By Leslie Carol Botha
September 20, 2011
In a striking move, Australian businessman and father of a Gardasil injured girl, Stephen Tunley matched University of Pennsylvania bioethicist, Dr. Art Caplan’s $10,000 reward for ‘proof of Bachmann vaccine claims.’
Dr. Caplan made headline news after Presidential Candidate Michelle Bachmann, speaking as the mother of three daughters and the foster mother of 23 other adolescent girls publicly called “Gardasil – a potentially dangerous vaccine.’ Bachmann was approached by a mother of a Gardasil injured girl after the Thursday Republican Tea Party debate, and told her daughter was now ‘retarded’ (also known as brain damaged).
Caplan’s response was to place a wager on Bachmann’s ‘incredibly irresponsible falsehood.’
‘If she can produce a case in one week starting today verified by three medical experts that she and I pick of a woman who became ‘retarded’ (her words) due to HPV vaccine I will donate that to a charity of her choice.’ 1.
On Monday, September 19, 2011, SANE Vax Inc. issued a press release on what we feel is a blatant and unprecedented HIPAA violation by exposing a family of an injured child to media scrutiny. 2.
In addition, SANE Vax Inc. emailed an Open Letter to Dr. Caplan, on September 18 stating our objections to his unethical bet.
‘On behalf of the parents of a group of neurologically injured teenage girls after HPV vaccination, we feel obligated to question your ‘bio’-ethics as you challenge Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann with a $10,000 bet to prove a claim that a vaccine to prevent cervical cancer caused mental retardation. We represent many parents of teenage girls who have suffered a variety of central nervous system (CNS) dysfunctions, including various degrees of mental ‘retardation’ (impairment) as a sequelae of Gardasil® vaccination injuries. It is hard to believe that as bioethicist you openly instigate violation of the HIPAA law.
‘Now, SANE Vax Inc. challenges you, Dr. Caplan. Prove the vaccine Gardasil® has prevented a single case of cervical cancer. We have not found such a case in the world literature, or in the published clinical trial materials. The endpoints used for evaluating the efficacy of Gardasil® were largely self-reversible precancerous changes, not true cancer as defined in any pathology textbooks.’3.
By Monday morning SANE Vax Inc. President, Norma Erickson received this response.
‘Find the case, present it to michelle bachmann, let the doctors we agree on confirm HPV vaccine as the cause and I pay. You have until thursday.’
Arthur Caplan Emanuel & Robert Hart Director of The Center for Bioethics and Sidney D Caplan Professor of Medical Ethics University of Pennsylvania 3401 Market St. Suite 320Alerted to the emailed response, Stephen Tunley, researched funding sources for the University of Pennsylvania Bioethics Department and to no one’s surprise found that their primary funding source was none other than the National Institutes of Health.
Outraged, Tunley matched Caplan’s wager – and upped the ante by adding the issue of financial disclosure in the following challenge:
Dear Dr. Caplan
I would like to offer you $10,000 to you to prove that Gardasil did not and does not cause the issues discussed by Ms. Bachman and others. Of course when I win, you might care to donate the monies to SANE Vax. However and unlike your gutless prove it by Thursday deadline – I am happy to keep this offer open for a while.
On a personal note I find it revolting that a ‘bioethicist” would engage in such a bet. Surely your responsibilities are to investigate, consider and approach this with an open mind. But I guess you have long since not been a “real” bioethicist and now are really a ‘vaxapologist!’
One more question: will the $10,000 be sourced from your pockets or from the bioethics centre? As you know, but perhaps many others don’t know, funding for the center comes from a range of sources – including the NIH http://www.bioethics.upenn.edu/funding.shtml, which as we say down-under has ‘skin in the game” by being a co-patent holder for Gardasil and receives royalties from its sale.
A wee bit of conflict of interest and perhaps a challenge for you and your supposed ethics! Interesting that this was not disclosed by you!
So Dr Caplan ‘man up;’ disclose your conflicts and take up the challenge!
Stephen Tunley Sydney Australia Father of Chescia Tunley – yet another young woman damaged by GardasilThe ball is in your court now, Dr. Caplan.
