gardasil hysteria

Unbelieveable (but true).

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sto...000106,00.html


"The schoolgirl scare" Herald Sun - Australia - Neil Mitchell - May 24,
2007 12:00am

HERE'S a mid-season scenario that would leave even Eddie McGuire speechless.

Imagine if every AFL player was vaccinated with a new flu drug and
within hours, 26 of them had collapsed.

Imagine what would happen if five of them had to be taken to hospital
and two admitted.

There would be an immediate official inquiry and there is every chance
the drug would be shelved until answers were found.

Now, come back to reality.

What happens when young girls report nasty side effects, including
collapse, numbness and temporary paralysis after being vaccinated with
the latest wonder drug, Gardasil?

Not much, and nothing at all with a sense of urgency.

Why not?

Well, instead the medical profession lines up to pat the community on
the head with the style of condescension that must be a compulsory
subject in first-year medicine at university.

They are teenage girls, we are told. They are hysterical. They hadn't
eaten breakfast. They are imagining it.

Perhaps the doctors are right. No, more than that, let's hope the
doctors are right because Gardasil is said to do marvellous work
preventing cervical cancer.

But, let's also hope the doctors learn from what has happened in the
past few days because after concerns about this were raised publicly
there have been too many dismissive statements, not enough fact, and not
enough willingness to act quickly.

Remember, this is a $500 million, four-year, national vaccination
program that everybody hopes will work.

But that's also the danger.

As problems have been raised, legitimate or otherwise, vaccinations
continue.

Moreover, they have continued without warnings that perhaps, just
perhaps, some vaccinations could cause girls to collapse, faint, or
experience symptoms beyond a slightly sore arm.

Alarm bells should have started ringing two weeks ago when girls at
Sacred Heart College in Oakleigh were vaccinated.

Twenty six of them reported sick, some collapsed, five girls were taken
to hospital and two admitted.

The worst affected, Natasha D'Souza, could not move or talk for some hours.

She described numbness, and weakness. But, it was not until 14days
later, that health officials agreed to speak to her and her parents
about her medical background and her reaction.

By any definition that is tardy. Officially, without meeting the girls,
the incident was put down to female teenage hysteria.

Perhaps that was partly right, but it is puzzling that several of them
collapsed hours after the injection and in places well removed from each
other.

Since this case became public, many more examples of children with
suspected adverse reactions have emerged.

A girl has been admitted to hospital in Sydney. Some girls have reported
fainting.

One girl, Felicity Harrison, was vaccinated at Mentone Grammar School
last Thursday. She felt ill for several days and then, on Sunday,
fainted for the first time in her life.

She fell into a swimming pool and although she was able to scramble out,
she collapsed again the next day.

Her father, Jim, says his daughter is no "wimp". He says she is
extremely fit and so tough that she walked part of the Kokoda Track with
a broken ankle.

He claims her reaction cannot be put down to teenage hysteria and
"needle phobia" because it happened well away from the school and the
vaccination.

So, now, will somebody in authority please speak with her? Urgently.

After the rather bumbling reaction from the Victorian authorities,
federal Health Minister Tony Abbott called for a full report on all
this, and that is sensible.

He urged parents not to be dissuaded from vaccination because the
benefit outweighed the risk, but also said:

"It is not uncommon to have some side effects from a vaccination."

Yes, this issue must be handled carefully because it helps nobody to panic.

Equally, it helps nobody to dismiss lightly the complaints from these
girls and their families.

It is beyond dispute that a number of girls have reported symptoms such
as temporary paralysis, numbness, and collapse after being vaccinated
with Gardasil.

It is beyond dispute that similar symptoms have been reported in the
United States and Canada.

It is beyond dispute that this drug does protect women from certain
types of cervical cancer and that about 70,000 girls have been
vaccinated in Australia with few problems.

At this stage, nobody can say with certainty that the vaccination was
responsible for any of the symptoms being reported as adverse reactions.

