HPV Vaccine Gardasil Officially Scariest Thing Ever, Media Reports
Washington, D.C. and four states are requiring sixth-grade girls to receive the three-shot Gardasil vaccine before entering school this year. Gardasil protects against the “four strains of the sexually transmitted Human Pappilomavirus (HPV)” most likely to cause cervical cancer and genital warts.
Mandating that girls receive the vaccine at age 11 or 12 (there is currently no vaccine for boys) strikes me as a not-bad idea for the following reasons:
(a) D.C. has the highest rate of cervical cancer in the nation
(b) D.C. has one of the most sexually active teen populations in the nation
(c) 80 percent of sexually active teens contract HPV
(d) condoms don’t protect against it
(e) it’s CDC and FDA-approved for women ages 9 to 26
(f) Gardasil has been criticized for marketing the vaccine to the women least at risk for cervical cancer—all the more reason for D.C. to mandate it for the girls most at risk.
And yet, media coverage of the vaccine in recent weeks has focused almost uniformly on the bogeyman du jour— The Vaccine—instead of that other scary thing—The Virus. Check out the following story ledes about Gardasil:
CNN: “Should Your Daughter Get Gardasil, the Vaccine Against HPV?“:
When Raffi Darrow brought in her two daughters, Wendy and Alice, for their annual back-to-school checkups this week, for the first time in her career as a mom, Darrow decided to be a rebel.
Raffi Darrow decided not to get the HPV vaccine for daughters Wendy, left, 11, and Alice, 12.
Even though every federal health authority says her girls, ages 11 and 12, should get Gardasil, the vaccine that helps protect against cervical cancer and genital warts caused by the human papillomavirus, Darrow instructed the pediatrician not to give it to them.
“Up until now my children have had every vaccine doctors have recommended,” says Darrow, a graphic designer in St. Petersburg, Florida. “But most friends, like me, fear the safety of something new.”
CBS Evening News: “New Worries About Gardasil Safety“:
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.
ABC News: “Parents Doubt Gardasil’s Safety“:
“I thought I was protecting my daughter.”
Tammy Harper, 42, now fears that vaccinating her 14-year old daughter against several strains of the human papilloma virus, or HPV, may not have been the right thing to do.
Harper, from Merrit Island, Fla., is one of many parents gripped by doubt about the safety of Gardasil, the 3-dose vaccine that promises to protect against cancer-causing HPV infections, following media reports this week on government data that called the vaccine’s safety into question.
Politely: What the fuck are you people doing? Moms who don’t get vaccines for their kids are “rebels.” A cheerleader who got sick—maybe from the vaccine, maybe not—was “pressured” by the television commercials. Parents now regret giving the vaccine to their children “following media reports”—and is it at all surprising, giving the flavor of the coverage? With all due respect, “parents” and Not one of these stories leads with a girl and her parent who receive the vaccine and walk away feeling better that she’s been protected from a virus that she almost certainly would have contracted otherwise. Not one focuses on the increased HPV risk for girls in low-income and African-American communities. Not one gives more than a passing consideration to the benefits of the vaccine. Each story packages the worst fears of parents into tidy network news stories to help inform the decisions of other parents. And each story concedes that media reports are one of the biggest factors in a parent’s decision about getting the vaccine.
I’m all about knowing your options—and for the record, D.C. parents, you can opt out of the Gardasil mandate if you so choose. But keep in mind that your options aren’t:
(a) ruin the life of a cheerleader by opting for Gardasil, or
(b) become a cool rebel mom by rejecting the vaccine.
I don’t know: Maybe consult a doctor instead?
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Linked From: August 21st, 2009HPV Vaccine: Interest For Every Woman
8:59 am[...] [...]
2:58 pm
Vaccine risks aside. A better argument against mandatory shots is debating whether this is a good way to distribute healthcare resources. The vaccine isn’t cheap, and it prevents a cancer that is treatable with regular screening.
I think the vaccine is more effective in parts of the world where early screening is nonexistent. Unfortunately, these areas are less likely to afford a 3 shot regiment from a “name brand” vaccine.
8:16 pm
I am amazed that you can discount the reports of injured young women as the bogeyman du jour…
The Gardasil story of the week is from the Journal of the American Medical Association that found that Merck paid at least three medical associations large sums to promoted the vaccine. Merck acknowledged that the company provided $199,000 to the American College Health Association, $300,000 to the American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology and $250,000 to the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists. These medical societies began promoting the HPV vaccinations more than one year before clinical trials were published and seem to repeat the marketing message of Merck. If the societies are just repeating the drug company’s message, they are not really educating. Merck’s aggressive marketing efforts is the latest evidence that the company is pushing the vaccine inappropriately. They are blurring the line between educating and marketing.
