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pfdietz 3 hours ago

The estimated number of deaths from cervical cancer in the US in 2026 is 4,200. The death rate is 2.2 per 100,000 people down from 3.1 per 100,000 in 1992.

If we multiply 3.1e-5 by 50 years that's about a 0.15% chance of dying of this cancer. The HPV shots cost $500-1000 for the three shots, so the cost per life saved is about $650K. With the statistical value of a human life being about $12M this is quite cost effective.

I'm assuming the reduction in death continues to later in life after 30, but that's a reasonable assumption, IMO.

Gigachad 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Even if you just consider all of those 4000 + survivors would have got treatment for the cancer after getting it which costs far more than a vaccine.

cma 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Yep and significantly more than the death count would have needed expensive treatment and be out of the workforce for a time or permanently. Also the charged price isn't real cost to the economy. If they have a big margin on it after fixed research/approval expenses lots of it feeds back into the economy through taxes and dividends/reinvestment in other drug development.

Beyond death, it can also cause sterility and people may end up with extremely expensive IVF surrogacy pregnancies etc.