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The Gardasil Vaccination for HPV and Cervical Cancer


I also took this from Snopes.com. It’s not a medical site, per se, but the information about the Gardasil vaccine is accurate. Gardasil prevents infection by the Human Papilloma Virus which is the cause of cervical cancer. Some cancers, such as cervical cancer and liver cancer, are caused by viral infections. So, you don’t get the virus, then you don’t get the cancer. Gardasil prevents infections from 2 of the HPVs that are responsible for about 70% of all cases of cervical cancer. This virus also causes genital warts, so the vaccine will also help prevent these minor STDs, but in my mind this is not the real reason to get the Gardasil vaccine.

At Meyer Pediatrics, we do recommend this vaccine, although it is NOT required for any school. The vaccine, which is given as a series of 3 shots spread out over 6 months, is available for girls age 9 to 26 and we will probably initiate a conversation with you at your daughter’s 9 year old well check. She will never be required to get this vaccine. Boys are not currently eligible for the Gardasil (although it would not harm them to get it, and from a standpoint of social responsibility, it probably should be considered, but insurance companies are unlikely to ever pay for it), and from the look of things, they may never be.

Gardasil Vaccine Side-Effects

The following text is from an e-mail circulating the Internet right now:

32 Girls Have Died

11,916 adverse events already reported to the CDC … and counting.

Pain and swelling. Life-threatening muscle weakness. Blood clots in the heart and lungs.

And the deaths of 32 innocent girls and young women.

You might think I’m talking about a deadly new disease or a global epidemic …

I’m not.

Sadly, it’s more sinister than that. The health threats listed above have all been linked with Gardasil, the so-called “cervical cancer vaccine.” And thanks to Pharma giant Merck, desperate parents and naive young women believe this vaccine saves lives! Tthey couldn’t be more wrong.

That’s why HSI’s Jenny Thompson has released a new video in which she exposes the deception for what it is — and reveals some truly shocking information no one else is talking about.

And you are the very first to see it.

Please, if you have daughters, granddaughters or friends who might be considering this terrible vaccine, you must watch this video. And please forward it to anyone you think would benefit from the vital information it contains.

If you think you know the whole story on Gardasil, I think you’ll be shocked by what you’re about to see. Just click here to start watching the video. It’s just a few minutes long. and those few minutes might just save a young girl’s life.

Origins:
Gardasil is a vaccine intended for girls and young women between the ages 9 to 26 to protect against human papillomavirus (HPV), a virus which is currently linked to an estimated 70% of known cervical cancer cases. Because Gardasil prevents only the onset of HPV infections (rather than curing those who have already been infected by HPV), health officials have advocated that girls be vaccinated for HPV prior to adolescence (or as soon as possible thereafter) in order to head off the occurrence of cervical cancer later in life.

The message quoted above warns that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has already received nearly 12,000 complaints about adverse medical issues related to Gardasil vaccinations, and that 32 young women died after receiving Gardasil vaccinations. Although this information is accurate in a strictly literal sense, it is raw data that does not in itself establish a causal connection between Gardasil and the posited medical dangers.

The CDC, in conjunction with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), operates a program known as the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). The VAERS program collects and analyzes reports on adverse events following immunizations in order to help track the safety and efficacy of various vaccines. It is important to note that reports collected by VAERS are raw data; they do not in themselves establish causal connections between vaccines and adverse medical issues — such determinations cannot be made until the reports have been investigated, evaluated, and analyzed.

(To illustrate this concept, we offer the following [admittedly far-fetched] scenario: A man who received a flu vaccination and then accidentally hit his hand with a hammer a few hours later might legitimately report that soon after he received the flu vaccine, his hand began to throb painfully. Although such a report would be literally true, it would not establish any causal connection between the flu vaccine and the adverse medical symptom of a throbbing, painful hand.) It WOULD, however, be listed in the package insert as a potential complication of the flu vaccine because that’s the way medication side-effect law is written.

As the CDC states in their article on “Reports of Health Concerns Following HPV Vaccination,” before the HPV vaccine was licensed, it was studied in five clinical trials involving over 21,000 girls and women ages 9 through 26, and since the licensing the “CDC and FDA have been closely monitoring the safety of the HPV vaccine.” The article notes that as of 31 December 2008, more than 23 million doses of Gardasil had been distributed in the United States, and VAERS afterwards collected 11,916 reports of adverse events following Gardasil vaccination. However, the article also notes that 94% of those reports were classified as “non-serious”:

This works out to only one adverse event for every 1930 doses given, and only one in 17 of these adverse events was considered serious. So, only one in 32,169 doses of Gardasil resulted in a serious side-effect.

And not all of these could be directly attributed to the vaccine. Since these numbers were taken from the raw VAERS data, there is no way to know how many of these serious side-effects actually occurred because of the vaccine, and how many were unrelated occurrences that simply followed the administration of the Gardasil vaccination.

The vast majority (94%) of the adverse events reports following Gardasil have been non-serious. Reports of non-serious adverse events after Gardasil vaccination have included fainting, pain and swelling at the injection site (the arm), headache, nausea and fever. Fainting is common after injections and vaccinations, especially in adolescents. Falls after fainting may sometimes cause serious injuries, such as head injuries, which can be easily prevented by closely observing the vaccinated person for 15 minutes after vaccination.

Moreover, the article also noted that the relatively small percentage (6%) of reports classified as “serious” (including those involving deaths) could not be definitively linked to the use of the Gardasil vaccine:

All serious reports (6%) for Gardasil have been carefully analyzed by medical experts. Experts have not found a common medical pattern to the reports of serious adverse events reported for Gardasil that would suggest that they were caused by the vaccine.

As of December 31, 2008, there have been 32 U.S. reports of death among females who have received the vaccine. There was no common pattern to the deaths that would suggest that they were caused by the vaccine.

The article concludes by stating that:

Based on all of the information we have today, CDC and FDA continue to recommend Gardasil vaccination for the prevention of 4 types of HPV. As with all approved vaccines, CDC and FDA will continue to closely monitor the safety of Gardasil. Any problems detected with this vaccine will be reported to health officials, healthcare providers, and the public, and needed action will be taken to ensure the public’s health and safety.

The video featuring Jenny Thompson of Health Sciences Institute that is linked at the end of the warning reproduced above deals mainly with subjects such as the political and moral issues involved with requiring HPV vaccinations for young girls, the notion that vaccinated girls might mistakenly believe they had been immunized against contracting sexually transmitted diseases (other than HPV), and the claim that cervical cancer deaths can be effectively eliminated through means other than HPV vaccinations. It offers no real evidence that Gardasil vaccinations are dangerous other than to cite the raw VAERS data referenced above (without noting that analysis of those reports failed to establish a causal link between HPV vaccinations and the reported serious adverse events).

Last updated: 22 April 2009
The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/medical/drugs/gardasil.asp

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Sources:
Harris, Gardiner. “Panel Unanimously Recommends Cervical Cancer Vaccine for Girls 11 and Up.”
The New York Times. 30 June 2006.
Houppert, Karen. “Who’s Afraid of Gardasil?”
The Nation. 8 March 2007.
Litwin, Grania. “Vaccine Can Save Vast Number of Lives, Says Cancer Specialist.”
The Victoria Times Colonist. 22 April 2009.
Centers for Disease Control. “Reports of Health Concerns Following HPV Vaccination.”
3 March 2009.
Reuters. “Allergic Reactions to Gardasil Uncommon: Study.”
canada.com. 22 April 2009.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration. “FDA Approves Expanded Uses for Gardasil.”
12 September 2008.