Posted on 09/20/2007 4:02:03 PM PDT by wagglebee
TORONTO, September 20, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - As Canada, in large part due to aggressive behind the scenes lobbying, rolls out the not-comprehensively-tested Merck HPV vaccine for girls as young as nine, a look at developments on the vaccine south of the border should cause Canadians serious concern. In the United States a similar lobby campaign by the same company launched the mass HPV vaccination of girls beginning in June last year.
In just little over a year, the HPV vaccine have been associated with at least five deaths, not to mention thousands of reports of adverse effects, hundreds deemed serious, and many that required hospitalization.
Judicial Watch, a US government watchdog, became concerned while noting large donations to key politicians originating from Merck. A freedom of information request from the group in May of this year discovered that during the period from June 8, 2006 - when the vaccines received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) - to May 2007 there were 1,637 reports of adverse reactions to the HPV vaccine reported to the FDA.
Three deaths were related to the vaccine, including one of a 12-year-old. One physician's assistant reported that a female patient "died of a blood clot three hours after getting the Gardasil vaccine." Two other reports, on girls 12 and 19, reported deaths relating to heart problems and/or blood clotting.
As of May 11, 2007, the 1,637 adverse vaccination reactions reported to the FDA via the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) included 371 serious reactions. Of the 42 women who received the vaccine while pregnant, 18 experienced side effects ranging from spontaneous abortion to fetal abnormities.
Side effects published by Merck & Co. warn the public about potential pain, fever, nausea, dizziness and itching after receiving the vaccine. Indeed, 77% of the adverse reactions reported are typical side effects to vaccinations. But other more serious side effects reported include paralysis, Bells Palsy, Guillain-Barre Syndrome, and seizures.
Judicial Watch informed LifeSiteNews.com that a subsequent request for information on adverse reactions to the HPV vaccine, covering the period from May 2007 to September 2007, found that an additional 1800 adverse reactions have been reported, including more deaths. exactly how many more deaths will be released in the coming days, Judicial Watch's Dee Grothe informed LifeSiteNews.com.
The LifeSiteNews.com report on the moneyed lobbying efforts of Merck in the US was reported in February. (see http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/feb/07020204.html )
However the Canadian lobby effort by Merck's Canadian affiliate Merck Frosst Canada has been underway using powerful lobbyists with close connections to the politicians who have signed off on massive government funded vaccination programs.
The Toronto Star recently reported that Merck Frosst Canada Ltd hired public relations giant Hill & Knowlton to push the immunization strategies using some well-connected lobbyists: Ken Boessenkool, a former senior policy adviser to Prime Minister Stephen Harper; Bob Lopinski, formerly with Premier Dalton McGuinty's office; and Jason Grier, former chief of staff to Health Minister George Smitherman.
Harper's Conservative Government approved Merck's HPV vaccine Gardasil in July and later announced a $300 million program to give the vaccine to girls from ages 9-13. That of course is only the beginning of what Merck likely hopes will be a much larger vaccination of all potentially sexually active women in Canada. In August, McGuinty's Ontario Liberals, on the advice of his Health Minister George Smitherman, announced that all Grade 8 girls will have free access to Gardasil.
One of the major complaints by physicians is that the HPV vaccination program has been implemented before adequate testing has been completed. Long-term effects of the vaccine remain unknown. Many are asking why the huge, seemingly reckless rush?
At least one answer to that question comes from the fact that Merck currently is the sole provider of an HPV vaccine with its Gardasil product. A competing HPV vaccine, Glaxo Smith Kline's Cervarix, is set to hit the market in January 2008. As more children are vaccinated with Gardasil, fewer will be able to later receive the necessary repeat boosters of a competing, incompatible vaccine. Merck is in a race to capture as much of the market as it can, consuming many millions of government tax dollars.
US sales of Gardasil are expected to reach $1 billion in the first year of its availability.
The reports from the FDA Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System detailing the three previous deaths are available here:
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007_docs/GardasilVAERSDeath...
