Posted on 02/17/2009 7:14:40 AM PST by BGHater
A Wichita teen and her mother want a popular vaccine taken off the market. Doctors say Gardasil is killing the 16-year-old.
The drug is used to prevent the HPV virus which causes cervical cancer. The makers of Gardasil recommend girls and young women ages 9-26 get the vaccine to protect them from the virus that causes cervical cancer.
Twenty-eight women have reportedly died from Gardasil.
Sixteen-year-old Gabi Swank used to be a cheerleader, a gymnast and a 4.0 student at Wichita's South High, but after getting the Gardasil vaccination last year, her health deteriorated quickly.
She's had two mini strokes, seizures and swelling of all the tissues in her body. She even has paralysis on the right side of her face. After months of testing, doctors finally pointed to Gardasil as the cause.
"I want this drug off the market. I want it off the market," said Swank from her home.
The CDC and the FDA say they have received thousands of reports of adverse reactions to the vaccine, but the government adds, it continues to find that the benefits of Gardasil outweigh the risks.
Meanwhile pharmacists start at 100K right out of school..
Pharmacists don't work for the drug companies.
No, that is not what I am referring to. I am referring to testimony on the floor of various state legislative chambers where lobbyists for the ACS have stated smoking CAUSES cervical cancer, not that it is a risk factor.
While I might argue, for the sake of an argument, that smoking is a statistically insignificant risk factor for cervical cancer, I am not going to stand by idly when someone claims that smoking is a major cause of cervical cancer when all evidence is to the contrary.
Again, smoking is an independent risk factor for cervical cancer.
I haven't said otherwise, and I wouldn't. But that is not what is being promoted by the anti-tobacco industry, including the ACS, ALA, AHA, etc., let alone various state public health divisions. No doubt about it that on their websites and in their press releases they use the term "risk factor" but they do so in such a way as to give the general public the impression of it being a major risk or cause.
Once again, a great PR/Lobbying job. They've convinced people that a generally sexually transmitted disease which often causes a certain kind of cancer is caused by smoking.
Look, I am in no way questioning you or the work you do personally, as I realize you are far more knowledgeable and experienced than I am in risk/causes. What I am questioning and criticizing is the PR/Lobbying tactics of certain companies, industries, and organizations that stand to make lots of money with the utilization of false or misleading information. That's where I have knowledge and experience.
I don't want to accuse you of defending such, but you sure seem to be leaning in that direction.
Another vaccine for that does not do what many think it will. You still need pap smears and check ups, as this doesn’t prevent all strains.
But it makes a lot of money for the connected.
My daughter was born last Tuesday, and they wanted to give here a Hep B shot that day! I was 24 before I had to get one (for my work), and they asked about all sorts of issues before I did. Have yet to hear a good reason for the vaccine schedule in the US.
I’ve read all the studies in the medical literature and know many of the scientists who performed them. They show no increased risk of death due to the vaccine versus unvaccinated controls. I’m sorry but I don’t have the time or patience to go through this anti-vaccination activist website. The internet is full of them and if we listened to all of them we wouldn’t vaccinate anyone against anything. Vioxx is a red herring, the same could be said about any drug. In the absence of evidence that has been carefully peer reviewed, and not just posted at a website, I stand by my statement. And Gardasil was approved in 2006.
I'm just trying to correct the enormous amount of misinformation I see here. Heck, I make a living (partially) looking at abnormal Pap smears. The more I look at the more money I make. It's in my financial interest for no one to be vaccinated, that way the abnormal Paps will keep coming to me. I just am tired of diagnosing cervical cancer and seeing women die of this preventable disease.
You’re doing a super job with your girls! I love reading your posts about them!
Jax never ceases to amaze me, on one hand she’s got concepts like property rights down pat, yet remains naive about how babies come about even though she can tell me EXACTLY how kittens come about. Heck she is able to determine the sex of kittens before any adult I know can (other than a vet) and lets me know when our momma cat is pregnant.........weird
If you call getting this vaccine mandated for 9 to 11 year olds in many states a failure your definition of success and failure are far different than mine.
The simple fact Merck got it mandated in one state, let alone others, is the definition of success to me. Grassroots work got their push stopped, but that didn’t happen until what they were doing started getting publicity.
For quite a time they succeeded in getting this mandate through under the radar screen. That is the definition of successful.
