Posted on 08/07/2008 7:13:47 AM PDT by weegee
We have been spending our days getting all our ducks armed for bear and in a row--all of our anti-Gardasil ducks, that is. From checking my various areas on the internet, to finding moderators to listening to the tragic and painful stories of victims of the Gardasil vaccine, it has been a very busy time for me and my team.
Gardasil, as you should know by now, is an HPV vaccine sold by Merc, a vaccine with a flawed marketing campaign targeting young girls. The premise is that the vaccine will protect young girls from cervical cancer, as well as a couple of varieties of HPV. But the vaccine is NOT a cancer preventative, and it has not been thoroughly tested. Not only does Gardasil not protect everyone, it does not prevent all types of cervical cancer. According to current science, there are fifteen types of HPV associated with cervical cancer but Gardasil only counters HPV types 16 and 18. The vaccine requires three doses to start and scientists don't even know how frequently boosters will be needed. They don't know because they did not adequately research this before putting the vaccine out on the market using our young girls as guinea pigs.
Merc was even pushing to have this untried vaccine REQUIRED by states. Governer Perry of Texas--who bypassed the state legislation with an executive order--has ties to Merck. Mike Toomey, Perry’s former chief of staff is one of the drug company’s three lobbyists in Texas. The governor also received $6,000 from Merck’s political action committee during his re-election campaign. "Merck is bankrolling efforts to pass state laws across the country mandating Gardasil for girls as young as 11 or 12." As a mother, should I have to sign a waver to protect my daughter from having a potentially dangerous vaccine forced on her?
What makes this vaccine so terrible? It's not just the fear that some parents have that administering a vaccine against stds to nine year olds will encourage sexual activity. The concern is based on much more concrete issues than that. 7195 of them, in fact.
The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) now has 7195 individual adverse reactions listed--and as it is a database not everyone knows about, not all of the adverse reactions are being reported. The Centers for Disease Control report over 9,000 adverse reactions for Gardasil. There is a rising total of deaths connected with the administration of this vaccine; as well as have been reports of seizure activity, tingling, numbness and loss of sensation in the fingers and limbs. There is serious question about girls initially having short-term health problems associated with getting this vaccine that could turn into long-term neurological or immune system disorders; and there is serious question about administering this vaccine at the same time as others.
Gardasil is a vaccine developed by Merck to prevent Human Papilloma Virus (HPV). HPV is known to cause cervical cancer. Although Merck has claimed that Gardasil has no significant side effects, reports filed with the FDA suggest otherwise.
The FDA Vaccine Adverse Effect Reporting System has more than 8,000 incidents associated with Gardasil. The most serious complications reported include death and the development of blood clots.
If you or a loved suffered a serious adverse event, such as death, disability or blood clot following the administration of Gardasil, please contact me erin@brockovich.com. I will have one of our staff of experienced attorneys review your claim to advise you about your rights.
I asked the same question (why boys don’t get it) and the only info I could find said just that it had not been tested on boys. Interestingly, boys CAN get cancer from HPV as well, altho it’s not as common. One would think that if something really worked, and the goal was to get rid of the disease they would have targeted both boys and girls and tested the drug for both.
susie
She is representing lawyers who are trolling for business. The onus is on HER to prove her statements, some of which are conjectures.
As I mentioned, I do have reservations about Gardasil, but Brockovich is just another scam artist.
Uh, of course not. If anything the presence of true Christianity would have made the hugely overblown alleged crime, even less likely to occur.
http://www.fumento.com/mickeyerin.html
But then, of course, that is NOT what I said.
The Christainity comment had to do with “uh”, Hollywood’s proclivity for hammering on Christians or the perceived presence of Christianity. In their smarmy condescension, the not-so-subtle implication is that it is the WCM that is pulling the strings behind all-evil, all-the-time American corporations.
Yep - PG&E was totally in the wrong in places like Hinckley and Kettleman.
As a father of a daughter, I don’t worry that giving a girl a vaccine for a skin disease is promoting promiscuity. I fail to understand that argument myself, as of the women I know who have admitted to getting an STD, very few would fall into the promiscuous department. The vast majority got them from long partners that had dubious pasts they did not know about, or who were running around on them without their knowledge (and yes, some of them were married).
I would hate for my daughter to have to live with Genital Warts, and the long term higher risk of cervical cancer if it were something that could be potentially avoided.
Also, knowing that HPV is a SKIN disease, and incredibly common not simply an STD is another fact that most are unaware of. Provided the infection does not get onto the mucous membranes, generally most folks never even know they have it and it goes away on its own. You don’t have to have intercourse to get HPV infections, obviously for it to infect the membranes it would have to be exposed, but that doesn’t mean its all from intercourse etc.
I certainly would not give this to a 9 year old, and would tell anyone who wanted to force me to to get bent. I am concerned with the adverse reactions and long term risks as well, which are not known at this point.