The reports detailing all 1637 adverse effects are here:
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007_docs/GardasilVAERSRepor...
Because ANYTHING that seems to promote teen sexuality is rushed to market.
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Many of us predicted a year ago that there would be serious problems with this vaccine.
A HUGE reason to homeschool!
Thank you very much for posting this article.
This information should scare the crud out of any and all parents of young girls.
This vaccine is absolutely being pushed...it is dangerous.
Once again, it’s all about money.
bttt
If HillaryCare becomes a reality, look for this vaccine to become mandatory.
“This information should scare the crud out of any and all parents of young girls.”
See #3.
BTW - My wife and I are the parents of four young girls. This doesn’t scare me a bit. Why? See #3. ;-)
None of these statistics would bother a dedicated Liberal who wants big government to control our lives.
We already decided that our (homeschooled) daughter will not be getting this vaccine, and if our family doctor ever does anything more than mention it as an available option (i.e., really trying to push it) then we will be finding a new doctor.
Sorry to hear of kids getting sick from this, but we told them so!
Now...how long before the Nanny State Freepers show up on this thread that insisted we were dooming our kids to getting STDs because “they’re gonna do it anyway; you’d give your kid a vaccination for the measles, wouldn’t you?” *SMIRK*
Doesn’t look good...
So much for Harper being “conservative.”
They were the same ones who swore there would be no side effects. I guess they forgot about “wonder drugs” like thalidomide, Phen-fen and Vioxx.
The latest hype has the vaccine protecting against oral cancers; if they can sell this then boys get added to the mix as well.
There was another thread about this drug this morning about how further research has indicated it covers more strains than originally thought.........and was posted by one of the aforesaid nanny staters who was defending the merck researchers......
hey, its only girls....
There is no way that the effects of a drug that is given to girls at the onset of puberty can possibly be known without decades of research. How do they know that these girls won’t be sterile when they reach their twenties or that they won’t have complications with pregnancies or birth defects.
So many of the comments regarding this confuse the heck out of me. There are so many good reasons to have girls vaccinated with this.
This has NOTHING to do with pushing sexuality. This has to do with preventing cancer of the uterus. This cancer is a HUGE killer. Vaccinating at these recommended ages ensures that the girl is protected well in advance to any sexual activity. I assume at SOME point in their lives.. whether it be 14 or 40, they’re going to have sex (unless their lesbians). Well over 70% of males carry the HPV virus, so it is a huge risk.
2 - Why does the child even need to KNOW what the vaccine is for? It’s a shot.. like any of the other number of shots they receive.. so to say that it promotes sexual activity is just not true. Handing out condoms in schools promotes sexual activity.
Sorry, but I work in the pharma industry, and we likely did research on this particular drug. Most of this hysteria that I hear sounds more to me like the “Down with the pharmaceutical industry” stuff to me.
Oh.. and 3500 adverse affects.. When doing research.. adverse affects can range anywhere from slight redness at the injection site, to watery eyes. Now the deaths reported.. those should and will be seriously looked into!
Believe me, I have exactly that same concerns.......additionally it has never been tested on girls as young as 9, exactly my daughter’s age. I believe the youngest guinea pigs were 12 or 13.
In other words, a PPP benefitting the Canadian government and Merck. The big loser: parental freedom.
And as for those who talk about other vaccines (polio, mumps, measles, etc.) these are for diseases that spread through everyday interaction. This drug DOES NOT protect against cancer, it protects against SOME STRAINS of ONE SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASE.
No one should be surprised by this. Thank you (plural, please ping your known accomplices) for the many early warnings. I wonder how many girls and young women were spared because of your concern.
Oh my, big pharma strikes again. They develop drugs that cause a person to become a homicidal manic...and kills their whole family. They’re not held accountable [they settle with families in secret for multi-million dollars and the deaths just keep marching on.]
Of course, a proper PPP would probably be Merck providing the 300 million dollars and then getting their money back through vaccination fees or regular payments from the government. But I think the actual arrangement still qualifies.
