Vaccination Debate

I have just begun researching the HPV vaccine. Anyone else? I thought we could share our research both pro and con in this thread.

Please CITE the sources for your information - URLS, medical articles, newspaper coverage, etc.

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Some of the stuff I have read:

The US FDA (online) has said that any one allergic to yeast or any other agent in the vaccine should NOT be vaccinated with 'Gardasil' From http://www.fda.gov/cber/products/hpvmer060806qa.htm This information missing information from the product's insert.

The advertising bills this as a cervical cancer vaccine - it's not. It's a HPV vaccine which has not been proven to DIRECTLY cause cervical cancer. From the US Cancer institutes's website http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/prevention/cervical/HealthProfessional/page3 "direct causation to cervical cancer has NOT been established".

The HPV vaccine had such a low subject count in the test group between the ages of 9 and 15 years. It accounted for only 3.3% of the vaccinated groups. The Merck trials involved 20, 541 women 16 to 26 of age, and 1,121 girls between 9 and 15 years of age. But the number of 9-year-old girls vaccinated in all trials has reported to be 250. Half of all these groups
had the vaccine, while the other half had a placebo containing aluminium! From: http://www.merck.com/product/usa/pi_circulars/g/gardasil/gardasil_pi.pdf

Article from NVIC on the clinical trials -

According to the Merck product manufacturer insert, there was 1 case of juvenile arthritis, 2 cases of rheumatoid arthritis, 5 cases of arthritis, and 1 case of reactive arthritis out of 11,813 Gardasil recipients plus 1 case of lupus and 2 cases of arthritis out of 9,701 participants primarily receiving an aluminum containing placebo. Clinical trial investigators dismissed most of the 102 Gardasil and placebo associated serious adverse events, including 17 deaths, that occurred in the clinical trials as unrelated.

From http://www.909shot.com/PressReleases/pr62706gardasil.htm (contains footnotes in the article for its references.

Article from NVIC on the VAERS reports on Gardasil to-date:

Out of the 385 individual GARDASIL adverse event reports made to VAERS, two-thirds required additional medical care and about one-third of all reports were for children 16-years-old and under, with nearly 25 percent of those children having received simultaneously one or more of the 18 vaccines that Merck did not study in combination with GARDASIL. NVIC is calling on the FDA and CDC to warn parents and doctors that GARDASIL should not be combined with other vaccines and that young girls should be monitored for at least 24 hours for syncopal (collapse/fainting) episodes that can be accompanied by seizure activity, as well as symptoms of tingling, numbness and loss of sensation in the fingers and limbs, all of which should be reported to VAERS immediately.

From http://www.909shot.com/Diseases/HPV/pr022107HPV.htm

Follow me to the Current Debates Board

This vaccine has been incorrectly touted as the "cervical cancer prevention" vaccine instead of HPV prevention vaccine. What gets me is this from the insert:

http://www.merck.com/product/usa/pi_circulars/g/gardasil/gardasil_pi.pdf

Vaccine may INCREASE cervical cancer risk!!

"This is how the vaccine may increase the number of cancers: There is something called the "enhancing antibody effect" in tumor immunology. When you inject a low-zone dose (small amount)of antibody which is specifically made against tumor antigens this can interfere with the body's natural defense mechanism against tumors.(antigens are chemicals on viruses, bacteria or tumors that may act as targets for antibodies to attach to; antibodies are molecules in the body that attach to foreign substances such as viruses like HPV or Hepatitis B virus or tumor cells, identifying them for attack cells such as macrophages to destroy; now you have a basic understanding of the field of immunology! - I wish the legislature would allow me to educate thim on this topic). If there is too little antibody, the body's cell mediated immunity (the macrophages) do not get a clear signal that they should destroy the virus, bacteria, or tumor cell. Instead they are "blocked" and ignore the virus, bacteria, or tumor cell. In the case of tumors, this CAUSES the tumor to grow FASTER than if no antibody was given, in that it "blocks" cell-mediated immunity (macrophages and other attack cells). If a "high zone" amount (large enough dose) of antibody is given, then the macrophages are activated, the antigens are identified and targeted and the macrophages greedily eat up the virus, bacteria or tumor cells. With tumors (cancers are tumors) this decreases the tumor size and is critical in destroying it. Chemotherapy just decreases the amount of tumor - immunity destroys the last vestige of it. This is a simplified explanation. You cannot cure all cancers with antibody and macrophages.

If you inject a viral antigen into a person (the HPV vaccine), the body produces specific antibodies against this antigen. Over time (usually 5-10 years)the level (amount) of antibody in the body naturally drops, while the body is no longer exposed to the antigen. At some point this becomes "low dose" levels. AT THIS POINT IF YOU ARE EXPOSED TO THE VIRUS, THE VIRUS WILL MULTIPLY FASTER THAN IF YOU NEVER RECEIVED THE VACCINE (HPV) AGAINST THE VIRUS AND THE PERSON WILL HAVE DIFFICULTY FIGHTING OFF THE VIRUS. 80% of persons infected with the HPV naturally clear and the destroy the virus with their own immune system. Then there is NO risk of cancer from the virus. It is the persons that do not clear the virus (the viral infection becomes chronic) that develop cancer if they are infected with one of the few cancer producing strains of HPV.

As young girls will naturally drop their antibody levels, by the time they reach sexual maturity and engage in sex and get exposed to HPV, the low-zone antibody levels will interfere with the body's immune system (enhancing antibody effect) and a larger proportion of the women (presently 20 %) will NOT CLEAR THE VIRUS AND THEREFORE WILL BE AT RISK FOR CERVICAL CANCER! THIS WILL BE A PUBLIC HEALTH NIGHTMARE. I am guessing this will double or triple the number of cervical cancers.

Giving HPV vaccine to young girls is madness! Giving it on a voluntary basis to the sexually active if they are reliable and are committed to booster doses every 5-10 years is sensible.

Sometimes a little understanding (like Sen. Halverson) is worse than none at all. She is NOT a scientist or physician. I am a scientist (researched issues about hepatitis B and its vaccine) and a physician. I also oppose routine vaccination of the population concerning hepatitis B vaccine for the same reason."

http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/illinoisreview/2007/03/researcher_blas.html

My 11 year old daughter will not be getting the vaccine. It is not even known if the vaccine will cause a drop in cervical cancer-it will take 20 or 30 years to find that out.(I don't have the source but I'm thinking it was even on the vaccine info sheet I got from the peds). At 11 I am quite sure you have a few years before HPV becomes something we even have to think about. By then there should be more info on the vaccine available. (I'm not happy about the CP vaccine and wouldn't give it based on what I know now about the declining effectiveness of the vaccine so I feel like we jumped in and agreed to that one too soon).

What bugs me about all of the HPV debate is that when they mention there are people opposed to the vaccine (or mandating the vaccine) they always say b/c it's sexually related and people are afraid it could encourage girls to become sexually active. They never bring up the issues of safety, effectiveness, etc. Personally, the sex part of it isn't an issue here.

Julie