The HPV Vaccine:
Prevention We Just Don't Need

There is active legislation in the United States that is currently mandating girls to be inoculated with the new HPV vaccine, Gardasil, by the sixth grade. Parents and health professionals are very hesitant to accept such legislation for good reason.

Human papillomavirus vaccine (HPV) is a vaccine designed to immunize against certain sexually transmitted diseases, such as cervical cancer and genital warts, which are caused by human papillomaviruses. The only HPV vaccine currently on the market is Gardasil.

As adverse side effects from the new vaccine have been reported, the opposition to the vaccine has grown. A lead researcher, Diane Harper, a scientist and physician who has spent 20 years developing the vaccine for human papillomavirus, says the HPV vaccine is not for younger girls, and that it is "silly" for states to be mandating them. (http://kpcnews.com/online_features/hpv_vaccine - March 2007)

Merck's vaccine was approved last year by the FDA for females ages 9 to 26 by the Centers for Disease Control's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). Dr. Diane Harper stated that the public needs to know that with vaccinated women and women who will still get pap smears (which tests for abnormal cells that can lead to cancer), some of them will still get cervical cancer because the HPV is only effective against two of the abnormal cells that cause about 70% of the cervical cancers. Merck has proven that it has zero effectiveness for curing cancer. Inoculating young girls may backfire because it will give them a false sense of protection. Dr. Harper says that we do not need mandatory vaccinations for little girls, but what we do need to ask, though, is how long does it last, and when do you need a booster?

Dr. Harper's advice to the governors of the states in this country is that vaccinating little girls now is not going to protect them later. Since it can take a decade or more to even manifest themselves as dysplasia (cell abnormality), the HPVs against which the vaccine may work may infect a little girl at the age she needs the vaccine most - and it won't work at all if she was positive for the virus when she was inoculated in the first place. To mandate vaccinations now is simply to Merck's benefit, and only to Merck's benefit, says Harper. Merck was required to put together a database on the efficacy in children before Gardasil was approved, Harper said, but instead, the company put together four study sites that "are not necessarily representative, and may not even have enough numbers to determine what they need to know." When questioned if she feared losing her funding from Merck and Glaxo because of her criticisms, her answer was that "I need to be able to sleep with myself when I go to bed at night, my concern is still, let's get women's health better. It is still a good vaccine. But let's be honest. Don't over-promise." (www.kpcnews.com/articles/2007/03/14/)

The CDC study puts the prevalence of the types of infections with HPV (6, 11, 16 or 18, the types prevented by Gardasil), at under 1.6 percent. Although HPV is certainly widespread in the population, the vast number of people who contract it "will not have any symptoms and will clear the infection on their own" to quote the Centers for Disease Control (CDC - 2004). A finding from this same study found that the strains of the virus that are the most closely linked to cervical cancer are found in fewer than one in 30 women. An infection that almost always causes no symptoms and clears up on its own is hardly a cause for alarm, still less for a campaign of mandatory vaccination aimed at schoolchildren. There have been calls for the universal vaccination of American males as well; however, the CDC (2006) states that it does not yet know if the vaccine is effective in boys or men.

Shortcomings of the Gardasil Clinical Trials:

What are the long-term consequences, positive as well as negative, of such vaccination? The trial was relatively short - test subjects only being monitored over a period ranging from 18 months to 4 years, with no data on long-term safety. We currently do not have any evidence concerning the durability of Gardasil's immunity beyond 5 years. There were only 1,200 of the 20,000 women in the youngest age group. "So we have a situation in which the very group that is being singled out for mandatory vaccination is actually the group that was conspicuously under-represented in the clinical trials, and followed-up for the shortest time." In the clinical trials, only 10 percent of the control group was given a genuine placebo (inert saline solution). The remaining 90 percent were given a solution containing some alum (aluminum hydroxide) adjuvant (something that enhances the effectiveness of medical treatment) - the purpose of which is to elicit a heightened immune response.

Lawsuits stemming from what are perceived as after effects of the vaccine could also represent a major financial challenge to the manufacturer and a political problem for all who mandated its use. There were 9 cases of arthritis in the Gardasil vs. 3 in the placebo group, but if 2 million girls are inoculated each and every year, as advocates propose, the number of anticipated cases of arthritis would climb to about 1,520 cases per year. Even a relatively small percentage of adverse effects like this would be a very high price to pay for the prevention of a disease that is entirely preventable by other means. Vaccines are not necessarily without serious health repercussions - sometimes they only show up in the years after the FDA has given its approval.

