Bells Should be Ringing

Bells Should be Ringing

The most controversial vaccine on the market might be going down in flames.

So what’s that big, hollow, echoy sound you hear? That’s the mainstream media coverage (or rather complete NON-coverage) of the danger linked to Gardasil – Merck’s vaccine designed to protect women from human papillomavirus virus (HPV), which is one of the primary causes of cervical cancer.

The media helped promote Gardasil. Where are they now when it’s obvious that young women are being put in harm’s way?

Buying the company line

If you browse through a few random articles about Merck’s Gardasil vaccine you’ll find an abundance of favorable comments from doctors, experts, scientists, researchers, elected officials, and parents voicing their unified conviction that the vaccine is safe, effective, and even necessary.

They don’t seem to understand that the moment a new vaccine is released to the public, the recipients become guinea pigs in an informal “study” that eventually reveals the true nature of the vaccine.

In the e-Alert “Every Breath You Take” (3/5/07), I told you how Merck representatives have been encouraging state legislatures across the country to make the HPV vaccine mandatory for young schoolgirls. That’s right: mandatory.

This initiative largely failed, and I expect many state representatives are happy they didn’t back the plan because three deaths have now been linked to Gardasil.

Serious business

According to the British Medical Journal, the deaths were reported to the FDA’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), along with more than 1,600 other adverse reaction reports over the past year. Gardasil was granted FDA approval in June 2006.

Judicial Watch (the investigative public interest group that obtained the FDA data under the Freedom of Information Act) noted in a press release that 77 percent of the adverse reactions were considered “typical” vaccination side effects, while the remaining 23 percent included more serious side effects, such as seizures and Bell’s Palsy. And death.

One of the patients who died suffered a blood clot three hours after receiving the vaccine. Two other patients (aged 12 and 19) died from “heart problems and/or blood clotting.”

This is unbelievably tragic – especially considering that the vaccine in no way guarantees immunity from cervical cancer. Imagine the mother who hears the wonderful reports about Gardasil, believes all the promises, and decides to have her daughter immunized, only to watch helplessly as her child succumbs to a fatal adverse reaction.

But there are plenty of heartbreaking gray areas between no reaction and death. Here are a few details from just three of the VAERS reports compiled by the FDA:

14-year-old girl – Hospitalized: Dehydration, Fall, Headache, Hyperventilation, Injection site pain, Muscle spasms, Speech disorder, Syncope (loss of consciousness due to reduced blood flow to brain), Vision blurred, Vomiting

17-year-old girl – Hospitalized, Life Threatening: Guillain-Barre Syndrome (central nervous system disorder), Hypoaesthesia (impaired tactile sensibility), Paraesthesia (burning skin sensations), Proteinuria (excessive protein in urine – kidney disorder symptom), Red blood cell sedimentation rate increased

16-year-old girl – Hospitalized, Life Threatening: Guillain-Barre Syndrome Hypoaesthesia, Muscular weakness, Paraesthesia, Proteinuria, Red blood cell sedimentation rate increased

Most of the VAERS reports are listed as “not serious.” Here’s one of them: A 20-year-old patient experienced nausea, vomiting, and loss of consciousness. Compared to the others, I suppose that’s “not serious,” but I would guess it was quite serious to the patient and her parents.

Here’s the worst part: Judicial Watch released all of this information three months ago. Three months! After all the reassuring reports about this “necessary” vaccine, why is the mainstream media silent about the dire risks?

Once again, it’s left to those of us who aren’t part of the corporate machine to spread the word. Please send this to every young woman and every parent of a young girl you know. Because even the “not serious” side effects of this vaccine aren’t worth the (very, very limited) benefits.

Sources:
“Questions Over Human Papillomavirus Vaccine in the US and Australia” Janice Hopkins Tanne, British Medical Journal, Vol. 334, 6/9/07, bmj.com
“Judicial Watch Uncovers Three Deaths Relating to HPV Vaccine” Judicial Watch press release, 5/23/07, judicialwatch.org