Our HPV vaccination drive and the hidden truths

Tehsin M

September 15, 2011 I note with concern and consternation the promotional campaign for the HPV free vaccination programme for our schoolgirls. As a mother of a 14 year old teen, I am really perturbed by the use of young girls to promote this whole exercise. What do kids know about whether the vaccine is good for them? They are not of legal age yet and cannot make any informed, intelligent decisions. It is an abuse of innocence and trust of young children. I am always skeptical of the pharmaceutical industry pushing their newfound "miracle vaccines” which claim to “prevent” diseases. We all know how many people have been used in guinea pig experiments on a large scale around the world by some profit hungry entities. According to a report on Al Jazeera’s Faultline programme titled “Outsourced: Clinical Trials Overseas”: “U.S. pharmaceutical companies have moved their operations overseas in the past decade, testing their drugs on poor people in such lands as Russia, China, Brazil and Romania. It is a $30 billion business, and today around 105 countries are allowing such large corporations as Merck and AstraZeneca to conduct clinical trials on their soil.” If clinical trials are conducted with such questionable methods, I dread what standard of care the big pharmas have and ditto the FDA in ensuring the safety of vaccines and drugs. We know that FDA is under scrutiny for its alleged “accomodating the industries it regulates”, according to a Boston Globe article a few years back. Misleading The local ads misleadingly state that the vaccine will prevent your child from getting cervical cancer and that she will be protected. The reality and facts are that, not all kids are going to be sexually active and be susceptible to cervical cancer, and we certainly do not want to give the carte blance to our kids, that with the vaccine, they can go ahead and have promiscuous sex and not worry about cancer. And teens who have already been active are not going to be protected by the vaccine. According to the American National Cancer Institute fact sheet: Both Gardasil and Cervarix are based on technology developed in part by NCI scientists. NCI     licensed the technology to two pharmaceutical companies—Merck and GSK—to develop HPV     vaccines for widespread distribution. Neither of these HPV vaccines has been proven to provide complete protection against persistent infection with other HPV types, although some initial results suggest that both vaccines might provide partial protection against a few additional HPV types that can cause cervical cancer. Overall, about 30 percent of cervical cancers will not be prevented by these vaccines. Also, in the case of Gardasil, 10 percent of genital warts will not be prevented by the vaccine. Neither vaccine prevents other sexually transmitted diseases, nor do they treat HPV infection or cervical cancer. Because the vaccines do not protect against all HPV infections that cause cervical cancer, it is important for vaccinated women to continue to undergo cervical cancer screening. There could be some future changes in recommendations for vaccinated women. Many of the adverse auto-immune effects have also not been highlighted in the ads  for the knowledge of the parents. Some of the worst affected teens in 12,000 cases were permanently disabled, suffered seizures, were paralysed, hospitalized and 32 died. This was reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The ad campaigns by the maker, it said, paid medical societies to spread the word while underplaying the risks and benefits: "It (the vaccine maker’s aggressive ad campaign) screeched the message, 'all women are at equal risk, protect yourself from cervical cancer, and this is the way to do it,'" said Dr. Sheila Rothman, author of the JAMA article. "The fact that the medical societies repeated this message is what concerns us." The NCI fact sheet further reports on a common side effect which has not been revealed in any of the local campaigns for this seemingly miracle vaccine: A higher proportion of syncope (fainting) and venous thrombolic events (blood clots) were seen with Gardasil than are usually seen with other vaccines. Falls after syncope may sometimes cause serious injuries, such as head injuries. These can largely be prevented by keeping the vaccinated person seated for up to 15 minutes after vaccination. The FDA and CDC have reminded health care providers that, to prevent falls and injuries, all vaccine recipients should remain seated or lying down and be closely observed for 15 minutes after vaccination. Judicial Watch meanwhile revealed that: •    Gardasil is approved for girls as young as nine years old, despite the fact that the youngest girls participating in clinical trials were 11-12 years old. •    A recent study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, also questioned the general effectiveness of Gardasil. Additionally, there has not been a chance to study long term side effects of the vaccine. Judicial Watch, concerned about the rush to market and mandate a drug with possible serious adverse effects, filed its first Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request on May 9, 2007, and received 1,637 adverse event reports on May 15, 2007. These reports are submitted to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) and used by the FDA to monitor the safety of vaccines. On August 20, 2007 Judicial Watch filed a request for updated adverse event reports and received 1,824 reports on September, 13 2007. Judicial Watch then filed a complaint against the FDA on October 3, 2007 for failing to fully respond to the May 9, 2007 FOIA request. Teaching kids the right things Doctors should assess the patients on a case by case basis and the risk and benefits before administering the vaccine. Parents should also know that simple, regular pap smears (and is still required even if you have the vaccine) are also an option to the vaccine, as with teaching kids on the virtues of abstinence and monogamy. The vaccine proponents might say that the risks are small. But what if that small risk was your child? For something that may or may not happen, meaning your child contracting cervical cancer, losing her to serious effects of a much hyped vaccine by profit making corporations that has not seen its long term effects is indeed a regrettable choice to make. And to our Health Ministry, please stop using children to further the agenda of others, and ensure that parents are informed of the risks in the ads themselves, so that they can make informed decisions on their kids lives and health. The ads with the smiling, innocent faces of the girls' faces radiate a sinister deception lurking in the background. Please take them off the air together with the print ads. What do these naive girls know and is it ethical to use them in this giant scheme? While big pharmas have also saved lives, we must remember that profit is always the bottom line for them. So forgive me for not jumping up and down with joy that my daughters will be saved from cervical cancer with this magical vaccine. * Tehsin is a Harakahdaily reader. source : Harakah Daily