Beware of Gardasil, The Cervical Cancer Vaccine
by Helen Lobato
Gardasil is the new vaccine being intensely marketed to the parents of young girls from the age of nine. The vaccine is said to protect against two strains of the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), which it is believed, cause about 70 per cent of cervical cancers. However there are many facts concerning this form of cancer that are not being presented to the now fearful public.
Recently the alarm bells have been ringing about the risks of dying from
Cervical cancer. But HPV, the virus that is blamed for this disease is very
common and can be found in about 80% of both men and women. Most of us have had,
at one time or another, the HPV virus but most of us do not suffer or die from
Cervical cancer. In fact, only one percent of women do develop cervical cancer
with the year 2000 figures on the mortality rates for cervical cancer being 3.3
women per 100,000 population in the US and 4 women per 100,000 population in
Australia. In Australia there are about 740 cases of cervical cancer each year
and around 270 deaths from the disease. Mortality rates generally increase with
age with the highest number of deaths occurring in the 75-79 age group.
Less than 6 per cent of cervical cancer deaths occur in women under 35 years of
age.
The US national cancer institute says that direct causation has not been proven In a controlled study of age-matched women, 67% of those with cervical cancer and 43% of those without were found to be HPV-positive. These cancers are observed on average only 20-50 years after infection. 1
So what is going on?
Does this virus cause cervical cancer?
Nicholas Regush wrote in VACCINE MADNESS:
Back in 1992, however, a question was raised about the
dominant and increasingly-entrenched theory that HPV causes cervical cancer. It
came from Peter Duesberg and Jody Schwartz, molecular biologists at the
University of California at Berkeley. Among the various issues they raised about
the acceptance of HPV as the cause of cervical cancer was their fundamental
concern that there was a lack of consistent HPV DNA sequences and consistent HPV
gene expression in tumors that were HPV-positive. They instead suggested that
“rare spontaneous or chemically induced chromosome abnormalities which are
consistently observed in HPV DNA-negative and positive cervical cancers induce
cervical cancer.”
In short, Duesberg and Schwartz were pointing to the possibility that “carcinogens may be primary inducers of abnormal cell proliferation rather than HPV.” And here’s the key point: “Since proliferating cells [cancer cells dividing wildly] would be more susceptible to infection than resting cells, the viruses would just be indicators rather than causes of abnormal proliferation.”2.
This begs the question: Does a virus, any virus cause a cancer?
We now know that cancer results due to a complex mix of factors related to environment, lifestyle, and heredity. Scientists estimate that about 80 percent of all cancers are related to the use of tobacco products, to what we eat and drink, or, to a lesser extent, to exposure to radiation or cancer-causing agents in the environment and the workplace.3
How then have we come to the conclusion that the Human Papilloma Virus causes
cervical cancer?
Maybe the truth lies in what Duesberg and Schwartz discovered. Rather it is
carcinogens not a virus that causes the abnormal cell proliferation.
One would hope and expect that Gardasil has been well tested and is safe to inject into young girls and possibly boys.
BUT!
According to The Alliance for Human Research Protection (AHRP) this is not the case. AHRP say that the vaccine has not been proven safe and effective in clinical trials. The fact is that the FDA allowed Merck to use a potentially reactive aluminum containing placebo as a control for most trial participants, rather than a non-reactive saline solution placebo.
They use this aluminum placebo because it can artificially increase the appearance of safety of an experimental drug or vaccine in a clinical trial.
Furthermore the Gardasil vaccine contains 225 mcg of Aluminum and we know that vaccine aluminum adjuvants can allow aluminum to enter the brain, as well as cause inflammation at the injection site leading to chronic joint and muscle pain and fatigue.
Around 60 percent of those who got Gardasil or the aluminum placebo suffered side effects such as headache, fever, nausea, dizziness, vomiting, diarrhea, myalgia and the Gardasil recipients had more serious adverse events such as headache, gastroenteritis, appendicitis, pelvic inflammatory disease, asthma, bronchospasm and arthritis.4
So with cervical cancer causing about one percent of all cancer deaths in women and with the causation in doubt, not to mention the lack of safety displayed by the vaccine trials we need to ask why parents are being urged to get their young daughters vaccinated with Gardasil.
