Hotlist - Current Events
Pushing Gardasil
brasschecktv.com -
Let's get some things straight:
1. Gardisil is NOT a vaccine against cervical cancer even though it has been promoted that way by its makers
2. The vaccination series costs $360
3. Some politicians are seeking to make it mandatory for all girls between the ages of 10 and 15.
- Category: Current Events
- Tags:
- View full article
-
"Thanks to George Bush & Friends, victims of this "vaccine" will not be able to sue the manufacturer." the & Friends part would be BILL FRIST, the jerk who single handedly amended a bill on national security to include protecting big pharma from liability lawsuits. he's totally at the top of my most hated list. jerk! and why is it so imperative that i vaccinate my 5 year old against STDs?
-
oh, and BUMP!
-
bump
-
HPV Vaccine Victims Pile Up: $1.5B for Merck
by Barbara Loe Fisher
w ww.vaccineawakening.blogspot.com
www.NVIC.org
www.Stand UpBeCounted.org
While Merck has pulled in $1.5B from sales of GARDASIL vaccine worldwide, there are continuing reports that girls are being crippled and dying after getting the HPV vaccine fast tracked and licensed by the FDA in 2006. Although the roll-out of GARDASIL with an unparalleled multi-million dollar mass media advertising blitz has created a profitable market for the drug company that took huge losses from Vioxx injury/death lawsuits, the persistent reports of Guillain Barre Syndrome (GBS) paralysis, arthritis, seizures and sudden loss of consciousness within 24 hours of vaccination continue to haunt the marketing campaign.
Last week Judicial Watch issued a report on more than 8,000 GARDASIL reaction reports to the federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). A search of the VAERS database , which includes reaction reports through April 30, 2008 released to the public by the FDA, reveals nearly 6,700 reports of injury and death after GARDASIL. Two GARDASIL vaccine injury claims recently were filed in the federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986.
Exactly two years ago, NVIC sounded the first public warning about GARDASIL risks pointing out that Merck had not adequately proven the vaccine was safe and effective to give to girls under age 16. NVIC pointed out that pre- licensure trials were flawed because they used an aluminum containing placebo that may have masked the true reactivity of GARDASIL, which also contains 225 mcg of aluminum. Like mercury, aluminum can cause inflammation in the body and kill brain cells.
The fact that Merck had only studied the vaccine in fewer than 1200 girls under age 16 and followed them up for less than two years before licensure did not seem to bother doctors working for the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), who saluted Merck smartly and promptly recommended that all 11 year old girls entering sixth grade get three doses.
By the end of 2006, Merck had marshaled its well- paid lobbying forces bolstered by a flashy television advertising campaign in an unprecedented effort to persuade legislators in every state to turn CDC recommendations into law and pass HPV vaccine mandates. Texas Governor Rick Perry went so far as to issue an Executive Order mandating the vaccine for all sixth grade girls.
GARDASIL had only been on the market for a few months and nobody, including Merck, knew the full range of side effects when GARDASIL was given to millions of girls entering puberty. Nevertheless, the pressure was on young girls, their parents and state legislators to trust blindly that the vaccine had no real risks.
In early 2007, NVIC again warned the public that there were significant risks associated with GARDASIL , especially when it was combined with other vaccines. NVIC warned that there was evidence that giving GARDASIL during active HPV infection may increase the risk for cervical cancer while girls were not being tested for active HPV infection before getting vaccinated. NVIC also advised that girls should not drive home after getting the shot because of the risk for sudden loss of consciousness after leaving the doctor's office.
In March 2007, the CDC admitted that there was no scientific evidence that GARDASIL can be safely co- administered with other vaccines (like TDaP, meningococcal, varicella, MMR, influenza). Even so, without a second thought, the CDC urged doctors to assume safety and go ahead and give GARDASIL simultaneously with other vaccines.
By end of May 2007 almost every state had rejected proposed mandates for GARDASIL vaccine and there were more than 2,000 GARDASIL adverse events reported to VAERS. In August 2007, NVIC released a comprehensive analysis of GARDASIL reaction reports to VAERS and a critique of the CDC's universal use recommendation. In a letter, NVIC asked the CDC to warn doctors that the simultaneous administration of Menactra with GARDASIL increases the risk for GBS and other serious adverse event reports.