Illegal immigrants. A child in daycare or school in many areas is going to be exposed to *you wouldn't believe* what kinds of crud. Tuberculosis outbreaks are becoming fairly common, as well as Hepatitis A and B, whooping cough, and Meningitis.
Excuse me, the sentence of mine was in regard to false testimony given to legislative bodies, not about you looking at abnormal Pap smears.
I do not have either the time or money to go to Richmond, Annapolis, Dover, Harrisburg, Trenton, Albany, or a host of other state capitols to request text of testimony given in favor of smoking bans or other anti-tobacco legislation made by ACS or other such groups stating that smoking CAUSES cervical cancer. I attended many of those sessions and heard it myself.
I have not argued about your professional experience that smoking is a risk factor for cervical cancer, in fact I agreed with you. You, however, are not willing to accept my professional experience that certain organizations, including the ACS, claim it is more than a risk factor and is in fact a cause and have done so on the floor of many legislative bodies.
Causes and increased risk factors are 2 entirely different things, but good PR campaigns know how to blur the difference in order for the general public to consider them the same, and I believe you know that.
Merck has not stopped its PR campaign, just the lobbying for the mandatory vaccines in the various states.
I’m not sure we’re getting anywhere arguing about whether Merck’s PR was successful or not. Still, they have the right to advertise their products. As for the smoking issue, all I can say is that quitting smoking is the single best thing any smoker can do to improve his or her health and I applaud the ACS for it’s efforts in this regard.
And where do the profits come from to pay pharmacists salary? Perhaps not directly as a drug company employee, but if the drug companies are not raking in the money, at times as a result of questionable meds, then there would not be 100k available to pay a new grad.
How about some figures?
2006 population of women per the census is 151,795,031.
Number of cervical cancer cases diagnosed in 2005 per the CDC is 11,999.
That means that .0007904% of women were diagnosed with cervical cancer.
Number of deaths in 2005 were 3,924.
Percentage of deaths were .0000258%
This "vaccine" is a money maker and not a life saver.
You have no clue!
It was and they do.
As for the smoking issue, all I can say is that quitting smoking is the single best thing any smoker can do to improve his or her health and I applaud the ACS for it’s efforts in this regard.
I don't disagree that stopping smoking has beneficial results. However, I will never applaud ACS for it's efforts in this regard based upon the known fabrications they and the rest of their cohorts rely upon.
You and I are most likely never going to agree on many of these issues, and that is all well and good. However, I would ask that you give my professional experience the same respect that I am giving yours. I do not think that is too much to ask, do you?
The ONLY number that Merck cares about is 151,795,031 multiplied by whatever they can get.
I hear that.
They make it sound like everyone has cervical cancer or will have it and the numbers say something very different. Simple scare tactics. DC uses them (porkulus), the press uses them (global warming) and pharma companies (use our drugs or die) and most people are too dumb or blind to check for the truth..
That's comparable to the number of cases of polio during the early part of the 20th century. A bit less than the worst years.
And of course, before polio was defeated there were a number of cases caused by the Salk vaccine. More than 28.
It's the percentages that are pertinent since the population has grown since 1900.
Re: “Correct me if I’m wrong, but, isn’t cervical cancer virtually unknown among girls and women who aren’t sexually active, and/or are in mutually monogamous relationships?....”
*******
You are correct, BUT it’s been known for awhile now that many people, even the NON-promiscuous among us, can pick up various forms of HPV so just about every girl/woman can be affected. Still, most forms of HPV do not cause cancer and most people never know they carry the virus.
A relative of mine got cervical cancer at 31, diagnosed after giving birth to her first and only child. The ONLY male she’d been intimate with was her husband, who was her long-term boyfriend since high school. He was NOT pegged as the “carrier.” So where did this come from, then???? Who has the answers to these questions? Certainly medical tests don’t always reveal the culprit.
On another health issue, I know of one, just ONE person out of the millions who routinely get flu shots, who had a life threatening, life changing “illness” from getting her first and only flu shot at age 38. She was hospitalized, lost use of her limbs for months, and was nearly bedridden at home for more months as a result of that shot. Every test imaginable was done and it was deemed a reaction to the flu shot.
As for Gardisal, however, if I had a young female daughter there is no way I would have her get that vaccination. At this time, it’s just too risky. How can a school require sixth graders to be vaccinated. One person mentioned a school demands innoculation for entry into sixth grade. How is this their business, anyway?
Home schooling, anyone?
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