[SaneVax: Why are so many American parents refusing HPV vaccines for their children? The media wants to know; Merck and GSK want to know; national health authorities around the globe want to know. Perhaps the answer they are looking for is not so difficult to find – they simply need to listen to medical consumers and take a look at the most recent medical literature.]
Merck & Its HPV Vaccine: Sales & Skepticism Are Both Up
By Ed Silverman, Contributor
For the past seven years, a drumbeat of publicity and warnings were issued over the virtues of the human papillomavirus, or HPV, and how to thwart its spread before countless women develop cervical cancer. The impetus was FDA approval of Gardasil, the Merck vaccine, for treating girls and women between the ages of 13 and 21.
But Gardasil was a hard sell, even though Merck launched a big promotional push. Beyond generalized concerns over vaccine safety, a hot-button controversy at the time, there were also some parents and social conservatives who worried that vaccination might be seen as a green light by teenage girls to have premarital sex.
Of course, Merck made matters worse with a sneaky campaign to have Gardasil listed on mandatory vaccinations across the country. Public health officials had recommended vaccination, but the drugmaker lost credibility over its surreptitious effort to woo state legislators. Remember, this occurred just two years after the scandal over the safety of the withdrawn Vioxx painkiller.
Why are so many parents refusing HPV vaccines for their children? Because they are becoming more aware of the dangers.
They don’t necessarily believe the information from health authorities, doctors and other vaccine proponents. They investigate about vaccine dangers independently and they don’t believe the official, manipulated safety statistics. They hear about and maybe even know personally more and more tragic cases of vaccine injuries and deaths.
They will not forget the scandalous Vioxx affair where due to Merck’s deliberate, shameful and criminal behaviour thousands of people died and countless were injured. More are now aware that the pharmaceutical industry is riddled with corruption and criminality. In 2007 Merck paid 670 million US dollars and in 2011 GlaxoSmithKline, manufacturer of Cervarix paid three billion (billion!) US dollars for fraud and criminality.
People are more aware that safety statistics are based on lies and that the industry need not and will not take responsibility for vaccine injuries. Many more are learning that in the case of vaccine injuries they will probably not be believed by doctors or health authorities and that the chance of help and compensation for injuries is minimal.
QUESTION:
When the pharmaceutical industry is riddled with corruption and criminality why should we have faith in their products?