The CDC chose to blow off NVIC's report and do nothing.
Two years after licensure, it is clear that GARDASIL has plenty of risks for young girls. Among the more than 130 GARDASIL reaction reports that have been filed with NVIC's 26-year old Vaccine Reaction Registry is one that was posted by a mother, who witnessed what happened to her daughter on the International Memorial for Vaccine Victims.
The "its all a coincidence" defense mounted by doctors when something bad happens after vaccination is illogical, unscientific and d -
Amanda's mother describes her daughter as "a beautiful, active girl that was brought down." Only 14 when she was vaccinated, Amanda "became weak, tired and sick to her stomach" but the symptoms subsided. One week after the second HPV vaccination, her legs "became very weak and she started losing feeling in her feet." She was hospitalized in the Intensive Care Unit for four days with a diagnosis of Guillain-Barre Syndrome.
Amanda's mother said "The doctors thought we were CRAZY when we mentioned that the HPV vaccine could cause this."
"Amanda is constantly sick," says her Mom. "Something has suppressed her immune system so badly she can barely function. The depression got really bad because she is experiencing a lot of pain in her knees now and can't do any sports. She was once very active and right now can barely go to school We were told me her doctors that there is nothing more that they can do and that she could use a good psychiatrist."
How many more girls like Amanda and her mother have had their futures stolen by a vaccine that is supposed to prevent a viral infection that is cleared without any residual effects by more than 90 percent of all who get it to prevent a cancer that causes less than 1 percent of all new cancer cases and cancer deaths in the U.S. every year? Did Amanda and her mother know that cervical cancer can be prevented nearly 100 percent of the time with annual pap smears and early intervention when pre-cancerous cervical lesions are diagnosed?
Or did Amanda's Mom believe Amanda would be "one less" because a pediatrician told her so?
NVIC continues to receive reports from grieving mothers and fathers who can't find doctors to treat their once-healthy daughters who are now chronically ill and disabled after being injected with GARDASIL. In almost every case, the doctors are denying the vaccine had anything to do with what happened.
The tragic denial by the medical profession of the harm vaccines can do continues decade after decade after decade. When will doctors stop being marketers of pharmaceutical products and implementers of government policy and embrace the moral imperative to "first, do no harm?" -
FEDS' WARNING SHOT
GARDASIL Cancer Vaccine Probed For Link To 18 Deaths
New York Post
by Susan Edelman and Bruce Golding
July 6, 2008
http://w ww.nypost.com/seven/07062008/news/nationalnews/f eds_warning_shot_118716.htm
GARDASIL - a new cervical-cancer vaccine heavily marketed to young girls in ubiquitous ads on TV and in movie theaters - is under investigation for possible links to paralysis, seizures, and 18 deaths.
Federal health officials have logged 8,000 "adverse events" in girls and women injected with the Merck & Co. vaccine introduced two years ago, more than 500 of them from New York.
And lawyers last month filed the first two claims on behalf of girls with ailments blamed on Gardasil under a federal program to compensate victims of vaccine-caused illness, The Post has learned.
Both girls got the injections at their middle schools.
One is Jesalee Parsons, now 15, of Oklahoma, who began vomiting the day she got a Gardasil shot and developed pancreatitis, her claim says.
"It makes me mad because they're saying how great it is, but they never mention how many people have been hurt by it," Jesalee told The Post.
Healthy all her life, her family says, Jesalee has been hospitalized on and off for more than a year. She restricts her diet, takes pain pills and misses many school days.
"I'm pretty sick all the time," she said.
The other claim was filed for Jessica Vega of Nevada, who came down with Guillain-Barré Syndrome, an immune-system disorder, at age 14 - a week after her second Gardasil shot.
Thirty others have reported the syndrome after getting the vaccine.
JESSICA'S mom, Rhonda Vega, says the girl's lower legs and arms were paralyzed, but she's learned to walk again. "Protecting girls against cervical cancer is a fabulous thing, but if this is what's going to happen, they need to research it more," she said.
