And while at first they had the churches support in 2016, she can't say for sure what has changed or what has caused the sudden reversal in position 10 years later:
Dr. Natalia Largaespada Beer, Technical Advisor for Maternal and Child Health
"We along with the Belize Cancer Society, we invested 6 months of work with the different religious leaders and we had full support from all."
"We haven't received any reason why this push back from the Catholic Church in regards to the school based HPV vaccination campaign so we are waiting on a meeting with the Minister of Health. This was requested in writing with the authorities from the Catholic Church and we can only answer that question after that meeting. I really don't know."
"I would have loved for us to have a sit down with the Catholic Church before having this interview but that has not happened as yet. I see the press release they issued today that it still doesn't answer the question why we are not allowed to continue with this public health intervention. And the issue is we are making it more difficult for parents and their children to have access to the vaccine."