Meet Lil’ Poundcake, “the first doll approved to administer the human papillomavirus vaccination to girls under ten”.
If she sounds like the bizarre-twisted creation of a comic’s mind, she is. A skit in this weekend’s Saturday Night Live — no doubt in response to the recent controversy over human papillomavirus immunization stirred by a Republican presidential debate in the US — imagines this doll, which will definitely not be the must-have gift this Christmas . “Lil’ Poundcake protects against HPV with a series of three injections over a period of six months AND she’s got her own phone.” Creepy!
Sadly, some viewers and readers will take this as evidence of a real conspiracy to force inoculation of innocent little girls. Such a notion fits their pre-existing paranoia about government and science.