Serious questions raised about Gardasil

Judicial Watch obtains FDA documentation of adverse reactions to the Gardasil vaccine, including deaths from cardiovascular complications.

The New England Journal of Medicine questions the effectiveness of the vaccine:
See here

The NEJM article is written with physicians in mind and contains great deal of medical jargon. For summaries in layman's terms see articles at the San Francisco Gate (I'm amazed they even covered this), the Seattle Times, and the Wall Street Journal.

Several state governments are willing to force young girls to get this vaccine for school attendance, despite these serious questions. Mandating the vaccine at this stage, in light of such information as this, is completely irresponsible, especially for a disease that is not spread by casual classroom contact. Parents and adult women who are interested in the vaccine, and still wish to obtain it voluntarily after assessing the risks, should be allowed to do so, but to force the vaccine on the unsuspecting (and in many cases unwilling) public makes no sense.

Catholics and Gardasil

The Gardasil issue is no longer new, but it is still very much alive. I get a lot of search hits from people wanting to know what the Catholic Church officially has to say about Gardasil, the new vaccine that "may" protect young women and girls from HPV, which causes genital warts, and in some cases cervical cancer.

I have already said plenty of the subject, including whether or not the state has any business requiring the vaccine for school enrollment.

For those who want more official statements, the Texas Catholic Bishops have put out a statement on the matter, in response to Governor Rick Perry's infamous executive order. They state that the vaccine is an acceptable means of protecting oneself (or ones children) from HPV. However, the bishops oppose public policy requiring vaccination for school attendance. They find it to be highly problematic, and state that the decision to get the vaccine should be left with parents, and individual women who are legally old enough to decide for themselves. I highly recommend reading the statement in its entirety. It is available in HTML and PDF formats. It is also available en Español.

The Catholic Medical Association has also put out a press release and a position paper (in .PDF format) on Gardasil. The National Catholic Bioethics Center issued its own statement. Both of these organizations concur with the opinion of the Texas Catholic Conference.

-----------------------------------------------
For further reading on related issues, refer to the sections in The Catechism of the Catholic Church dealing with conscience, marriage, sexuality, government, and human dignity. The Theology of the Body is also a useful resource.

A grateful nod to Kitchen Madonna for posting the online location of The Theology of the Body on her blog.

Which states plan to mandate Gardasil?

Here is a list of states with links to the related legislation.

Some are only requiring insurance coverage of the vaccine, others mandating that the vaccine go to certain age groups of girls before they enter school. Others are doing different things.

At this point, the states in which Gardasil-Related legislation has been introduced are as follows:

Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, California, Connecticut, DC, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia.

That's 36 states, and The District of Columbia.

The website also tracks the status of various bills and executive orders.

The Gardasil issue returns...

The Public Health committee in the Texas House of Reps has voted to override Governor Perry's executive order. Now the entire house should vote on the issue. Public voices are being heard. Another bill is being submitted to re-instate the mandate for the vaccine. Merck is starting to back away, realizing that their intense push for may ultimately prevent them from making huge profits on this, should the mandate be re-instated.

As I have indicated before, I'm not opposed to the vaccine by itself, as something that can potentially protect innocent people (eg. rape victims and those with cheating spouses) against HPV.

I do object to a mandate that is based on the idea that teenagers are incapable of restraint when it comes to their sexuality. I object to requiring a vaccine for school attendance for a virus that cannot be transmitted through any normal, licit, and casual on-campus activity. I object to the clear gender bias here, as HPV can also infect men, and has been linked to prostate cancer (and we should protect our sons and our daughters equally!). And I strenuously object to mandating any vaccine whose long-term effects on pre-pubescent and adolescent children are not yet known.

The bottom line here: Even the medical community, which LOVES preventative medicine, is against mandating this vaccine. What is wrong with following the doctor's orders here until we have more data, and until the vaccine becomes more affordable? Let it remain optional.

Another reason to delay Gardasil Mandate:

The FDA recently has approved a certain antibiotic, knowing it has dangerous side-effects, and without reviewing them. Now it has started killing patients, there is a possible recall in order, and the personal injury attorneys are lining up to jump on this.

But let's go ahead and require 9 year old girls to get Gardasil before it has even been approved for a year. Never mind that we don't have any long-term data on the effects of this vaccine yet. Remember how hard Merck is pushing this vaccine that "may prevent" (notice they know better than to say "does") a common STD.

Merck obviously hasn't learned from Vioxx, with which injury attorneys are still having a field day.

Don't be Hasty--Entish Advice from TX Doctors.

I hope Governor Perry reads the paper.

Thanks, Bill.

I'm glad we have time to figure this one out...

CatholicMom blogs about the newly-mandated Gardisil vaccine, from her perspective as a physician and a mother.

The comments on her blog post illustrate the debate going on about what to expect regarding young people and STD's. I will not rehash the entire thing here, but rather I will touch on a few of the more relevant points.

