Celebrate Life

November/December 2009

by Lisa Bastian

In 2006, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Gardasil, the first-ever vaccine for females 9 to 26 years old, designed to prevent just 4 of the over 100 strains of the human papillomavirus. Only two percent of undiagnosed HPV infections lead to cervical cancer, a rare form of cancer.

Over the past three years, Gardasil’s manufacturer, Merck, has done a good job of scaring parents into immunizing their daughters against sexually transmitted HPV; over 50 million doses have been distributed worldwide.
And would you believe that the 23 million doses given so far in the United States include those given to all female immigrants seeking to become permanent, legal residents? (Yes, before you can get a green card, the feds
want you to get “the jab.”)

Despite being fast-tracked through the FDA, Gardasil has not been proven safe in long-term studies. Even a former paid consultant to Merck now questions its safety, Dr. Diane Harper, who helped Gardasil get FDA approval, told CBS News, in an August 19, 2009, interview, “Gardasil has been associated with at least as many serious adverse events as there are deaths from cervical cancer developing each year.”

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