New Worries About Gardasil Safety (HPV / Cervical Cancer Vaccine)

[Rage for Order]

Saw this on the CBS evening news tonight and found it to be a bit alarming knowing what we do about the manner in which the FDA was run while shrub was in office.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/02/06/eveningnews/main4781658.shtml

Gabby Swank was a straight-A student and cheerleader. But that was before she became very ill following the standard dose of three Gardasil vaccinations, Attkisson reports.

You know the commercial. It showed teenage girls saying "I want to be one less" who gets the HPV virus, which is linked to cervical cancer. "It was like a big hype among my friends, because we're like, 'we're gonna get it' because we felt almost pressured by the commercials," Gabby said.

Gabby got sicker after each shot, progressing to seizures, strokes and heart problems. It was her neurologist who suspected Gardasil was to blame. "I think there are too many people having serious long-term side-effects," said neurologist Dr. Dwight Lindholm.

Last fall, the government and vaccine maker Merck concluded there's no link between Gardasil and serious adverse events like Gabby's. But a new analysis calls that finding into question.

The National Vaccine Information Center, a private vaccine-safety group, compared Gardasil adverse events to another vaccine, one also given to young people, but for meningitis. Gardasil had three times the number of Emergency Room visits - more than 5,000. Reports of side effects were up to 30 times higher with Gardasil.

More at the CBS News link. Below is a link to the study to which the report refers.

http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/NVICGardasilvsMenactraVAERSReportFeb2009.pdf

[PM Martin]

1. K/R

[aquart]

2. Texas tried to make it mandatory. That should warn you.

[Rage for Order]

3. If I remember correctly....

When the vaccine was first introduced to the public there was a large contingent of posters here who thought it should be mandatory not just in Texas, but in all states, and anyone who dared question that point of view was anti-science

[newtothegame]

8. I remember that..and the fundies, though against it for other reasons, were railed as lunatics...n/t

[woodsprite]

15. I remember that also. I'm glad I read and I stuck to my guns regarding

my daughter getting the vaccine. People thought I was nuts because I *AM* a gyn cancer survivor. They were like "How could you do that to your daughter?" I asked them how could I offer my only daughter up to be a guinea pig for big pharma? Even my daughter's doc and my MIL were down on me about adamantly saying no.

[truedelphi]

21. In terms of vaccines, sometimes the fundies are our only hope.

Go around my neighborhood with petition to not spray pestiicides in the park.

The three people that took me in taht very hot summer day were all Christians, all persuaded taht clean drinking water and avoiding chems is desirable.

One household gave me some homemade peanut butter cookies made with organics that were to die for, too.

[Maat]

12. I remember that well.

A bunch of us with pre-teen daughters were saying that we wanted to wait and see how people reacted, and were pounded. You know what? Still waiting and observing.

[newtothegame]

17. Good idea and agreed. n/t

[ThomCat]

22. I remember that.

There were a whole lot of very vicious threads about it. Anyone who wasn't 100% behind this vaccine and vaccines in general principal were essentially Luddites who should be banned from public policy and forced to support "real science" whether they like it or not.

[mzmolly]

31. Yes indeed.

In fact, I've considered changing my user name to "Luddite". ;)

:hi:

[Hannah Bell]

32. they're still here, believe you me. they should be crawling out of pseudoscience

any minute now.

Enforcing discipline by labeling anyone not 100% supportive of every vaccine on the market as a "woo" & fundie & beating them into submission with personal abuse.

[Retired AF Dem]

42. You beat me to it

[Why Syzygy]

4. Didn't that little maneuver almost

set Goodhair's um. "good" on fire? What a moron. Men need to keep their paws OFF unless invited.

[Rage for Order]

11. I seem to remember something about...

Him or some of his family or friends having a questionable relationship with Merck

[Hannah Bell]

29. oooh, i want to know more about that.

i think there's a lot of it going around.

[anonymous171]

16. Only because big Pharma wanted them to. nt

[vanderBeth]

5. I was pressured to get it.

Choose not to. I was considering getting this or next year.

I'm not even a anti-vaccination person. I really thought something like this was going to turn up. :shrug:

[PM Martin]

6. Who tried to pressure you into getting this vaccine?

[vanderBeth]

10. I was talking too several of my friends' mothers about it

I don't know if any of them actually got the shot.

There was a lot of talk about it when they wanted to make it mandatory here for school girls. I actually agree with the article that there does seem some pressure for women under 26 to get the vaccine.

[Rage for Order]

7. I'm not anti-vacccine either

I have a 3 year old daughter and she is current on all of her vaccinations. However, when a new drug is introduced with limited testing and no track record and is then rammed down the public's throat it sets off alarm bells in my head. I'd prefer to give it at least 5 years on the market and see what turns up before any of my loved ones are given the drug.

[arikara]

9. Good for you

listening to your own intuition instead of hype and pressure. Wish more people would do that.

[Why Syzygy]

13. I feel very sad for these young women.

I HATE the commercials for it, which make it sound akin to trying a new lipstick. It should not be marketed to teenagers. I'm sure that condom marketing has such restrictions. Even though, in that case, I think they SHOULD be. One changes body chemistry, one does not.

