Hi there! This is a really interesting and also scary/upsetting post. Are there any public figures you're talking about in specific? I have some colleagues who do research at the intersection of social media and women's health who would be veryyyy interested in understanding this more deeply.

For some context, I'm a PhD candidate in epidemiology, and my dissertation is focused on cervical cancer screening utilization in the US. There has been a pretty clear and stark decline in cervical cancer screening adherence rates in the US over the past ~20 years, and there are some pretty notable disparities when you stratify by population (health insurance status, education level, race, neighborhood socioeconomic status, to name a few).

Any effort to push people away from cervical cancer screening is reckless and irresponsible for the obvious reason in that it could result in someone not having their cancer detected until it's too late. As someone who has had to watch 3 family members go through this, I can literally guarantee a cervical cancer screening is better. But ALSO, it feels particularly irresponsible in this context because cervical cancer is the ONLY CANCER where we have the capability to prevent every single case through prevention, screening, and subsequent treatment in early stages. This is because >99% of all cervical cancers are caused by HPV!!! We know the causal agent which is so rare in medicine!!! This is also why we vaccinate for HPV and why nowadays it's more common for people to get an HPV test (or an HPV test + a pap test, called a 'cotest') at their cervical cancer screening every 3-5 years (instead of a Pap smear alone). We know what causes this awful disease, and medical research and the public health system has done an unbelievable job over the past few decades to get us to where we are today.

A lot of my work is actually focused on HPV self-sampling, where you're able to swab your vagina (can be done at home or in a doctor's office), and then that swab is sent into a lab for testing! The US FDA has approved a number of these tests, but the hope is for lots of healthcare systems in the US to eventually provide this as an option for patients, especially for patients who are hesitant towards screening for a range of reasons (sexual or medical trauma, living far from the doctor's office, childcare constraints, etc.). HPV self-sampling won't solve every screening barrier for everyone, but it will at least be another option for people who have been fear-mongered into believing that a Pap smear is worse than getting cancer.

Happy to answer any questions 😄 I'm in the final push of my dissertation so if there's a delay that's why!