The obvious answer it that there is much hanging on the success of Gardasil. It is predicted that Gardasil could be Merck’s most important money earner, with expected sales of at least $2 billion.This is revenue that Merck badly needs after the Vioxx scandals. To achieve this success Gardasil will be required for school admittance.5
How can we remain silent on the issue of Gardasil?
1.
http://www.virusmyth.net/aids/data/pdlatvir3.htm
2.
http://www.redflagsweekly.com/second_opinion/2002_nov25.html
3.
http://www.medicinenet.com/cancer_causes/page2.htm
4.
http://www.ahrp.org/cms/content/view/263/28/
5. www.honesthuman.com
December 26th, 2006 at 3:03 am
I am a female who has suffered immensely in the past several years due to this whole cervical cancer scare. I was diagnosed with cervical dysplasia., and was mandated to have a LEEP procedure then a cryo. i was NOT given a choice. i was told i would die of cancer if i did not. what LIES. i assure you that doctors lie. it is meant to shame women and treat them like they are stupid whores. what. all for having had sex? these people ruined my life. if i had known what i know now about cervical dysplasia and all that, i NEVER would have allowed these people to treat me like a human lab rat. as for now, i have had all normal pap smears for the past four years. but wait!!! i tested postive for the HPV! oh no. i have ANTIBODIES to HPV. and antibodies are a sign of good health. but this is NOT something these doctors want you to figure out. i had to figure it out on my own. there is also no woman in my family who has had cervical cancer. and face it, a retrovirus, such as HPV, simply CANNOT cause cancer. YOUR GENETICS are what determine if you will get cancer. not a harmless chemical LAB TEST like HPV. FUCK THE SYSTEM.
Regards,
LINDSAY GRIFFITH BALDWIN
December 26th, 2006 at 1:21 pm
Lindsay, I too suffered from the whole scare program re cervical cancer twenty years ago. Was told i would get cervical cancer and must have my uterus removed. Sought another opinion and very soon the pap smears became normal.
It is a scam!
thanks for your comments
Helen
January 11th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
Wow. Thanks for this post. I discovered I had HPV nearly ten years ago through an abnormal pap. Six months later, everything was fine. My doctors’ attitudes have always been that it’s no big deal as long as I get my yearly Pap.
I wish the rest of the world could be this calm in their approach. Instead it’s TV, magazine, Internet ads, fake health articles everywhere from Guardisal and Digene raising alarm bells. Even Dr. Drew, who once stated on Loveline that it’s safe to say that HPV has completely gone away after 10 years without symptoms, has changed his tune, and now calls it a lifelong issue.
It makes me sick to my stomach that everyone is cashing in on this hysteria.
January 30th, 2007 at 6:21 pm
It does seem like an alarmist reaction in the media since Gardasil was launched. It’s nice to see some opinions that aren’t so “chicken little” on the topic!
January 31st, 2007 at 12:55 am
Please do not trample on this wonderful health care initiative which will save many lives.
Thankfully we have made scientific progress and as an RN who has nursed patients with this disease, I applaud the work that has been done.
January 31st, 2007 at 4:42 pm
This wonderful health initiative (as you call it) should not be given to 9 year old girls and possibly boys. Cervical cancer tends to occur in midlife. Half of women diagnosed with this cancer are between the ages of 35 and 55.
As girls grow older they can be followed by papsmears to prevent this cancer and death. Women who have never had a Pap test or who have not had one for several years have a higher than average risk of developing cervical cancer.
Also it is very important to understand the risks of this vaccine to young children who are not going to get cervical cancer for many years for as we know it is older women. As i have previously written at top of this page around 60 percent of those who got Gardasil or the aluminum placebo suffered side effects such as headache, fever, nausea, dizziness, vomiting, diarrhea, myalgia and the Gardasil recipients had more serious adverse events such as headache, gastroenteritis, appendicitis, pelvic inflammatory disease, asthma, bronchospasm and arthritis.
This is not a wonderful health care initiative, this is very sad for our young children who are already given far too many vaccines.
I, too have nursed a few women, who have had cervical cancer but these were old women, not young children and they were usually women who had smoked heavily throughout their lives. Cervical cancers like other cancers are caused by carcinogens or cancer causing agents, not the HPV virus.
