An Inocuous Inoculation?

What do you do with a vaccine that was tested on “fewer than 1,200 girls under age 16”, and is potentially responsible for as many as 9,749 adverse reactions (in all age groups), including 20 deaths? If you’re the state of Virginia you make it mandatory that all 11- and 12-year-old girls receive it by Oct 1 or face removal from school. (http://ncregister.com/site/article/15691 - subscription required)

Gardasil “fights two strains of HPV [Human Papillomavirus] believed to cause 70% of cervical cancers”. But among those who have reservations about how quickly the vaccine is being dispensed is Dr. Diane Harper, HPV specialist and Dartmouth Medical School professor—who also just happens to be one of the vaccine’s developers. Harper acknowledges that nobody knows whether there will be other adverse effects because “’the vaccine hasn’t been studied long enough. Nor do we know whether these adverse effects will happen more frequently if more than one vaccine — for example, Menactra [for meningitis] and Gardasil — are given at the same office visit.’”

Harper also raises two other issues:

“’The vaccine has been tested for only six years. So we don’t know if it will protect an 11- or 12-year-old from cancer 25 years down the road.’”

The myth of the vaccine’s ineffectiveness with regards to sexually active girls: “’The studies show girls will be just as protected [from cervical cancer] if they get the shots at age 15, 18, 22, or 26 — even if they’ve been exposed to HPV. There’s no reason to push this on 12-year-olds.’”

Questions have also been raised as to whether this vaccine is necessary at any age given the numbers associated with HPV and cervical cancer. Although 6.2 million Americans are infected annually by this sexually-transmitted disease, “90% of the infections clear up without treatment. A rare few go on to trigger cervical cancer.”

4,000 American women die each year from cervical cancer. By comparison, according to Wikipedia.com over 5,000 people died in 2007 from motorcycle accidents. This is not making light of cervical cancer; it is just putting the statistics into perspective. We are not seeing an epidemic that needs to be attacked immediately.

Finally, there is the question of parental rights. Many parents believe it is inappropriate to introduce their children to human sexuality at the age of 11 or 12, particularly if it is under the circumstances of explaining a vaccine that protects against a sexually-transmitted disease. To many this is the government overstepping its boundaries and co-opting the role of parents.

So who is behind this mad rush to inject our daughters with Gardasil?

There are numerous “progressive” groups obsessed with making our children sexually active at younger and younger ages. Chances are their political clout has helped pressure the government into forcing this onto the American public.

But the biggest culprit in this is probably Merck, the vaccine’s manufacturer, which stands to reap a financial harvest from the Virginia legislation alone. The cost of the vaccine is “$500 for a series of three shots”. Multiply $500 times the number of 11- and 12-year-old girls in the Virginia school system and you are talking about a dollar figure with many zeros at the end of it. And let’s face it: pharmaceutical companies spend huge amounts of money each year lobbying government officials.

Dr. Harper asks, “’Why the rush to get everybody vaccinated?’” A good rule to live by when searching for motivations: Follow the Money



Donald Tremblay