In Florida, the mother of 13-year-old Brittany LeClaire said her daughter suffered headaches and lethargy after a Gardasil shot last Aug. 13. On Sept. 2, Brittany's left leg became paralyzed. After months on a walker, she limps.
Her pediatrician "highly recommended" the vaccination, mom Christina Bell said. "He told me it was a cancer preventative. I thought it was the right thing to do. You see it advertised on TV every 15 minutes."
Brittany's case is one of six being prepared for filing by Boston vaccine lawyer Kevin Conway. He said other cases include "paralysis, seizures and brain damage."
Gardasil was licensed by the Food and Drug Administration in June 2006 for females ages 9 to 26. Sold worldwide, it's been given to more than 8 million US girls and women, Merck says.
The vaccine is aimed at warding off strains of the human papillomavirus, or HPV, which can lead to cancer. The vaccinations cost a total $360.
Securities and Exchange Commission documents show Merck made $1.5 billion in Gardasil sales last year.
ONE doctor who helped conduct clinical trials on Gardasil told The Post the vaccine has been aggressively marketed to girls too young to need it.
"There's a huge push for giving this to girls 11 and 12 years of age," said Dr. Diane Harper of Dartmouth Medical School. "There's no hurry. You can give it to someone who is 20, 25 or 30 and still have the same level of protection."
The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, run by the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has collected thousands of reports of health problems after Gardasil shots.
The fatalities include:
* A 17-year-old New York girl who collapsed and died on Feb. 22 this year, two days after the last of three Gardasil injections. An autopsy could not pinpoint the cause, but doctors suspect a heart- rhythm disorder.
* An 11-year-old who suffered a heart attack in May 2007, three days after a Gardasil shot. The nurse who reported it said a doctor blamed it on "an anaphylactic [severe allergic] reaction to Gardasil." The feds could not confirm the case.
* A 12-year-old girl with no prior medical problems who died in her sleep on Oct. 6, 2007, three weeks after a Gardasil shot.
-
DR. John Iskander, the CDC's acting director for immunization safety, said a review of 10 confirmed deaths found no common thread. Officials "concluded to the degree of certainty possible" that Gardasil wasn't to blame.
"It's tragic that young, apparently healthy people, do die," Iskander said.
But he added that doctors hold special meetings weekly to review new cases, and compare them to prior ones.
Fainting is the main symptom linked to Gardasil, he said.
Merck spokeswoman Kelley Dougherty said the company "actively monitors" reports of side effects.
"An event report does not mean that a causal relationship between an event and vaccination has been established - just that the event occurred after vaccination," she said.
A Post analysis of adverse- event reports filed through April 30 found that about 20 percent followed injections of Gardasil, plus up to seven other vaccines at the same time - including shots to prevent flu, chicken pox, hepatitis and tetanus. Almost 6,300 cases involved Gardasil alone.
Under a federal law passed in the late 1980s, victims of vaccines may file a claim under the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, but cannot sue the pharmaceutical.
Last year, the government added HPV to a list of vaccines, including polio, hepatitis and measles, granted immunity from suit.
If victims prove a vaccine likely caused injuries, the program pays a maximum $250,000 for death. The average payment for injury has been $1 million.
susan.edelman@nypost.com
-
Katherine Kimzey, 14, had headaches and fainted before suffering a seizure and being diagnosed with epilepsy. She believes her symptoms are connected to the HPV vaccine, Gardasil. -
Katherine Kimzey started suffering debilitating headaches, fainting spells and arthritis-like stiffness last November.
Six weeks later, the 14-year-old Dallas resident became so dizzy she could barely walk. She was hospitalized and missed three weeks of school.
Then, she had a seizure. For weeks, she bounced back and forth between specialists and was eventually diagnosed with epilepsy.
Katherine's mother, Michelle Kimzey, now believes her daughter's symptoms were caused by a new vaccine that was supposed to protect her against cervical cancer.
The symptoms started not long after Katherine had her second shot late last year, she said. And they mirrored many of the 5,000 reports filed by the public through a national database that monitors the safety of vaccines after they are licensed.
"When you read everybody's stories, they're too similar not to be related," Mrs. Kimzey said. -
Good post. Thanx!
Please Login to comment on this item.
