HPV Vaccines: Scotland Speaks

Scotland Speaks

[SaneVax: Three cheers for Scottish journalism! The SaneVax team would like to extend their sincere appreciation to the staff and editors of The Strathspey Herald, particularly journalist Tom Ramage for their willingness to explore both sides of the HPV vaccine debate. Unlike government health officials, Strathspey Herald reporter Tom Ramage actually spoke with victims of adverse events after HPV vaccinations and wrote their stories. The editorial staff had the courage to print them. Despite the risk, the staff of The Strathspey Herald is willing to openly debate the HPV vaccine issue.]

HPV Vaccines: It’s now time to follow in Japan’s footsteps

Letter to the editor of The Strathspey Herald, printed on 20 June 2013

Sir, Following your whole-page article (May 30) on the alleged side-effects of the HPV vaccines Cervarix and Gardasil, Strathy readers might be interested in some of the latest developments.

Merck’s Gardasil and GlaxoSmithKline’s Cervarix have taken a hit, with Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare telling local governments to suspend their previous recommendation for HPV vaccine administration to the country’s 12 to 16 year old girls.

This all came about as many girls were experiencing serious side effects and with the help of family, friends and the media were able to get their Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare to listen to their concerns.

The link to it on our site is: https://sanevax.org/breaking-news-japan-suspends-recommendation-of-hpv-vaccines/

After a special task force examined 43 cases of widespread pain after HPV vaccinations, the panel concluded that given the timing of symptoms they could not rule out a connection between the adverse events and HPV vaccines.

Because a direct cause and effect relationship could neither be established, nor ruled out, the task force concluded that their previous recommendation for administration of HPV vaccines should be withdrawn until appropriate information about the cause of the pain and numbness experienced by the girls can be determined and provided to the public.

The Sane Vax team have thanked the health authorities in Japan for acting quickly and responsibly when a concern about HPV vaccine safety came to light.

Health authorities around the globe could learn something from Japan’s demonstration of genuine concern for the health and well-being of their citizens.

Perhaps we all should be informing our governments and departments of health of this latest development and asking them to follow in Japan’s footsteps.