Sources:
1. Bioethicist Offers $10,000 Reward For Proof of Bachmann Vaccine Claims
2. Bioethicists Not So Ethical When It Comes to Gardasil Injuries
3. SANE Vax: Open Letter to Dr. Art Caplan, Bioethicist , University of Pennsylvania
Chesica Tunley’s Story -
http://sanevax.org/chescia-from-sydney/
Stephen Tunley Writes to CNN
http://sanevax.org/steven-tunley-writes-to-60-minutes/
Professor Caplan on September 16, 2011 posted his “$10,000 challenge” on Medscape a site for medical professionals, primarily physicians. He posted both an audio and written version.
At the end of his Medscape statement, he announced that people have come forth to match his “$10,000 up to about $125,000”. This is a lot of money for either university professors or most physicians. My question is—
Is Dr. Caplan prepared to disclose who is donating this money?
Is this additional funding coming from the drug companies (no different than the Perry contributions) or is the University of Pennsylvania funding this donation? Maybe the Trustees at the University of Pennsylvania need to look into the ethics of this. Penn’s founding father, Ben Franklin had an open mind and conducted valid research. Was Professor Caplan involved in the Vaccine research trials or is he just spouting what he has been told, no different than he accused Michelle Bachmann of. Professor Caplan if you were not involved in the trials then I don’t believe you can speak on the subject as an expert. Maybe as a bioethicist you deal with suppositions and offer your opinions (sometimes just your opinion only and maybe sometimes opinions biased by funding). Physicians need to deal in specifics—they need to “get it right” for everyone not just 50, 60 or 70% of the time in their practice. I am not anti vaccine but I have issues with how this drug was marketed, its efficacy and the side effects that were not fully disclosed (it is not enough to say to a physician via marketing—“generally there is only pain at the injection site” and then the physician gives that information to the patient! It is not a cervical cancer vaccine which Merck likes to infer. It should not be given by pediatricians who know very little about cervical cancer and are relying on drug reps for their information). Good physicians not only use the information that is supplied by the company but it is essential that they use anecdotal information from their practice and information found in other forums. You appear to think the VAERS site is not credible. It is scary that you pass your views to your students, instead of encouraging them to keep an open mind and always ask questions—they should be able to fully debate their position. That is the fundamental objective of what a true teaching and research university is all about. Penn used to debate the problems with Big Pharma. I’m glad my children did not take one of your classes. And I’m surprised that Penn supports this outrageous self serving “challenge”.
Dr. Caplan appears to be overweight. Maybe Dr. Caplan should comment on Men’s health instead of Women’s health; surely as a bioethicist he is aware that overweight men have many health risks and increase insurance costs. Obesity is a far greater health care concern in America at present than cervical cancer. The research states that most women that get cervical cancer in the United States have not had a Pap in 5 years. Teaching needs to be promoted to these women and then cervical cancer can be eradicated. Maybe Prof Caplan has been the recipient of too many “free lunches” from corporate America.
Professor Caplan you are no Ben Franklin!
If the Gardasil vaccine issue was not so deeply tragic, the situation could be described as a tragi-comedy. After Dr. Caplan arrogantly placed a wager for proof regarding Michelle Bachman’s statement, SANE Vax has challenged Dr. Caplan to prove that Gardasil has prevented a single case of cervical cancer.
The very opposite may in fact be true: it is not known whether Gardasil actually increases the risk of cancer and it may be revealed after a time that many of the girls who have been vaccinated will suffer from cancer.
MALIGNANCIES CAUSED BY HPV RECOMBINANT DNA?
Sane Vax discovers potential bio-hazard in Gardasil:
http://sanevax.org/sane-vax-inc-discovers-potential-bio-hazard-contaminant-in-merck%E2%80%99s-gardasil%E2%84%A2-hpv-4-vaccine/
The presence of viral HPV recombinant DNA (rDNA) contamination which has been discovered in samples of the vaccine from New Zealand, Australia, Spain, Poland, France and three states in the U.S. is of deep concern.
As Dr. Lee states: “Based on medical literature and some of the FDA/Merck’s own publications, adventitious (coming from an outside source) DNA in an injectable protein-based vaccine may increase the risk of autoimmune disorders and gene mutation which may lead to malignancies”.