The mainstream media have tended to ignore the scientific weakness of the argument for Gardasil. The Texas mandatory vaccination law was written to include an opt-out clause exempting people from mandatory vaccination, but only on religious or conscience grounds. Ironically, you cannot opt out because you reject the dubious science behind this financially-motivated promotion. By and large, leading doctors would rather leave parents with the impression that Gardasil is mandatory and there is nothing that can be done about it. Merck's track record in revealing the dangerous side effects of its drugs is hardly stellar and Merck is a company in deep trouble because of the liability of the drug Vioxx (which was allegedly safe but caused over 27,000 heart attacks and sudden cardiac deaths). This is a prime example of what the medical writer Lynn Payer called "disease mongering" (Payer 1994).
(www.diseasemongering.org). We are all exposed to 100 forms of HPV from birth onwards, and eighty percent of all women (and at least the same if not more for men) have been exposed to more than one form of this virus. Thus, to say that each and every day that you delay getting Gardasil you are putting yourself at risk is scientific gobbledygook. Should we make the entire female population, first of Texas, and then of the other states and countries, into human guinea pigs to test the long-term safety of the latest moneymaking product from Big Pharma?

Are there ways to reduce the risk of cervical cancer in susceptible women, short of inoculating the entire female population?

1. Screening : Conventional treatment of early-stage cervical cancer is still between 95 and 100 percent effective, when having regular Pap tests. Pap smears are not done on approximately 33 percent of eligible women. (Over 20 million women lack health insurance and are less likely to have regular Pap tests than those with private insurance). Doesn't mandating vaccination for cervical cancer evade the urgent need to implement a health care system that includes Pap smears? (Wall Street projects that there will be $4 billion in annual sales for Gardasil).

2. Women who smoked - or were exposed to the passive smoke of others for three or more hours a day - had a nearly 3.42 times greater chance of developing abnormal cervical tissue (Slattery 1989). Women may also increase their risk through the use of recreational drugs and alcohol.

3. Maintain a strong immune system through a healthy lifestyle so as to ward off potentially dangerous viruses. The great majority of HPV strains are harmless. Practice "safe sex."

Cervical cancer is generally a slow-growing tumor, and the test period for Gardasil was not a lengthy one. Therefore it is not surprising that not a single case of cervical cancer occurred in the test groups during the clinical trials. In the trials, the development of genital warts and CIN (cervical intraepithelial neoplasia) were used as "stand-ins" for cervical cancer - but that is not the same thing as truly demonstrating the prevention of cervical cancer.
Even the FDA has been forced to admit that. The best they can do now is sidestep the issue by saying "It is believed that prevention of cervical precancerous lesions is highly likely to result in the prevention of these cancers. (FDA 2006, emphasis added). So, are we now mandating vaccines for half the population based on an unproven premise that is 'believed' to be 'highly likely'? Where is the science in that?" There are more cost effective ways of doing so.

{"ON GUARD - GARDASIL, A critical look at a new and controversial vaccine," by Ralph W. Moss, PhD., CancerDecisions.com - The Moss Reports - March 2007} Dr. Moss is the director of Cancer Communications, Inc. of Lemont, PA. He has written 11 books and three film documentaries on cancer research and treatment. His cancerdecisions.com website is top rated in Yahoo on cancer treatments, conventional and nonconventional. Dr. Moss has appeared on over 400 radio and T.V. programs. His list of accolades and accomplishments is impressive - check his web site. (He has listed 38 references for the facts in this report).

Vaccine eliminate a cancer? Gardasil is not a cancer vaccine, it is a vaccine for a virus, specifically for four of the more than 100 types of HPV. Because the HPV vaccine was only studied for 3 ½ years, the long-term effectiveness and safety of this vaccine is not known. It took years for Thalidomide and Vioxx (also a Merck product) to demonstrate their most negative side effects. With an issue as "murky" as this, our little girls should not be guinea pigs.

Gardasil does not treat HPV infection, nor does it work as a protection against cervical cancer when administered to women already infected with the virus. Given the widespread occurrence of HPV, this means that in the majority of cases, Gardasil will offer no health benefits whatsoever. However, they will possibly expose themselves to unhealthy side effects. Gardasil does not take the place of the Pap test. According to Alan Cantwell, M.D., a retired dermatologist and an AID's and cancer researcher, a number of cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome (a serious, polio-like disease) have already occurred in female test subjects who received Gardasil. Additionally, according to the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), during Gardasil trial tests conducted by Merck, "the vaccine triggered adverse reports in 90 percent of the test subjects within 15 days" (emphasis added). Compounding this finding is the fact that Merck, with the approval of the FDA, used a placebo containing an aluminum adjuvant for the control test groups. This particular adjuvant is known to cause adverse reactions, meaning that the adverse reactions by the control group made it seem as if adverse reactions caused by Gardasil were less than they actually were - the tests ensured that Gardasil appeared safer than it is. This is despite the fact that both participants in the control and Gardasil groups also experienced numerous side effects, including dizziness, headache, fever, diarrhea, and vomiting. And in the Gardasil group, more serious side effects were also experienced, including appendicitis, asthma, arthritis, bronco spasms, gastroenteritis, and pelvic inflammatory disease. Gardasil contains aluminum, a known toxin that can cross the blood barrier, causing brain dysfunctions, as well as triggering unhealthy inflammation, chronic fatigue, and chronic pain in the joints and muscles. Even so, the FDA still approved it. (How do supplement companies get in on this action? Oh, that's right. They can't, because the FDA is serious in its duty to protect us against vitamins!) {Health Plus Letter, Vol. 5, No. 4, March 14, 2007, by Larry Trivieri - http://www.1healthyworld.com/ezine)

