Written by Ffjorren Zolfahgar |
Picture this print ad: a young woman is smiling a wide, toothy grin and she is happy to be alive. Of course, she is also donning an adorable outfit. Pretty swirls of blue, pink and brown flowers adorn the page. She is quoted saying things like, “I’ll do everything I can to help my dreams come true,” referring to her choice on getting vaccinated. The vaccine is Gardasil, which protects its recipients from the Human Papillomavirus (HPV). Apparently, it’s trendy, it’s cool and it will help you achieve your dreams.
Marketing is great if you’re looking to sell something. A nice photo and a few digitally created flowers can make any subject seem dreamy. But the reality is that many girls are getting sick from their Gardasil injections.
These injections are filled with ingredients like yeast, salt and water. Nope, they’re not making bread dough, that’s just the base. The other parts of the recipe include a compound of aluminum, used to jump-start the immune system. They also add a dash of Polysorbate 80, which has its very own list of allergic reactions and negative side effects. Don’t forget the pinch of Sodium Borate, the main chemical in boric acid, which is found in roach powder. Alas, the star of this FDA approved recipe, Protein types 6, 11, 16 and 18 of HPV.
This is how Merck & Co. creates the perfect vaccine, a series of three injections that will “gard” our daughters against HPV. According to Merck & Co. and the FDA, this vaccine will safeguard girls from cervical cancer and other HPV diseases. This could be a fairly true outcome, as it should protect them from four strains of high and low risk HPV. However, HPV is a group of over 100 related viruses and more than 30 of them are passed from person to person through sexual contact.
Therefore, boys have the same chance of contracting and carrying these viruses as girls do. However, Gardasil is marketed as a cervical cancer vaccination. It is recommended for girls and women between the ages of 9 and 26. The hope is to limit or eradicate repeated HPV infections among women, as repeated infections can cause abnormal cell growth. This increases a young woman’s risk for cervical cancer. Most HPV infections go away on their own, however high risk strains have a higher chance of leading to cell abnormality.
It is obviously important for girls, women and men to be aware of HPV. It is also important to take certain precautions. Gardasil may seem like a great answer to a nagging question for some, but it is currently under scrutiny from the media, the FDA, CDC and more importantly, parents. This examination will persist as long as girls continue to get sick.
According to the CDC, Center for Disease Control, as of December 31, 2008 more than 23 million doses of Gardasil were distributed in the U.S. Of those doses, the CDC received 11,916 reports of adverse affects that were linked to Gardasil vaccinations. There have also been 32 reports of U.S. deaths among females who received the Gardasil vaccination. Some of the illnesses that have been reported to the CDC, include, but are not limited to, lupus, fibromayalgia, seizures, massive wart outbreaks, rashes, paralysis and blood clots. At this point, long-term side effects have not been established due to lack of scientific studies.
If you’re concerned about HPV but do not want to receive a vaccination, you can lower your risk naturally. If you’re having sex with more than one partner, make sure to use condoms. Although studies are not linked directly to HPV, they have found lower rates of cervical cancer among women who use condoms. Also, pap smears are a must. Doctor’s are able to detect high risk HPV viruses early on. Unfortunately, there are no approved HPV screening tests for men at this time. For more information on HPV and cervical cancer, go to www.cdc.gov.
References:
2. www.fda.gov “Patient information about Gardasil”
3. www.howstuffworks.com – Medical encyclopedia “Sodium Borate poisoning”
4. www.cancer.gov – The National Cancer Institute – “Human Papillomaviruses and Cancer”
5. www.cbsnews.com “Vaccine Watch – Gardasil Side-Effects?”
Dear all,
another misleading article, its incredible how general ingnorance about something or a secret agenda can cause panic around people. Of course everyone should be free to decide whether or not to receive a vaccine. but the war against HPV vaccines is just silly at this point, then again it has been the same for almost all vaccines that now are used on a regular basis.
Lots of people mention adverse events as been RELATED to the vaccine, even death… the truth is, and you can go a read it for yourself at the VAERS database that at least Gardasil has delivered 70 million doses, Adverse reactions are around 20,000 reported to VAERS, including 89 deaths. What you dont know is how the system works, all new drugs/vaccines after introduction to the market are under constant surveillance… and doctor must submit any information even if not related that might be or occured near a pharmacological subministration. In this case after receiving the shoot. Most reported adverse events are between the normal incidence of events under that group age in the general population, most of them are declared even by the physician that notifies it as not related to the vaccine. On the death cases you can find absurd notifications as someone dying in a car accident and been reported as an adverse reaction. Each case of death is detailed on the VAERS site, anyone with a medical background can see most or all are not really related to the vaccine. the same with the Adverse events. to understand better the Adverse reactions notification system, lets supose, that Pepsi cola was by law obliged to notify possible adverse reactions… if let say you drink it and have a headache after 8 hours of drinking it, if you go to the physician, even long time after and reffer this, he must notify VAERS that it might be even if he doesnt think so related to PEPSI. if you die lets say of a blood clot, some might say if you drinked pepsi before thath it might have been cause by it, and even if its an isolated case reffered from a niece that reffered a nurse that reffered a physician (most death cases are stated like that on the VAERS) that then reffers another physician that he heard one patient on an unkown hospital died in the ER from an embolia, that her niece sayd to have heard it could have been caused from another nurse, from a vaccine shoot taken 15 days before, because she read in some internet site that that vaccine could cause blood clots, then you must notify this possible case, and it will be stated on VAERS even if not related, illogically correlated and probably ficticious and not real at all. That the truth about adverse reactions notification system. particularly in this vaccine reffered to deaths.
This article talks about toxic ingredients in the vaccine, hello those are common ingredients used in many other vaccines, especially alluminium, and have been repetedly proven to have no adverse reaction or risk, even if some as sodium borate are toxic, in low quantities, we are talking about micrograms, are way way below the toxic dosage and have proven to be usefull and safe. to put this in normal everyday examples, how many of you know that apple seeds contain a toxic acid, that if you actually eat in great amounts you can actually die immediatly (some suicide patients have actually killed themselfes with great amounts of apple seeds), how many of you know that most fish contain quite a significant amount of mercury wich can be really toxic, but then again do you heare people telling you not to eat fish or apples?
its quite the same with the vaccine, its true that with any injected substance theres always a risk of allergic reactions, but its greater the risk of having an severe allergic reaction from peanuts… but you certainly dont stop eating them, and in the case of a vaccine the benefits are much bigger than eating peanuts.
I think 70 million doses worldwide now speak for themself, also it has been approved for men against genital warts and anal cancer caused by HPV.
Also true that this vaccine protects against ONLY four types of HPV from more than a 100, BUT its also true that vaccine types 6,11 cause 90% of warts in the normal population, and the other two vaccine type 16 and 18 causerelate to 70% of all cervical cancers. so theres a great chance of protection from it dont you think? on percentages, only type 31, 33, 45 are related to the other 28 % of cancers, and the vaccine has shown some good cross protection results. less than 2% of all cancer cases are caused by the ramaining 100 more types of HPV… so do still think you really need a vaccine for the 100 types???
Now there are many scientific articles about usufullness and safety on men. and shows how its a population with similar risks as women.
Thank you for your comment. We appreciate when our readers share their insight, regardless of their stance.