Gardasil Vaccine May Not Be Effective and Could be Dangerous

For any of you still in the age range recommended for the Gardasil vaccine, or who have daughters that are, I thought this article was pertinent. According to this article, Dr. Diane Harper, lead researcher on the Gardasil vaccine, said that the vaccine may do little to prevent cervical cancer and though it is being given to very young girls, has never been tested for safety in anyone under age 15. (I have heard of cases here where girls as young as 3 have gotten the Gardasil vaccine at the recommendation of their pediatricians.

Dr. Harper made these remarks at the 4th Annual International Conference on Vaccination, and, ironically,  while her address was meant to support the vaccine, participants left doubting the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine.

Dr. Harper began her remarks by explaining that 70 percent of all HPV infections resolve themselves without treatment within a year. Within two years, the number climbs to 90 percent. Of the remaining 10 percent of HPV infections, only half will develop into cervical cancer, which leaves little need for the vaccine.

Harper went on the say that the rate of cervical cancer from HPV is actually very low and that 70% of the US population would have to receive the vaccination before it would be effective at reducing the cancer rate, and even this, it would be a small reduction in the rate. With this small of an anticipated benefit, it brings the logic of the vaccine into question, as there have been a large number of reported side effects and even deaths from the vaccine. If the benefit is minimal and the risk of side effects higher than normal for a vaccine, is this something that we should be getting and giving to our daughters?

Apparently, conventional treatment and preventative measures are already cutting the cervical cancer rate by four percent a year. At this rate, in 60 years, there will be a 91.4 percent decline just with current treatment. Even if 70 percent of women get the shot and required boosters over the same time period, which is highly unlikely, Harper says Gardasil still could not claim to do as much as traditional care is already doing.

Dr. Harper, who also serves as a consultant to the World Health Organization, further undercut the case for mass vaccination by saying that “four out of five women with cervical cancer are in developing countries.”

Harper also announced that there are no studies showing the efficacy of this vaccine in girls under 15. She said that Merck tested the vaccine on a small number of girls under 15 but did not follow them long enough to test for the presence of the antibodies.

This is not the first time Dr. Harper revealed the fact that Merck never tested Gardasil for safety in young girls. During a 2007 interview with KPC News.com, she said giving the vaccine to girls as young as 11 years-old “is a great big public health experiment.”

At the time, which was at the height of Merck’s controversial drive to have the vaccine mandated in schools, Dr. Harper remained steadfastly opposed to the idea and said she had been trying for months to convince major television and print media about her concerns, “but no one will print it.”

“It is silly to mandate vaccination of 11 to 12 year old girls,” she said at the time. “There also is not enough evidence gathered on side effects to know that safety is not an issue.”

When asked why she was speaking out, she said: “I want to be able to sleep with myself when I go to bed at night.”

According the the article, over 15,000 girls have reported adverse side effects from the vaccine and deaths have also been reported.

These adverse reactions include Guilliane Barre, lupus, seizures, paralysis, blood clots, brain inflammation and many others. The CDC acknowledges that there have been 44 reported deaths.

The article also went on to say that:

The outspoken researcher also weighed in last month on a report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association that raised questions about the safety of the vaccine, saying bluntly: “The rate of serious adverse events is greater than the incidence rate of cervical cancer.”

Please read the whole article here. This is obviously a controversial issue, and one that I encourage you to research thoroughly before considering the vaccine for yourself or your daughter. I have some additional information on vaccine safety in my resources.

Have a healthy week!

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