So please don’t make me out to be paranoid because I have chosen to first question and then opt out of the Merck “one less, one less” marketing campaign. These bogeyman du jour injured young girls have the right to be counted as important as those women diagnosed with cervical cancer.
Please keep in mind that while more long-term studies are called for, none have been published.
10:40 am
I think the marketing blitz Merck is organizing to aggresively promote this drug is quite terrifying. Doctors should nnot be advertising and recommending this so lightly… In this case, i think it’s the parents job to inform themselves about the drug and make an educated decision as to whether they think their daughter needs it or not…
I found this article that sums up this argument quite nicely:
http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/health/2009/august/Doctors-Caution-Against-Taking-Gardasil-Lightly-.html
12:27 pm
Oh come on Audrey…what the fuck are you doing? Reading? I think the above HPV Vaccine Gardasil Officially Scariest Thing Ever, Media Reports posted by Amanda Hess sums up the argument. Her writing was the one of scariest articles I’v read on Gardasil…and I’ve read a lot since Feb 2, 2007… the day Rick Perry issued his Gardasil Texas Mandate. Silly me, I questioned what motivated the man. http://www.kbtx.com/home/headlines/5546651.html Rick Perry’s Ties With Merck Run Deep
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/03/us/03texas.html Averting a potentially divisive debate in the Legislature, Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, signed an executive order mandating shots of the Merck vaccine Gardasil…Under the order, girls and women from 9 to 21 eligible for public assistance could get free shots immediately.
http://media.www.themichiganjournal.com/media/storage/paper255/news/2008/09/23/Perspectives/Editorial.Required.Hpv.Vaccination.Is.Sick-3446628.shtml Recently, the U.S. Citizenship and Naturalization Service passed the HPV vaccination requirement for girls and women ages 11 to 26 who want to apply for American citizenship. Worst-case scenario, it seems as though Merck & Co. are using these people as guinea pigs for Gardasil. We hate to cry conspiracy…but we can’t think of a positive way to end that sentence.
10:20 am
My daughter, Victoria, has been ill since Feb. 2008. She had her first Gardasil vaccination Nov. 2007. Her second vaccination was in the beginning of Feb. 2008. Immediately after her second vaccination, she had severe diarrhea and was nauseous for about eight weeks. She had blood work done many times and doctors thought she had a virus. On March 31, 2008, she had her first seizure. My daughter has had CT scans, MRI’s, MRA’s, EEG’s, blood work and was hospitalized at an epilepsy center in the video EEG monitoring unit for two separate weeks in May 2008 and September 2008. She was put on many different seizure medications. After the normal EEG results, she was taken off all medications. Her SED rate has always been high and she does have protein in her urine, but doctors do not seem concerned. I was told that her red blood are small, but this apparently is not concerning either. My daughter has been seen by several neurologists, a psychiatrist, psychologist, several neuropsychologists, an immunologist, several infectious disease doctors, and also treated a at Wellness Center for a period of time. My daughter currently experiences the following symptoms: non-epileptic seizures episodes, migraines, fainting, tremors, twitches, numbness, intermittent leg paralysis and facial paralysis, tingling, staring or blank episodes, eye pain, joint pain, neck pain, back pain, memory loss, confusion, brain fog, regression, mood swings and chronic fatigue. She continues to have bouts of nausea and diarrhea. She has not been in school since April 2008. My daughter can never be left home alone. She can’t go to school, go out with her friends or work or has little “normalcy” in her life. She has very few good days and always says she doesn’t feel good.
I do not know which way to turn for help. We have seen so many doctors and I can’t seem to find anyone willing to help my daughter. There are so many other young girls who have the same exact symptoms as my daughter and the one thing that all of the girls seem to have in common is the Gardasil vaccination.
Each night, I check on my daughter many times in the middle of the night to make sure she is still breathing (like we ALL did when they were babies). I have a chime on her bedroom door so that every time she opens it, I know she has walked out of her room. I had a deadbolt put on the front door of our home with a key that can be removed from the inside. I never leave the key in the door for fear that Victoria will be confused after a seizure or when she has memory loss, and leave our home. (This has happened many times and she has been missing). When she is in the shower, I have to either stand outside the door and/or keep asking her “are you okay?”