1. Assuming she is neither molested nor raped, a young woman who is celibate until marriage is very unlikely to contract the virus while she is not sexually active. Believe it or not folks, it is perfectly safe to go without sex after age 20. You won't develop any mental or emotional problems.

2. If she marries, she could still catch the virus from her husband, as well as the warts that go with it. This is a great time for her to decide for herself, depending upon what she and her doctor think is best if she wants to get the vaccine or not. The state need not interfere here.

3. Whether she gets the vaccine at age 9 or age 26, or even if she never gets it at all, she will still have to go in for regular pap smears, and it is still possible to get cervical cancer.

4. If a person with the strain of HPV Gardasil protects against walks into a crowded classroom or mall, she is not going to automatically infect everyone around her, the way she might with smallpox, chickenpox, measles, or polio.

All of these are very good reasons to leave the HPV vaccine a matter of choice for women, girls and their parents. Don't trust parents? Family planning clinics already offer birth control pills to minor girls without their parents knowledge. It's a short step from that to giving them Gardasil too, assuming they can cough up the $300+ to pay for it. I doubt it will add to the damage already done with the pills.

The clearest beneficiary of all of this, as I have mentioned before is Merck. It is already frustrating enough that drug companies advertise their prescription medications to people with no medical training, and no knowledge of how they work. There was a time when drug companies advertised to the people who prescribe their products. Now, they just advertise them to the non-medical masses, and then our politicians, who force us to get them. Oh, and guess where those advertising dollars come from? Sales! So, next time you pay for a brand-name prescription that you see on TV, know that the cost of that commercial was passed on to you. (That's why I love buying generic.) :)

The only corporate body with a more detrimental influence on the medical world is the insurance companies. And don't get me started on them.

Personally, I'm glad it will be a few years before I have any daughters old enough for this. When we do, my husband and I will be discussing whether as her parents we think it is best to let her decide when she is an adult, or whether we will decide for her ahead of time.

A mixed bag... Unless you are Merck & Co.

Well, here it goes:

(emphasis mine)

-------------------------------------------

SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - Texas became the first U.S. state to require that all 11- and 12-year-old girls be vaccinated against the human papillomavirus, or HPV, a sexually transmitted disease that can cause cervical cancer, the governor's office said on Friday.

Republican Gov. Rick Perry issued an executive order requiring the HPV vaccine be added to the list of vaccines that students must have to be enrolled in the state's public schools.

The issue has generated fierce debate, with some religious organizations and parents' groups arguing such widespread vaccination programs could encourage premarital sex.

He added that parents could opt out of mandatory vaccinations for their children if they objected for reasons including religious beliefs.

The girls will be vaccinated with Merck & Co. Inc.'s Gardasil, which won U.S. approval last June as the first vaccine to prevent cervical cancer, a disease that kills about 300,000 women worldwide each year.

The vaccine, which targets four HPV types believed to cause more than 70 percent of cervical cancer cases and 90 percent of genital warts, is cleared for use in girls and young women aged 9 to 26. In clinical trials, Gardasil was shown to be 100 percent effective against two of the most common HPV strains.

Perry's order comes as state lawmakers across the country are being lobbied by Merck and a national group, Women in Government, made up of female state legislators, to make the Gardasil vaccine required in most school districts.

Merck supports the Women in Government effort with funding and a Merck representative sits on its business council. Legislation is pending in more than a dozen other states to mandate Gardasil vaccinations.

The vaccine will be made available immediately to all girls aged 9 through 18 eligible under the Texas Vaccines for Children Program. Women from 19 to 21 enrolled in Medicaid in Texas also will be eligible immediately, the order said.

Cervical cancer is the fifth most common cancer among women aged 35 to 54, and Texas has the second highest number of women suffering from cervical cancer in the United States, according to the Texas governor's office.

-------------------------------------------

I have really mixed feelings about this one.

On the one hand, it could encourage premarital sex.

On the other hand, there is always Genital Herpes.

On the other hand, suppose a woman marries a man with a "past" from which he has fully repented. It's probably worthwhile to protect herself. Or suppose someone's husband cheats, and she finds out after he has brought a few microscopic friends home.

On the other hand, what business do schools have requiring vaccines for STDs? Measles and chickenpox you can get by being in a classroom. Kids aren't having sex at school.

On the other hand, why do so many middle and high schools have to keep such a close eye on their bathrooms? (I'll give you three guesses. Drugs, violence, and one more.)

There is a delicate balance to be struck here between protecting our children and enabling them. It is certainly true that current standards in sex ed. aren't doing much to protect kids from all of the other STD's out there that cannot be vaccinated against, and from some of which condoms aren't going to offer complete protection. (Genital Herpes, for instance).This means Gardasil is not going to solve the STD problem, not by a long shot.

There is always abstinence education, but the general strategy among adults these days is to give up on kids and assume that they cannot rise above their animal instincts. So we give them free condoms, and tell them to be careful. Until we are willing to teach them proper respect for their sexuality, and hold them accountable for their behavior if they do not behave themselves, I'm not sure what the answer is.

Unless public schools are willing to entertain the possibility of chastity belts.