Gardasil is not safe, says watchdog group SaneVax (www.sanevax.org). But safe and effective vaccine advocates in the U.S. aren’t the only nay-sayers of the HPV vaccine. Merck, the vaccine’s manufacturer, is receiving criticism from around the globe. I only hope politicians stop throwing vital young women into the lion’s den before any more die or become disabled.

It seems California Governor Jerry Brown hasn’t checked out the latest list of Gardasil’s victims. On Oct. 12, he signed into law a bill that will give children 12 and older the right to get the vaccine without parental consent.  At that age, my kids weren’t even allowed to decide what video they could rent, let alone what shots they needed. Imagine what will happen when no one entity, not Merck, the state of California or the CDC, takes responsibility for the deaths and adverse events that are bound to occur.

Take 20-year-old Megan Hild for example. Megan was old enough to make the decision to be vaccinated for herself, but now her family wishes that she had not done it. A resident of New Mexico, Megan was a happy, healthy college student busy earning her associates degree when she died  after receiving a single injection of Gardasil. Normally given in three separate injections, the vaccine is intended to protect young men and women (and now children as young as nine) from the human papillomavirus (HPV) – and cervical cancer, some years down the road.

The thing that is so hard to believe is that the young women who were taken down by this vaccine were not previously in ill-health. In fact, they all looked so alive and happy – before they were “jabbed.”

Here’s an excerpt from an email written by Megan’s mother that appears on www.sanevax.org:  “Please do not allow another family to live the kind of life we have been made to live.”

Indeed, dear woman, something is not right. Why is it necessary to play Russian roulette with young lives? If as many teens died, or were injured because of a car malfunction, would our government hesitate to take the particular model off the market?

In most of the cases I’ve read about, the victims had physical symptoms that manifested after one or more injections. Megan’s included rash, severe stomach pains, severe headaches/migraines, extreme fatigue, and vaginal bleeding. But adverse effects attributed to the vaccine reportedly vary from case to case. Seizures and loss of vision are also common.

Here are the stats reported by www.sanevax.org: As of March 2011, there have been 103 deaths reported to VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Effects Reporting System) since Gardasil came onto the market in 2006; and over 23,000 adverse events. Many young people have been disabled, taken to the emergency room, hospitalized, or labeled “serious.”

Megan loved her family, said the short article on the website, especially her niece and nephew. Was she at risk of cervical cancer? I don’t know, but somehow I think she was more at risk of  adverse effects from Gardasil, at least for the next few decades.

The subject of cervical cancer and HPV piqued my interest after I read Michele Bachmann’s comments denouncing Governor Rick Perry’s campaign to vaccinate all Texas schoolgirls with Gardasil. The vaccine was approved by the FDA in 2006, and Perry wasted no time on the maneuver. Fortunately, the state legislature overturned his decision.

While she has yet to prove her statement that the vaccine causes mental retardation, Bachmann’s comments did serve a purpose: they caused some of us to do our homework.

I think if Bachmann had done her homework, she could have prevented more tragic losses. Some of the stories about Gardasil victims say the girls lost their ability to go to school, to study, and have conversations.

I was always of the opinion that the Pap test did a great job detecting cervical cancer; but now everyone is concerned about all the 11 year olds, and in some states, girls as young as 9, who are at risk for sexually transmitted HPV infections that may later cause cancer.

Is all this vaccinating really necessary? In her book Home Alone America, Mary Eberstadt says that birth control, i.e., the pill, has only increased the ravages of STDs. She believes the best way to prevent teens from having sex, and possibly getting STDs, is to have a parent around when the kids are at home. What a concept. With mom or dad there, maybe Merck would not have had a chance to run amuck, and spoil so many family portraits.

According to CDC statistics, the number of cervical cancer cases is actually decreasing, due to more women having regular Pap tests. In 2007, the most recent year numbers are available, 12,280 women were diagnosed with cervical cancer; and 4,021 died.

In her article, Profits Know No Borders, Selling Gardasil to the Rest of the World: Part Four of the Politics and PR of Cervical Cancer (www.prwatch.org, July 18, 2007), Susan Siers-Poisson author writes that Canada’s shot in the arm, $300 million (U.S.$288.4 million) in federal money, came only a month after former senior policy adviser Ken Boessenkool registered to lobby the federal government on immunization policy on behalf of Merck-Frosst Canada. He lobbied for a vaccination program that would prevent cervical cancer, “[W]hich,” writes Siers-Poisson, “would certainly benefit Merck-Frosst.”

Each year, Siers-Poisson writes, approximately 400 Canadian women die of cervical cancer. “The CWHN (Canadian Women’s Health Network) points out that while tragic, it does not constitute an epidemic.” She goes on to say that it was Merck-Frosst’s aggressive marketing of the vaccine that created the demand for it in Canada, as in the U.S.

(This is called “push” marketing, in case anyone wants to know. It’s why kids beg for Fruit Loops and Frosted Flakes.)

According to an Aug. 2008 article on Pharmalot.com, Gardasil protects against HPV strains 16 and 18, which are responsible for 70 percent of cervical cancers; and HPV strains 6 and 11, which cause 90 percent of genital warts.  The protective effect of the vaccine is currently about five years. (Not a lifetime!) With the recommended age for vaccination being 11 and 12, the report says the vaccine has diminishing returns as girls age.

All day I looked at YouTube Videos and read testimonies from parents whose daughters have been seriously affected, and even died, after receiving the Gardasil vaccine. The Center for Disease Control denies a relationship between the vaccine and the adverse reactions, including the deaths. Try explaining that to the girls’ parents.

In 2010, GlaxoSmithKline’s U.K. ads for the Ceravix vaccine used the phrase, “Armed for life.” Christina England of www.offtheradar.com said she felt so outraged about the misleading claims that she wrote the company a “strong letter” backed with evidence. The company changed the ad, and admitted to false advertising.

France banned Gardasil ads in August 2010, and Ceravix ads have been banned in India.

“This has got to stop for the sake of the children,” writes England. “This is propaganda drummed up to sell vaccines. These vaccines are now given to children of both sexes from the age of nine.”

False advertising claims (such as the Swedish TV ad saying that cervical cancer can be prevented by the HPV vaccine) can be reported to www.sanevax.com.
It’s common knowledge that Merck makes substantial political donations. According to www.news-medical.net, “Women in Government, a non-partisan organization of female legislators from across the U.S. has been receiving corporate donations from Merck on the issue.” In addition, “Susan Crosby, president of Women in Government, said that the group receives unrestricted grants from Merck and that it determines the content of its educational efforts.”

If my daughters were 11 and 12, I would definitely be concerned.

Read more on the National Vaccination Information Center website (www.nvic.org)

Of all the videos I watched today, this one I will never forget. The young woman, like Megan and all the others, did not deserve what happened to her: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gCVCP8BFrU. FFG

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