There is no comparison, IMO, with this vaccine and the others you mention.
If someone wants there daughter to get the vaccine, fine with me and such a vaccine should be available...........my major objection is so many states seeking to make it mandatory.
That said, without knowing the nature of the adverse events and patient histories, the suggestion that the vaccine is dangerous is inappropriate.
True.. but that disease.. once through to be rather innocuous turns out to be a major CAUSE of the cancer.
Which drug is that?
I appreciate your kind words, but my concerns were not totally altruistic — I have a 9 year old daughter.
I do not object to the vaccine per se, Merck pushing to get government to mandate it for girls as young as 9, without enough research, has been my major gripe about this all along.
The lobbyists need to be put in their place. I’m not a “there oughta be a law” kind of person, but it seriously should be illegal for corporations to mandate their products through government.
“Well over 70% of males carry the HPV virus, so it is a huge risk.”
Then why wasn’t a vaccine developed for boys who are spreading the disease?
But, I think you’re missing the entire point. The point was that many states were MANDATING this vaccine...and taking kickbacks from Merck to boot!
If a PARENT wants to give this to their child, it should be THEIR choice. Schools and states were MANDATING that young girls have this shot prior to being allowed to go to school. No shots for the boys, though.
It’s a Nanny State issue, not so much whether the vaccine is useful or not.
I agree totally.
Funny how they’re considered women when we talk about their sexual activity, but when we talk about their right to know what the vaccine is they’re children.
If the children receiving the vaccine don’t have a right to know what it is, why bother telling the parents? Especially if it’s mandatory anyway. It’s not like knowing would do them any good.
STDs are NOT spread through ordinary contact. If parents want to get there daughters this shot that’s fine, but Merck (which is no doubt eager for a “home run” after the Vioxx fiasco) is trying to make this mandatory and that I have a problem with.
Great points!
Thanks for the ping.
People should refuse this. At least until further testing.
My mother was offered Thalidomide when she was pregnant with me.
She refused.
Mine too.
You got unbelievably lucky!
I’m not letting my 12 year old get it. I will chat with the Dr. next month just to see what she says.
There was a time when experimenting on children was considered taboo.
In just little over a year, the HPV vaccine have been associated with at least five deaths, not to mention thousands of reports of adverse effects, hundreds deemed serious, and many that required hospitalization.
not to mention unknown effects on future fertility.
At my daughters 10 year old check up, our pediatrician said to wait a few more years before we even start to talk about it.
I talked to my ob-gyn, and she was more aggressively selling it.
I liked our pediatricians approach.
Those reports are very sketchy and don’t shed any light on the medical facts. Instead, they raise more questions than they answer.
For instance, why is a Physician Assistant making a report about blood clots 3 hours after a shot? A rapid allergic reaction such as the one reported so soon after a shot should tell us more that the patient had a blood clot. Was there shortness of breath, hives and the other signs of an anaphylactic reaction?
Furthermore, 3 deaths that occurred over a range of time, from three hours to months, appears to be due more to the fact that these conditions happen to a certain number of people, whether or not they receive a shot.
I mentioned that earlier, there is no telling what the long term consequences are. This is not like the polio vaccine in the mid-1950s, there was no urgency to rush this to market.
About the only good thing our left Governor has done since taking office was changing the opt-out language in the bill our Repbulican legislature passed mandating this for all girls entering 6th grade.
I do not have to give any reasons, just say I have been informed but choose not have it given to my daughter.
We only get bits and pieces of these cases because of the secrecy involved in those settlements...I recall a few years back a man was put on Prozac...within a few weeks 3-6wks. he killed his whole family. Just not isolated cases at all.
My life tends to operate like that.
Maybe I'm unlucky on some of the little things, because I tend to be lucky on most of the big important things.
Which reminds me, I must remember to thank my mother again, the next time I talk with her. :-)
Yes there was, Merck's bottom line..........plain and simple. Once the others come on the market starting next year the charge for the vaccines will plummet.
Every politician who voted for it should be forced to get it.
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