What seems so wrong is that too many doctors have been quick to say what
the problem was not, without knowing what it was.

They seem to have been willing to assume automatically that girls make
unreliable witnesses, rather than agreeing to collect, collate and
analyse information to sort out scientifically what is happening. At the
moment, the only warning given to parents about this vaccination is that
it may cause some swelling and redness in the arm.

At the very least, if there is reason to suspect that these fainting
attacks and other reactions are related to Gardasil, that warning must
be strengthened.

This is nothing to do with that stupid argument about whether the drug
encourages promiscuity.

Any decent parent agonises over a decision to put any drug into their
child's body and for that reason they deserve answers, not blind
reassurance, when symptoms are reported.

Even if fainting is a rare side effect, it may be, as Tony Abbott says,
that the benefits outweigh the risks in using Gardasil.

The point is that parents and kids deserve more than a patronising pat
on the head from the medical profession.

They don't deserve to be treated simply as hysterical young females.

They have a right to demand to be taken seriously and answered properly,
just as if they were AFL players.

1,637 Gardasil reactions have been reported
http://www.judicialwatch.org/archive...ERSReports.pdf

Why are we experimenting with drugs on girls?
http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinio...601570922.html

Melinda Tankard Reist and Renate Klein
May 25, 2007

Other related coverage
a.. Vaccine is safe, says creator
b.. Parents told cancer drug safe
The Gardasil program may benefit only drug company shareholders.

THE much trumpeted inject-every-girl-free-with-Gardasil campaign has run
into a bit of a snag. Four Melbourne schoolgirls were rushed to hospital
this month after receiving the vaccine promoted as preventing cervical
cancer.

Sixteen other girls were reported sick. One student was left paralysed for
six hours. "I couldn't move at all," she said.

Of course, the vaccine couldn't be at fault. CSL, the company that makes
Gardasil, said the reactions were due to stress and anxiety. The girls were
all worked up. They'd got themselves into a state and panicked. The
vaccine's inventor, Ian Frazer, said it was a case of auto-suggestion.

We shouldn't dismiss the bad experience of these girls just because we
really want the vaccine to work. Women's health is more important.

We're not aware of a problem with this particular vaccine, a Victorian
Health Department spokesperson said.

But a visit to the website of the United States National Vaccine Information
Centre provides little reassurance. It collects voluntary information about
adverse reactions to vaccinations.

According to NVIC president Barbara Loe Fisher: "There are twice as many
children collapsing and four times as many children experiencing tingling,
numbness and loss of sensation after getting a Gardasil vaccination compared
to those getting a tetanus-diphtheria-acellular pertussis vaccination."

Other case studies published online describe cold sweats, difficulty in
walking, disorientation, dizziness, dyskinesia, headache, hyperventilation,
bronchospasms, pallor, paraesthesia, tinnitus and tremors.

Parents are right to question whether the vaccine is in the best interests
of their daughters. A lack of trial data - especially on girls this age -
suggests that Australia's rush to be the first country to provide a fully
funded immunisation campaign was premature.

A recent editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association said:
"It is important to emphasise that the vaccine is supported by limited
efficacy and safety data."

Do the girls and their parents know that Gardasil was tested on fewer than
1200 girls under 16 and that most trials were sponsored by Merck, which
sells Gardasil in the United States? Are they told that it is a genetically
engineered vaccine?

Australian girls are taking part in what is really a major experiment.
Antibodies produced in response to a vaccine can at times mistakenly attack
normal body cells. This can

lead to autoimmune diseases such as arthritis and multiple sclerosis. Does
Gardasil carry this risk? We just don't know.

Then there is the central question of whether Gardasil will actually prevent
cervical cancer. There are more than 100 strains of the human papilloma
virus (HPV). At least 13 of these can cause cancer. Gardasil vaccinates
against only two.

Some research estimates that almost 80 per cent of the sexually active
population is infected with dozens of HPV types, including the high-risk
strains 16 and 18. But in most cases a well-functioning immune system and
good nutrition clears the infection before cervical cancer develops.

