By Norma Erickson, President

Are Gardasil and Cervarix as safe and effective as industry representatives claim, or are HPV  vaccines the latest in a long line of ‘snake oil’ promotions? Look at the question from a logical point of view.

It’s easy for the pharmaceutical industry and government health officials to say, “Large-scale clinical trials have been conducted no safety signals have been identified so far.” Simply distribute millions of doses, don’t mention what percentage of them have not been administered; then compare the rate of adverse reactions to doses distributed. Easy? Yes. Honest? Hardly!

On top of that, pharmaceutical companies and government health agencies  add insult to injury by marketing Gardasil and Cervarix as vaccines when they clearly did not meet the definition of ‘vaccine’ at the time they were approved. Is this practice fraudulent? Perhaps, but at least in the United States, the problem was ‘solved’ by the FDA officially altering the definition of vaccine.

 Let’s examine a few additional facts:

1. In the United States, marketing a medical product as a vaccine automatically absolves the manufacturer and those who administer vaccines from product liability issues, shifting the burden to the taxpayers. Never mind that these are the same people using the product.
2. Should a person experience an adverse reaction from a vaccine, they can receive compensation through the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program – providing their reaction is listed on the vaccine injury table, the injury occurred within a specific time, and no other cause is found.
3. If your injury is not listed on the table and/or did not occur within the specified time frame allowed, then you must prove the vaccine caused your condition.
4. HPV vaccines are new enough to the market that there are no specific conditions listed as covered on the vaccine injury table. Nor is there any specified time period in which these vaccines are ‘presumed’ to be the cause. This leaves the victims of adverse reactions post-HPV vaccination on their own to prove the vaccine caused their current health conditions. So much for consumer protection.
5. Marketing a medical product as a vaccine allows the manufacturer, and anyone they convince their product is viable, to lobby government officials to ‘mandate’ their product for school enrollment. This practice virtually guarantees a captive, quite lucrative market. Is it any wonder vaccine sales are anticipated to reach $34 billion worldwide by 2012?
6. HPV vaccines were FDA approved using endpoints that are frequently self-reversing and not necessarily predictors of cervical cancer.
7. Gardasil has been found to contain genetically modified HPV DNA fragments firmly attached to the aluminum adjuvant, the consequences of which are unknown. Does Cervarix have the same problem?
8. There are many questions about HPV vaccines for which the manufacturers and public health authorities  have no answers.

Caveat Emptor – Let the Buyer Beware!

HPV Vaccines VAERS Analysis 2012 (powerpoint version)