Merck said it was halting its efforts to pressure states into making Gardasil mandatory because of the backlash among physicians, consumer advocates, parents and even legislators. "This proves once again that motivated people can make a difference in public policy," says Tony Perkins, of the Family Research Council. David Welch, of the U.S. Pastor Council, an interdenominational, interracial coalition based in the Houston area, who has been lobbying against Governor Rick Perry's decision since the Texas governor signed an executive order imposing that vaccine mandate in Texas. He noted that the state lawmakers there are already advancing a legislative plan that would overturn the governor's plan. Others are not so patient. Perkins noted that there are reports that parents of young girls in Texas already have filed lawsuits against Perry for "overstepping his authority and illegally requiring the vaccine for preteens." The negative fallout is still simmering in states where bills to make the drug mandatory have either been withdrawn or have yet to be assigned to committee. A new study released in the Journal of the American Medical Association confirms only 3.4 percent of women studied had an infection that Gardasil protects against.
(www.wnd.com/news/printer-friendly.asp?ARTICLE_ID=54515)

The idea that we need to force people to take shots here in the U.S. flies in the face of everything America is supposed to stand for - namely personal freedom. Switzerland has no such coercive laws and it is noted for having the finest health care system in the world (at half the cost of ours), and includes recognizing the values of natural healing arts such as homeopathy, herbalism, etc. No plagues exist there. To say that our compulsory vaccination policy is flawed is an understatement: history will show how barbaric and oppressive it really is. (Excellent material about compulsory vaccinations, and current policy). ("U.S. Infectious Disease Policy, Based On The Wrong Germ Theory," Dr. Carolyn Dean, M.D., N.D., and Elissa Meininger, NewsWithViews, September 8, 2005. *Dr. Dean has many other articles of interest, and you can sign up for free e-mail alerts. Web sites: www.carolyndean.com and www.deathbymodernmedicine.com)

NVIC President Barbara Loe Fisher tells us that there are twice as many children collapsing and four times as many children experiencing tingling, numbness and loss of sensation after getting a GARDASIL vaccination compared to those getting a Tdap (tetanus-diphtheria-acellular pertusis) vaccination. There have also been reports of facial paralysis and Guillain-Barre Syndrome. To avoid unnecessary injuries, teenage girls should be vaccinated when lying down and not left unattended, and probably should not walk or drive themselves home from the doctor's office after they get vaccinated. (There have been estimates that fewer than 10 percent, even as low as 1 to 4 percent, of adverse events which occur after prescription drug or vaccine use are ever reported to government adverse event reporting systems (VAERS - vaccine adverse event reporting system).

If only 1 to 4 percent of all adverse events associated with GARDASIL vaccination are reported to VAERS, there could have been up to 38,000 health problems after GARDASIL vaccination in 2006 which were never reported, said Fisher. "How many girls are really having short-term health problems associated with getting this vaccine that could turn into long-term neurological or immune disorders? And how many will go on to develop fertility problems, cancer or damage to their genes, all of which Merck admits in its product insert that it has not studied at all? We just don't know enough to be mandating GARDASIL for anyone, much less vulnerable 11 to 12 year old girls entering puberty." NVIC - National Vaccine Information Center.

Motivated individuals can change public policy! We must get angry enough to provide a backlash to government tyranny and discrimination. Requiring vaccinations interferes with one of our basic freedoms - freedom to select the kind of medical care for ourselves and our families. Virginia Governor Kaine recently signed a measure which is a step in the right direction. This law is popularly known as "Abraham's Law," giving parents and children more say in how a child is medically treated (Governor Kaine's website, March 21, 2007). In addition, we need laws that allow parents and families to just say "no" to vaccinations they deem harmful or needless without having 'jump through hoops' to qualify for exemption. We also need laws that restrict legislators from "overstepping their authority and illegally requiring vaccines for preteens."

Other organizations dedicated to protecting public health: www.citizens.org
www.alliance-natural-health.org
www.ForHealthFreedom.org
www.iahf.com