Not to worry, if America’s women are unable to breed, we’ll just get more immigrants with anchor babies to make up the stop loss.
“She may or may not be, but Merck needs to have their dirty laundry aired. They’ve bought off a lot of politicians”
Excellent point, which is why the government should not be in the business of business. Free market and responsible tort are the solutions. Without government intervention, recon there being cures (not treatment) for cancer, diabetes, the common cold, and a host of other maladies.
And where are the rocket cars?!? We were supposed to have rocket cars by now!!!
This wasn’t even approved by the legislature, it came down as gubernatorial fiat.
No your comment brought religion into the conversation when it was never brought in by anyone but yourself.
Hollywood never portrayed the executives at PG&E as bible thumpers or even spoke of their religion. You are the one projecting this in where it wasn’t relevant.
I am no fan of Hollywood, and will not defend it for a lot of things, but you, not they are the ones bring religion bashing into this.
The facts of the case, and the movie it was based off of, like it or not are about a corporation who knowingly poisoned innocent people and then tried to cover it up. That’s wrong, period. Had nothing to do with white guys or black guys, or christians or athiests.
There is pleanty of christian bashing that goes on, but these events nor this movie had anything to do with this.. you are the one attempting to generate outrage over something that in this instance has nothing to do with the topic.
As to Corporations, you need to stop worshiping markets... Corporations are AMMORAL, their is no intrinsic morality in a legal construct like a corporation than their is in a dollar bill. Like it or not, Corporations do indeed do evil things... Does every corporation? No, but when they do wrong and it is exposed they should be condemned for it.
You don’t have to like hollywood, or Ms. Brockovich, but this isn’t a case of a work of fiction for propoganda purposes against christianity or corporations, at its core and yes artistic license is always taken when a film is made, but this matter was a case of a corporation indeed doing grotesque wrong.
Here is an undeniable fact of the world, and I wish people on both the left and the right would absorb this...
Governments are not gods, and Markets are not gods, anyone who advocates blind faith in either is a complete fool.
Men can get testicular cancer as well as throat cancer from HPV.
A decade or so ago I was at a scientific conference where this bimbo was invited as a “motivational” speaker. At the end of her talk she opened her blouse and shook her bra-enclosed boobs at the audience. Someone like that is difficult to take seriously.
>> Do you have any evidence which shows that anything said in this article is untrue? <<
I certainly don’t spot anything in the article which is untrue. But as evil as I Commandant Perry’s mandate is, Merck’s ads state that they do not Gardasil does not treat cancer, and does not prevent all forms of HPV which cause cancer. And not in some mumbled jumble of legalese, but in very clearly spoken assertions. Brockovitch’s article makes it seem like they’ve exposed some sort of cover-up.
Just another scumbag lawyer in search of that big class-action payoff.
The scam worked on PG&E, why not on Merck?
Merck didn’t sell it that way but the connected figures in govenment pushed it as a “fix” and wanted it to be mandatory (it is not a cure all and has numerous side effects; it is a risky proposition to taint our entire female population before they have even reached their child bearing years).
Maybe she was trying to wake up a snoozing audience.
>> Does every corporation? No, but when they do wrong and it is exposed they should be condemned for it. <<
In fact, when evil is profitable, and government can effectively legislate against such things, it is critical that the evil-doers be punished, or else the market will ensure that the evil-doers drive the more moral ones out of business. Case in point: hiring illegal aliens.
Several cavats:
1. Effective legislation is possible far less often than liberals pretend it is.
2. Government must be allow market forces to correct evil when evil is not inherently profitable. For instance, if discrimination is truly racist, fair-minded companies will have an enriched talent pool and will be more successful than racist companies. (I call this the Jackie Robinson rule.)
3. I mean to make no assertions as to the validity of Erin Brockovich’s claims against PG&E (but the movie was definitely hostile towards Christian modesty).
It was clear from my experience with teens that they believed many things that were not true. They are, after all, not adults, and don’t think like adults (and lots of adults also believe untrue things). As I said, many believed that birth control pills also protected them from STDs. I did not say it would make them more have more sex, my concern is that it is marketed to prevent an STD that causes cancer—are the girls getting it being educated that that is the ONLY thing it prevents?
And, how do you know that all of the women you’ve known who got an STD were not promiscuous? (and what’s your definition of promiscious?). You would have to know they were telling you the truth—I’m generally dubious when someone shares their sexual history with me, as most people try to make it what they think you would accept. Many teens are having lots of sex. Believe it.
susie
I agree. I am generally very conservative about these things, and will not give my daughter birth control pills, however I don’t have a problem with the idea behind this vaccine. I just googled HPV, and supposedly 50% of people who are sexually active contract HPV. It seems to me it would be quite easy even for a monogamous married woman to contract it from her husband if he had at least one other partner before her. I want more testing on long term side effects before I would consider vaccinating a child, but I think the idea behind it is sound.
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