Making Gardasil Vaccination Mandatory Would Be Unwise, Academics Say

Note from Health Lover, Ilena Rosenthal:

It is unwise from many different levels ...
http://ilenarose.blogspot.com


November 11, 2008, 2:11 pm
http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/11/...academics-say/
Making Gardasil Vaccination Mandatory Would Be Unwise, Academics Say
Posted by Jonathan D. Rockoff

More academics are joining arguments against government mandates for
immunizing girls with Merck’s Gardasil vaccine against cervical
cancer.

In the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, three scholars argue that
state and local governments shouldn’t require girls get cervical
cancer vaccinations for both public health and constitutional reasons.

Gail Javitt of Johns Hopkins’s Berman Institute of Bioethics, Deena
Berkowitz of George Washington University School of Medicine and
Lawrence Gostin of Georgetown University Law Center say the vaccine —
recommended for young girls to prevent cervical cancer — doesn’t
address the same level of public health threat as existing mandates
for polio, measles and other childhood vaccinations.

And for that reason, the authors argue, courts may not uphold the
constitutionality of a mandate for vaccination against human
papillomavirus, the target of Gardasil.

“We should be careful about adding more and more vaccine requirements
when they exceed the original purpose of mandatory, school-based
vaccinations,” Javitt told the Health Blog. She recommends states
educate parents about the benefits “because it will allow parents to
make informed decisions without coercing them.”

The article was published online in June, but we have to admit that we
didn’t see it until the medical journal got around to publicizing it
this week. Even after the delay, we found the arguments
thought-provoking and worth sharing.

Gardasil has enjoyed strong sales since winning FDA approval in 2006.
But controversy over Merck’s lobbying of states to require vaccination
against HPV led the company to drop that tactic. So far, governments
have been more inclined to educate and fund HPV vaccinations than to
mandate them.

Critics have also raised questions about the vaccine’s effectiveness,
the ethics of requiring it and even its safety.

Update: Merck spokeswoman Amy Rose told the Health Blog in an email
this afternoon that the company had stopped lobbying for Gardasil
school-requirements and is focused on educating policy and lawmakers
looking at Gardasil use about HPV, cervical cancer and the company’s
vaccine.

“Merck’s goal is to ensure that Gardasil, which helps protect against
the HPV types that cause 70 percent of cervical cancers, is used to
its fullest appropriate extent to help reduce the burden of cervical
cancer and other HPV-related diseases in the United States,” Rose
wrote.