With the rush to inject Australian girls with a drug of uncertain efficacy
and safety, it's important to keep the risk of cervical cancer in
perspective. A recent US study concluded that less than one-quarter of 1 per
cent of all American women are at risk of infection with one of the HPV
types associated with cervical cancer that Gardasil vaccinates against.

And there are other risk factors for cervical cancer such as smoking,
malnutrition, a weak immune system, the pill, multiple sex partners and sex
without a condom (although condoms do not entirely eliminate transmission of
HPV). The recently reported increase in a rare throat cancer linked to oral
sex is also associated with HPV.

Health authorities seem to prefer to offer needles than talk about changing
behaviour.

Even Gardasil's promoters note that Pap smears are still necessary. And to
totally eradicate HPV, all adolescents - including all boys - would have to
be vaccinated. But as often happens, the burden falls on women.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration should have demanded that long-term
trials involving younger girls be conducted before Gardasil was approved.

Rushing this product onto the market in Australia for mass immunisation
might be good for CSL shareholders (their share price is one of three vying
to be the first Australian stock to reach $100 this week) but we just don't
know enough to say whether Gardasil really is good news about cancer.

Dr Renate Klein is a reproductive health researcher and former associate
professor of women's studies, Deakin University. Melinda Tankard Reist is a
Canberra writer and founding director of Women's Forum Australia.

JOHN wrote:

Why are we experimenting with drugs on girls?
http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinio...601570922.html

Melinda Tankard Reist and Renate Klein
May 25, 2007

Other related coverage
a.. Vaccine is safe, says creator
b.. Parents told cancer drug safe
The Gardasil program may benefit only drug company shareholders.

THE much trumpeted inject-every-girl-free-with-Gardasil campaign has run
into a bit of a snag. Four Melbourne schoolgirls were rushed to hospital
this month after receiving the vaccine promoted as preventing cervical
cancer.

Sixteen other girls were reported sick. One student was left paralysed for
six hours. "I couldn't move at all," she said.

Of course, the vaccine couldn't be at fault. CSL, the company that makes
Gardasil, said the reactions were due to stress and anxiety. The girls were
all worked up. They'd got themselves into a state and panicked. The
vaccine's inventor, Ian Frazer, said it was a case of auto-suggestion.

We shouldn't dismiss the bad experience of these girls just because we
really want the vaccine to work. Women's health is more important.

We're not aware of a problem with this particular vaccine, a Victorian
Health Department spokesperson said.

But a visit to the website of the United States National Vaccine Information
Centre provides little reassurance. It collects voluntary information about
adverse reactions to vaccinations.

According to NVIC president Barbara Loe Fisher: "There are twice as many
children collapsing and four times as many children experiencing tingling,
numbness and loss of sensation after getting a Gardasil vaccination compared
to those getting a tetanus-diphtheria-acellular pertussis vaccination."

Other case studies published online describe cold sweats, difficulty in
walking, disorientation, dizziness, dyskinesia, headache, hyperventilation,
bronchospasms, pallor, paraesthesia, tinnitus and tremors.

Parents are right to question whether the vaccine is in the best interests
of their daughters. A lack of trial data - especially on girls this age -
suggests that Australia's rush to be the first country to provide a fully
funded immunisation campaign was premature.

A recent editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association said:
"It is important to emphasise that the vaccine is supported by limited
efficacy and safety data."

Do the girls and their parents know that Gardasil was tested on fewer than
1200 girls under 16 and that most trials were sponsored by Merck, which
sells Gardasil in the United States? Are they told that it is a genetically
engineered vaccine?

Australian girls are taking part in what is really a major experiment.
Antibodies produced in response to a vaccine can at times mistakenly attack
normal body cells. This can

lead to autoimmune diseases such as arthritis and multiple sclerosis. Does
Gardasil carry this risk? We just don't know.