Further, quote from the above press release from Sane Vax:
“High rates of autoimmune disorders, 380 reports of abnormal pap tests, 137 reports of cervical dysplasia, and 41 reports of cervical cancer including Carcinoma in situ or Cervix carcinoma or Cervix carcinoma stage 0 or Cervix carcinoma stage I or Cervix carcinoma stage III 6 warrants an immediate investigation into Gardasil’s™ safety and efficacy”.
THE VACCINE HAS NOT BEEN TESTED FOR CARCINOGENICITY
Information in the package insert states that the vaccine has not been tested for carcinogenicity. (Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence).
INCREASE IN RISK OF CANCER DUE TO REPLACEMENT?
In addition, there is the extremely relevant issue of “replacement”, a normal phenomenon in virology where strains which have been removed are always replaced by new ones. It is not known to anyone, including the manufacturer, whether the new virus strains are more carcinogenic than the original ones which have been removed.
In other words it cannot possibly be guaranteed that Gardasil does not increase the risk of cancer before at least the following three issues have been seriously addressed:
- Presence of recombinant DNA (rDNA)
- Lack of carcinogenicity testing of the vaccine
- Replacement
It may be most inappropriate and have deeply tragic consequences if Gardasil, which is sometimes incorrectly termed a “cancer vaccine” is shown to actually increase the risk of cancer.
The most important challenge therefore should be to the vaccine manufacturers and to the vaccine promoters – to prove that Gardasil does not increase the risk of cancer.
Tell everyone that the aluminum adjuvant is a nanoparticle which can carry particles cross the BBB … then see what they say about all of this.
Can we come up with 10K to challenge Art Caplan to inject himself with Gardasil?
You can find Mr. Caplan on twitter @arthurcaplan and let him know your disgust. I did! This is my take on Bachman, who I don’t necessarily care for on a political level. From what I saw, and I am a claims adjuster as well, I believe that a lady did tell Bachman a story about her child, which I believe is true. I think that the awkwardness I saw in Bachman, is because Bachman probably did not believe it herself. It did not strike me as a lie. Out of all the vaccine adverse events, I believe that maybe 5%-7%, if that much, are exaggerated to try and get money when there is no real injury. The remaining percent are legitimate vaccine injuries. If the court compensates someone for a particular vaccine injury, in the case of the vaccine injury court, the evidence is going to have to be pretty overwhelming in the injured person’s favor. As a claims adjuster, I am not going to pay someone who has a lumbar strain for a lumbar disc herniation and neither is a jury or judge in the case of a bench trial. Also someone with a disc herniation is generally going to receive a larger settlement or jury award than someone with a less severe lumbar strain / sprain. Here is the kicker. Without medical and scientific proof no one is going to award a plaintiff the kind of money that is being awarded in the vaccine court. Medical and science people say there is no links between vaccines and all of these horrible adverse events, but the same institutions are verifying otherwise in the form of expert witnesses before the vaccine injury court. The same institutions that deny are confirming with medical and scientific evidence because if they were not, there would be no compensation paid out by the vaccine injury court. Another thought is that usually when a case is serious in nature, the medical and science expert witnesses for both the plaintiff and defendant are going to be fairly close in the analysis. That being said, really in those types of cases, you have all expert witnesses agreeing on the extent of the injury, pretty much. Now you will see people with legitimate injuries losing their legal battle either outright or financially in the sense that their award or settlement is nothing or much less than what is deserved, but that does not say that they were not injured. It just says that they may not have had the right witnesses or the medical backing them up on the extent of the injury or whatever the case may be.
Robert Hutchins
Dear Mr. Hutchins,
I really appreciate your thoughts here. I’d been thinking about some of these same points that you have articulated so clearly.
That some of these “medical experts” can get on the TV and proclaim that Gardasil or ANY vaccine does not cause brain-injury, is just plain preposterous.
Do they really believe the money that has been paid out through the National Vaccine Compensation Program was awarded because the Federal Dept. of Justice happened to feel sorry for all these struggling families? Hardly!
Mother of One.
See link: About Art Caplan in Comment section below
Never been more proud to be Australian! Thank you Mr Tunley! My daughter was also injured and her life ruined by that vaccine. I would love nothing more than to punch Mr Caplan in the face but I guess your way is more civilized!
Deadly Agenda – About Art Caplan: http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/021606MediaBias.html