Everyday, I cry and wonder if Victoria will be next one to die from adverse reactions to Gardasil.
Please feel free to forward this information.
Thank you for your time and attention.
Jodi Speakman
(267) 939-0591
Jodispeaks@aol.com
P.S. My daughter’s story is now posted on the NVIC website. http://www.nvic.org, on the cover of the Philadelphia Weekly and the Philadelphia Inquirer.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/posted.php?id=547704835&share_id=76759221290#s76759221290
11:24 pm
A google search of “gardasil” and “paralysis” led me to enough reading to want to avoid this vaccine completely for my girls.
1:02 am
Google is soooooooooo much better than my doctor. He’s a total hack, while Google has NOOOOOOOOOOO corporate interests or bias WHAT-SO-EVER! I will base all of my future decisions on Google. Next up…should I go to bed now…the first link said nothing, second link said of course, you idiot, third link said I should go to bed if I have 4+ hours, but should look for a solution to thinking about my ex all the time in the morning. Guess I’ll split the difference and go to bed but not sleep?
8:43 pm
Jodi , my heart and prayers go out to you and your family. I was on this website because my 14 year old daughter recieved her 3rd injection Aug. 3rd and every since then she has had migraines. I took her to her Dr for this problem and my concerns about this shot. of course i was told that the vaccine would not be the reason.
We live in D.C. and this vaccine was mandatory for my daughter but i want to let everyone know that if you have a daughter please do not let your Dr push this on them. The Dr’s are so non-chalant about it all and i think that after raising my daughter for 14 years i know what is normal and what is not. I so regret letting them give my daughter that vaccine.Please know that all these post that myself and other parents are real and you should not allow the scientist & Drs use our children as guinea pigs.
11:37 am
I was ready to go down and get this “miracle vaccine” when my mom actually reminded me of DHC. As far as the FDC distributing an unsafe drug – check out that history and the harm it caused for several generations. My daughter is 10. The marketing for this “be one less” is misleading. If you have any strain of HPV and you get this vaccine – you are more than 44 percent more likely to have higher grade CIN 2 and 3 pap smear outcomes. You are also likely to have breakouts of warts on the genitalia and face or hands. If they aren’t testing you for HPV before hand then there is no guarantee this will not happen to you. There are deaths from an association with birth control pills – even when stopped for 3 months. There is also an association in death with a meningitus vaccine given close to Gardasil. These are being attributed to “no cause found” deaths but ask the parents of the daughters they have lost. It also requires several boosters over long periods and has absolutely no research on whether or not it is a carcinogen itself. This vaccine is not going in to my daughter – until I decide. I have sent off for the form from the Health department in Austin to “opt out” of this vaccine. I also signed a petition in order to start the investigations in the deaths associated with the vaccine. Here’s the link http://www.thepetitionsite.com/14/investigate-gardasil-vaccine-risks-now Thank god for the intranet and it’s educate yourself ability.
4:43 pm
Here’s the thing to remember about HPV: If you get it, you probably won’t get cervical cancer. I asked my doctor about the vaccine after I started dating a guy who told me the he had slept with a girl who had recovered from cervical cancer. Doctor said that it was probably nothing to worry about. What will happen to you when you get HPV depends a lot on your body and immune system. Even if you do have an irregular pap, your doctore isn’t going to do anything about it because your body will usually recover. It takes years for cervical cancer to develop, and with regular screenings, the risk is pretty much eradicated. Doc essentially said that the risk of cervical cancer was blown totally out of proportion to sell a vaccine. He wasn’t discouraging me from getting it, he was really just trying to present me with facts relevant to my situation.
So I went ahead, got the shot on a Thursday, started itching on Friday, and work up on Saturday with huge patches of hives that didn’t go away for 4 weeks. My mom says I’m allergic to penicillin, but I can’t remember ever having a reaction to anything. I called my doc and he said that prophylactic treatment was definitely not worth the risk of a more serious reaction. That said, my two sisters got all three shots and didn’t have any worse of a reaction than soreness at the injection site. I’m the only person I know who has had a bad reaction to it.
I think that this is pretty much like any medication in that different people will have different reactions. The vast majority of peole have no reaction or very mild ones; a few people may have really severe ones. While cervical cancer and precancerous cells are treatable, I’m sure it’s still a nightmare for the people who have to deal with it. But it’s treatable. The number of women who get it is really low, and the number of deaths is even lower. To vaccinate or not is a decision that should be made between a doctor and patient, not by the state legislature.