February 2nd, 2007 at 8:18 am
You can read about side effects of vaccines and drugs in general at http:\\www.patientsville.com. We have >100000 real patient stories.
February 3rd, 2007 at 7:13 pm
So I’ve been watching all these ads on TV telling people to find out about GARDASIL. And then I read that Merck was lobbying for this vaccine to become mandatory. Then I saw that the Texas governor is making this vaccine mandatory in Texas for preteens. So I finally decided to look into it.
Here’s the scoop:
1) GARDASIL is a vaccine for 4 strains of the human papillomavirus (HPV), two strains that are strongly associated (and probably cause) genital warts and two strains that are typically associated (and may cause) cervical cancer. About 90% of people with genital warts show exposure to one of the two HPV strains strongly suspected to cause genital warts. About 70% of women with cervical cancer show exposure to one of the other two HPV strains that the vaccine is designed to confer resistance to.
2) HPV is a sexually communicable (not an infectious) virus. When you consider all strains of HPV, over 70% of sexually active males and females have been exposed. A condom helps a lot (70% less likely to get it), but has not been shown to stop transmission in all cases (only one study of 82 college girls who self-reported about condom use has been done). For the vast majority of women, exposure to HPV strains (even the four “bad ones” protected for in GARDASIL) results in no known health complications of any kind.
3) Cervical cancer is not a deadly nor prevalent cancer in the US or any other first world nation. Cervical cancer rates have declined sharply over the last 30 years and are still declining. Cervical cancer accounts for less than 1% of of all female cancer cases and deaths in the US. Cervical cancer is typically very treatable and the prognosis for a healthy outcome is good. The typical exceptions to this case are old women, women who are already unhealthy and women who don’t get pap smears until after the cancer has existed for many years.
4) Merck’s clinical studies for GARDASIL were problematic in several ways. Only 20,541 women were used (half got the “placebo”) and their health was followed up for only four years at maximum and typically 1-3 years only. More critically, only 1,121 of these subjects were less than 16. The younger subjects were only followed up for a maximum of 18 months. Furthermore, less than 10% of these subjects received true placebo injections. The others were given injections containing an aluminum salt adjuvant (vaccine enhancer) that is also a component of GARDASIL. This is scientifically preposterous, especially when you consider that similar alum adjuvants are suspected to be responsible for Gulf War disease and other possible vaccination related complications.
5) Both the “placebo” groups and the vaccination groups reported a myriad of short term and medium term health problems over the course of their evaluations. The majority of both groups reported minor health complications near the injection site or near the time of the injection. Among the vaccination group, reports of such complications were slightly higher. The small sample that was given a real placebo reported far fewer complications — as in less than half. Furthermore, most if not all longer term complications were written off as not being potentially vaccine caused for all subjects.
6) Because the pool of subjects were so small and the rates of cervical cancer are so low, NOT A SINGLE CONTROL SUBJECT ACTUALLY CONTRACTED CERVICAL CANCER IN ANY WAY, SHAPE OR FORM — MUCH LESS DIED OF IT. Instead, this vaccine’s supposed efficacy is based on the fact that the vaccinated group ended up with far fewer cases (5 vs. about 200) of genital warts and “precancerous lesions” (dysplasias) than the alum injected “control” subjects.
7) Because the tests included just four years of follow up at most, the long term effects and efficacy of this vaccine are completely unknown for anyone. All but the shortest term effects are completely unknown for little girls. Considering the tiny size of youngster study, the data about the shortest terms side effects for girls are also dubious.
8) GARDASIL is the most expensive vaccine ever marketed. It requires three vaccinations at $120 a pop for a total price tag of $360. It is expected to be Merck’s biggest cash cow of this and the next decade.
These are simply the facts of the situation as presented by Merck and the FDA. This vaccine was just approved in June, 2006. It was never tested on pre-teens except in a tiny trial run with at most 18 months of follow up. Even if we subscribe to the theory that HPV causes cervical cancer, there is ZERO hard data showing that this vaccine reduces cervical cancer rates or cervical cancer mortality rates, which are both already very low in the US and getting lower every year. Now Texas has already made this vaccine mandatory for middle school with all sorts of useful idiots and Big Pharma operatives clamoring for more states to make this vaccine COMPULSORY immediately.
Has everyone gotten the picture or should I continue?