I woke up this morning to CNN American Morning and the breaking news that the Gardasil HPV vaccine has been implicated in deaths and various illnesses across the country.
According to the CDC, the vaccine has been the subject of almost 8,000 complaints, ranging from nausea to paralysis to death. Drug maker Merck says they have administered about 16 million vaccines in the United States.
The verdict is still out on this one - vaccines are often blamed for coincidental effects and the CDC has yet to finish an investigation into the complaints of illness, but has ruled out the vaccine as a cause of death in ten cases. I regularly and publicly advocate that any young woman get the vaccine and I myself have gotten two of the three doses - so I find this particularly disturbing. The vaccine seems like such a miracle in the world of reproductive health - and perhaps it is. Discuss the risks and benefits with your doctor before getting the vaccine. I hate to say it, but it looks like we have to wait and see on this one.
and Merck & Company knew it.
It was/is all about the money.
William Locksley
Author, Fatal Probe
will@dizney.com
310.926.5978
A.) This THEORY that HPV causes cervical cancer is just that: A THEORY.
B.) This HPV vaccine, Gardasil, has definitely NOT been proven to prevent cervical cancer, and not amount of fuzzy drug company logic and math will change this FACT.
C.) This drug is definitely dangerous.
D.) The CDC and the FDA are seriously corrup organizations, responsible, in part, for all kinds of medical scams going on, and folks who are not aware of this FACT, need to do some more homework before jumping on some zealot bandwagon of some form or another promoting this or that dangerous and completely unproven drug?
E.) The United States of Scammers is home to a long history of medical junk 'science,' chemical industry corruption of 'scientific' research and drug industry scams.
F.) Do your homework, get your facts straight and stop spreading HATE! and, in the case of drug scams, DEATH, PARALYSIS, PERMANENT INJURY, ETC.
G.) Start listening to some real feminists, who have actually extensively studied women's history in relation to the patriarchal and imperial, often nature-hating history of current western medicine?
H.) Study the real causes of cervical cancer such as long-term use of the BIRTH CONTROL PILL, smoking, nutritional deficiencies, lack of folic acid.
It's true there are a lot of problems with western medicine, particularly if you are from an underrepresented group like women. For now it is the reality that we live with, and so is the cervical dysplasia that SO many young women get each year. Yes, drugs are dangerous, yes diseases are also dangerous and yes it is incumbent on a patient to sort out this calculus for herself. I just thought I'd like to tell Shelby that you are not "spreading hate." You probably know this, but maybe other readers don't.
I can appreciate the commenter's ire and frustration with the drug company dominance in spreading information about this issue. It's a huge problem, and any woman with a critical mind who has had reproductive health problems knows what western medicine does and doesn't have to offer in this regard. But really, would this Gardasil issue be getting so much news coverage (either for or against) if it didn't conjure up images of teenage girls having sex?