Then there is the central question of whether Gardasil will actually prevent
cervical cancer. There are more than 100 strains of the human papilloma
virus (HPV). At least 13 of these can cause cancer. Gardasil vaccinates
against only two.

Some research estimates that almost 80 per cent of the sexually active
population is infected with dozens of HPV types, including the high-risk
strains 16 and 18. But in most cases a well-functioning immune system and
good nutrition clears the infection before cervical cancer develops.

With the rush to inject Australian girls with a drug of uncertain efficacy
and safety, it's important to keep the risk of cervical cancer in
perspective. A recent US study concluded that less than one-quarter of 1 per
cent of all American women are at risk of infection with one of the HPV
types associated with cervical cancer that Gardasil vaccinates against.

And there are other risk factors for cervical cancer such as smoking,
malnutrition, a weak immune system, the pill, multiple sex partners and sex
without a condom (although condoms do not entirely eliminate transmission of
HPV). The recently reported increase in a rare throat cancer linked to oral
sex is also associated with HPV.

Health authorities seem to prefer to offer needles than talk about changing
behaviour.

Even Gardasil's promoters note that Pap smears are still necessary. And to
totally eradicate HPV, all adolescents - including all boys - would have to
be vaccinated. But as often happens, the burden falls on women.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration should have demanded that long-term
trials involving younger girls be conducted before Gardasil was approved.

Rushing this product onto the market in Australia for mass immunisation
might be good for CSL shareholders (their share price is one of three vying
to be the first Australian stock to reach $100 this week) but we just don't
know enough to say whether Gardasil really is good news about cancer.

Dr Renate Klein is a reproductive health researcher and former associate
professor of women's studies, Deakin University. Melinda Tankard Reist is a
Canberra writer and founding director of Women's Forum Australia.



well back in the '60's & '70's I discovered that if I gave drugs to
girls, I got laid more often.

j.

http://www.nmaseminars.com/files/Gar...ent_cancer.doc


"...In fact, according to the text Cancer: Principles & Practice of
Oncology, "In most studies, HPV status was not a strong independent
prognosticator of outcome in cervical cancer patients; however there appears
to be a trend for HPV-negative tumors to do worse .those tumors containing
HPV DNA tend to be of an early stage and low grade."4 This suggests that if
the goal is to reduce deaths from cervical cancer the target should not be
HPV at all because the tumors without HPV actually "do worse."

JOHN wrote:
http://www.nmaseminars.com/files/Gar...ent_cancer.doc


"...In fact, according to the text Cancer: Principles & Practice of
Oncology, "In most studies, HPV status was not a strong independent
prognosticator of outcome in cervical cancer patients; however there appears
to be a trend for HPV-negative tumors to do worse .those tumors containing
HPV DNA tend to be of an early stage and low grade."4

End quote

John then said:

This suggests that if
the goal is to reduce deaths from cervical cancer the target should not be
HPV at all because the tumors without HPV actually "do worse."

This is an idiotic suggestion. It is like saying that we shouldn't wash
our hands after using the toilet because the diseases that you would
wash away are not as bad as other diseases.

There are two types of cervical cancer. Eliminating one (those that are
HPV positive) by vaccination might not eliminate the other, but are you
saying that we shouldn't prevent some cases of cases because there are
other cases of cancer that are worse?

Get a clue, if you can.

jeff

"Jeff" wrote in message
news:CCD6i.6378$3B1.3277@trnddc08...


Get a clue, if you can.

jeff

so speaks the pharma shill

JOHN wrote:
"Jeff" wrote in message
news:CCD6i.6378$3B1.3277@trnddc08...

Get a clue, if you can.

jeff

so speaks the pharma shill

I get absolutely no funding from the pharmaceutical industry. The views
posted are my own.

Jeff

"Jeff" wrote in message
news:9sU6i.1353$d63.1255@trnddc06...


I get absolutely no funding from the pharmaceutical industry. The views
posted are my own.

Jeff

LOL