[cilla4progress]

14. Vaccines

I think you are always going to find a certain component of the population who has a bad reaction to any vaccine. This doesn't necessarily disqualify it for the general population.

[chappydog26]

18. I knew this was going to happen eventually

When Gardasil came out, I was 24 and all my friends were talking about how terribly sick it made them. I decided right then that there was no way I was getting it. It's too new and hasn't been tested long enough. Who's to say it won't cause the exact cancer that it's meant to prevent? I'm not anti-vaccine, either (I just got shot up with a shitload of vaccines because I'm in healthcare), but enough is enough.

[KittyWampus]

19. All I'm going to say- it's possible to be against SOME vaccines and not ALL vaccines

And it's also possible to be pro-vaccines and yet think that not all infants or young adults are safe having ever single one available.

[seabeyond]

27. not on this board, wink. n/t

[serrano2008]

20. So who's getting the kickback from Merck on this?

Like the "Tamiflu" thing with Rumsfeld - our Govt gave Gilead Billions for Tamiflu that will never be used cause the bird flu is never gonna happen. It was part of Rummy's pension.

So which one of the Bush Admin is the closest connected to Merck???

[dixiegrrrrl]

26. Eric Holder's name comes up on Merck & Co. links.

I use muckety.com to search relationships between people and bus/gov/etc.

check this out:

http://www.muckety.com/Merck-Co-Inc/5001195.muckety

[Hannah Bell]

34. Gates Foundation + Merck

Mr. Gates has forged other ties with the industry. Microsoft last year named Merck Chief Executive Raymond Gilmartin to its board of directors. Mr. Gates worked with Mr. Gilmartin to launch the vaccine fund and also helped Merck with an AIDS program in Botswana.


http://100777.com/node/1331

Gates' personal investments in pharma, biotech + funding R&D & use heavily through his foundation.

[dixiegrrrrl]

40. Ty, Hannah...the thot plickens, as my G'ma used to say.

[serrano2008]

23. Here's an article from Canada in 2007 - Re: deaths and thousands of serious complications

"In just little over a year, the HPV vaccine has been associated with at least five deaths, not to mention thousands of reports of adverse effects, hundreds deemed serious, and many that required hospitalization."

http://statismwatch.ca/2007/09/20/deaths-associated-with-merck%E2%80%99s-hpv-vaccine-gardasil-over-3500-adverse-affects-reported/comment-page-1/

[Hanse]

24. The NVIC is a loony, anti-vaccer organization.

They hate it when you call them that.

But it's true.

[KittyWampus]

25. No, they're mostly parents who had their kids vaccinated and ended up with problems

due to the vaccines.

Hello? THEY HAD THEIR KIDS VACCINATED.

So they are NOT "anti-vaccinations".

They are simply for informed choices.

[mzmolly]

30. What about the child's neurologist who is quoted?

eom

[Hanse]

33. I think he's speaking from anecdotal evidence, not scientific evidence.

You'll also note he's a neurologist.

Not an immunologist, epidemiologist, or toxicologist.

[mzmolly]

35. Seizures and strokes

are best managed by neurologist. A toxicologist and/or an epidemiologist would not be qualified to diagnose or treat a patient with these symptoms.

[Hanse]

36. Oh, I have no doubt he can diagnose a seizure or stroke.

I just don't think his anecdotal observations carry any weight in comparison to the hundreds of scientists who have proven the safety of gardasil scientifically.

[mzmolly]

37. I doubt that hundreds

of scientists have proven anything of the sort. In fact, a primary researcher who helped develop the vaccine, expressed misgivings at the way it's being used and marketed.

Lastly, the term "safe" is relative in this case.

[Hanse]

38. Right, but you worry about aluminum adjuvants.

So it really doesn't matter what you think.

[mzmolly]

39. I posted science regarding neurological damage being linked to aluminum adjuvants.

This doesn't mean I "worry" about them. Do you "worry" about the average 12 year old contracting HPV?

[mzmolly]

28. Unfortunately the worries are not "new" to some.

Many questioned using this vaccine in young girls from the get go, including one of the scientists who worked for years to develop the vaccine. The anthrax vaccines aluminum adjuvant has been linked to brain neuron death and "gulf war illness" by http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17114826">scientists. (The same adjuvant is used in the Gardasil vax and a few others.) This finding was of course poo pooed by the vaccinate at any cost zealotry.

If we as a society, did not encourage blind allegiance to vaccination, Gabby Swank and her family might have been clued in after her reaction to the FIRST jab.

[undeterred]

41. I'd rather see young unmarried women encouraged to insist

that their male sex partners wear condoms. Not just as birth control, but as real protection against so many diseases.

[Vinca]

43. If a drug comes on the market that "everyone must have,"

BEWARE. There's a great article in Rolling Stone about how big pharma cooks up a drug and then goes in search of suckers to sell it to.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/25569107/bitter_pill They are, of course, aided and abetted by the FDA.