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.
<It’s actually very simple. No reason necessary.
Oh, OK. I hadn’t read the rest of the posts.
I guess the one good thing about my daughter having a brain injury is that none of the doctors ever push us on vaccines.
There have only been a few that have been highly recommended (the flu shot and whooping cough).
Then why are you doubting the validity of this young woman's condition?
Elen will be 12 in April. I wouldn’t stay with a doctor if he or she didn’t treat me as someone who can make reasonable decisions. Every person doesn’t need every vaccine that’s available, and the likelihood of exposure to the disease is a major factor in deciding whether to be vaccinated.
I lost all respect for the Gardisil pushers when they didn’t recommend/mandate vaccinating males as well as females. How do they think girls and women contract HPV, anyway?
I’m hoping to wait until 18 before I feel the need to vaccinate my daughters. At 18, they can make informed decisions about their body on their own.
I will say that my 14 year old son was up for a lot of vaccines. There were some that I wanted him to have because of risk factors in our family (flu), but there were several that I wasn’t sure about (meningitis). My son is very smart, so I let the doctor explain the benefits versus the risk to my son. My son said he thought he should have them. We went ahead with them.
First, people are notoriously inaccurate when self-reporting illnesses. But even if this isn't the case here where is the evidence of any link between her illness and Gardasil? Her statement? The anonymous doctors who support it? Who are they? How do they know?
Clumsy and heavy handed? that is all you can say about it?
A case study in how to do it wrong. But this doesn't show the vaccine is unsafe or ineffective, just that Merck has a lousy PR staff.
WRONG. They have a great lobbying staff that utilized their PR staff. They did everything right for their bottom line. They got numerous states to mandate this vaccine while they still held the sole patent on it.
I worked in PR/Lobbying for over 20 years and prior to that was a legislative reporter, I've seen the good the bad and the ugly. I know a good/great lobbying/PR campaign when I see one and this was a classic.
“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?”
Alas, no. Certainly a lower incidence, but there are mutiple ways to get this. It’s basically a wart, and spreads like warts.
How do we know this girl is as sick as she says she is?
Obviously her medical problems have been documented. That's why this article was written about her. What teenage girl would make up having strokes??? And if you'd take the time to google her name, you'd read more about this girl and her story.
To "sten", there is a history of cervical cancer in her family, so she was given the vaccine as a preventative measure. She wasn't whoring around. It was her mother's decision to give it to her.
Well, since Merck provoked a ferocious backlash I think I'll have to disagree with you on this.
It's statements like this that make me absolutely hate government, someday I may just turn into an anarchist, forget conservative! A risk of getting cervical cancer is actually a NATURAL risk associated with living your life, a death that may not occur, but if it does it was done without anyone's help. Taking a drug is a man made risk,a death that occurs would not have if the drug had not been administered, so how can anyone say the benefits of this drug outweighs the risk? Yes, I know, some drugs for adults run risks also, but we are talking about children here and to tell you the truth 18 deaths or whatever they said in the article may just be the tip of the iceberg.
I guess this woman is supposed to take the attitude that, "Hey, she will never get cervical cancer!" and go on about her life as if her daughter didn't die in the name of heavyhanded, frickin' government interference, it does interfere in these matters, believe me.
However, if you know your daughters are not sexually active then there is absolutely no reason to vaccinate. I know I have a good 4 years to wait on this vaccine, until my daughters are 16.
I know a lot of people will say that you can’t trust your kids.
Well, I know for a fact my daughters are not having sex. I know I keep good track of my daughters because 1 of them has seizures. My girls are never left alone. They go to a small private Christian school that is highly monitored.
My daughters’ cardiologist agrees that they are not at risk and the benefits of this vaccine do not outweigh the risk. The same cardiologist really pushed the flu vaccine because she was worried about complications from the flu.
There is a risk group for this vaccine. If you have a history of seizures, then you are at risk for having problems.
I was responding to the story. It’s the reporters job to fully document the story, not mine. But that being said, I’ll stipulate that she is as ill as she says she is. Where is the evidence that Gardasil caused her illness? I read your link but again the source is anonymous and we don’t know how the neurologist came to the conclusion he/she did.
Even though they know that most cervical cancer is caused by HPV they do claim smoking causes it every time they push for smoker bans and increased taxes on tobacco, and any other anti-tobacco measure they push for. I have sat through more testimony on anti-tobacco legislation made by representatives of the ACS, among others, listing diseases caused by smoking and cervical cancer has always been on the list
I can not tell you how many times I have countered such an argument with the fact that HPV causes most cervical cancers and have been told I have no clue what I am talking about. Representatives of the ACS will and do claim, different causes for specific cancers based upon what legislation they are currently lobbying.
What do you want to bet that the people who "continue to find" this are men?
Mutually monogamous relationship in which neither has ever had sex with another. I don’t know if anybody can count on that or ever could.
Vaccines all have risk/benefit ratios. To expect absolutely no risk is unrealistic. And to expect that children will be monogamous, marry virgins and never stray,,we know that is not something to count on.
Cervical cancer is not necessarily easily treated. I know of two women who had yearly paps, were not promiscuous, but both were married. Both died very rapidly of a cervical CA that metastasized to lymph nodes before it was diagnosed. An unusually virulent HPV type.
Among college age women almost half have HPV already. If vaccination could prevent that, I say go for it. ANd I dont know why boys aren’t vaccinated,,were studies done on boys?
Sexual assault alone probably transmits HPV to girls,,it is not uncommon. We can say “not our daughters/we protect them/they protect themselves” but the real world doesn’t always pan out that way.
Getting around it is very easy, as I have said in other posts. All i have to do is sign a form stating that I have been informed of the vaccine, but have chosen that my daughter does not receive it. It is one of the very few (maybe only) things I will give credit to our lib Governor for. The R controlled House made this mandatory and because the Gov knew an outright veto would be over ridden, he modified the opt out portion of it so that no specific reason had to be given.
This is a good thing because I live in a rural county and to send her to a Catholic school I would have to send her, not only to another county, but to another state.
Again, smoking is an independent risk factor for cervical cancer. This is not even controversial. If a woman has never acquired an HPV infection she is at no risk for cervical cancer no matter how much she smokes. But if she is infected smoking raises her chances of cancer by a factor of 2-3. Please show me where the ACS has said anything different. Perhaps in an offhand statement someone has (correctly) listed cervical cancer on the list of smoking related malignancies and that is what you are referring to.
All because of the great and mighty sexual revolution; everyone must know HPV is a venereal disease. Unlike the Nike slogan, when it comes to promiscuous and “carefree” sex, just DON’T DO IT. Thanks alot libs, for promoting indiscriminate screwing from the cradle to the grave.
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