportionality must be taken into account before any such vaccination is propagated by the HSE. Such scrutiny of efficacy and side effects is not an option, but an imperative already so what happened here?

It’s ridiculous to argue that a risk of cervical cancer to 12-year-olds, should be pre-empted with this jab, with its possible downsides.