The HPV vaccine is being administered to schoolgirls in England right now.Quite apart from the moral issues involved (though I feel strongly about these too) I think that the vaccination programme has been rushed through.
In the US, the vaccine, called Gardasil, has been associated with some adverse reactions - the Center for Disease Control & Prevention reports a rate of approximately 0.06%.
93% of these adverse reactions were what the CDC terms "non-serious" - that is, anything other than hospitalization, death, permanent disability, and life-threatening illness. Most of the adverse reactions were fainting, pain and swelling at the injection site (the arm), headache, nausea and fever.
There have been 43 reports of death among women receiving Gardasil. This was the official figure in the US up to June 2009. The authorities say that there is no evidence to suggest that these deaths were actually due to the vaccine...
There is no evidence to say that they were not due to the vaccine, either.
And now there has been a death of a schoolgirl in England following her vaccination with Cervarix, the vaccine chosen for use in the UK, though the post-mortem has yet to be carried out, so there isn't any evidence to prove that the vaccine was responsible.
Cervarix isn't licensed for use in the US. I haven't found out why. Speculation as to why the UK chose Cervarix over Gardasil suggests that it was due to financial considerations.
The figures quoted by the BBC (4,657 reported adverse reactions out of 1.4 million doses) suggest that the rate of adverse reactions for Cervarix is higher than that for Gardasil: 0.3%.
How much warped thinking is going on here, and why hasn't more been made of this in the media? They were quick enough to start screaming about swine flu.
Now, I am a scientist. I know that there is no such thing as a treatment without side effects. One has to weigh up the risks against the benefits. But this vaccine is being given because it reduces the risk of cervical cancer: it doesn't eliminate the chance of getting cervical cancer. Gardasil protects against 2 strains of the Human Papilloma Virus which cause around 70% of cervical cancers. The use of the cervical smear screening programme at 3 year intervals, on the other hand, helps to pick up 84% of changes which would, if untreated, lead to cervical cancer.
In addition, giving the vaccine in school is, I think, a big mistake. The girls at my school were been given their injection and sent straight back to class. None of the teachers were given any advice on what sort of adverse reactions to expect: and several girls reported headaches, nausea, soreness in their arms and dizzy spells - more so than would be expected compared to the BCG vaccinations, for example.
No doubt the post-mortem on the schoolgirl in Coventry will show that she had some underlying medical problem which predisposed her to an adverse reaction. I'm sure that is how it will be explained. But no-one in school has been advised of any medical problems which would constitute contra-indications for the vaccine. I'd be very surprised to hear that parents were told of specific risk factors.
In the meantime, I fear that there will be more deaths before anyone takes action.
16 comments:
Mulier,
You seem to be criticizing the circumstances, or if you will, the way in which the vaccine is being administered.
If the issues you raise were addressed adequately, how would you feel?
Best,
LD
LD, I said in the post that I had problems with the moral issues underpinning the vaccination programme. However, this post is concentrating on the practicalities, given that one girl has just died here. I have posted before on this issue.
Why, o why, are we assuming that teenage girls are at such a risk for HPV? Why not tell them--HEY! Having underaged sex puts you at a HUGE risk for HPV! You know why there are laws against having underage sex? It's because your body and mind aren't really ready for sex until you're OLDER.
And this is something we need to tell boys, too. HEY, guess what! You see that 16 year old girl? You think she's hot, eh? Did you know that if she starts having sex too young, she could get HPV and even die of cervical cancer? Do you care about that girl at all? You do? Great, don't try to trick her sex into sex with you then.
Why doesn't the government come up with a program to convince teenagers to put off sex until 19? Of course, as Catholic we would prefer it if teenagers put off sex until they were grown-up and married. But if the government wants to do something effective to prevent teen pregnancy, teen STDs and cervical cancer, maybe getting across the idea that the best, most responsible, safest thing is to delay sex until 19. Or 20.
I think it very wrong for the government to require girls to recieve this by the government.
People should weigh the risks of taking the vaccine against not taking,.
As to why the US chose one over the other -- our FDA approval process tends to be much more stringent than in the UK. For instance there was a perscription given to women in the UK that caused a lot of deformed babies. The FDA hadn't approved it here, nd the woman who'd ended up having deformed babies from it had gotten their drugs overseas. Irritatingly the name of the drug is escaping me now.
However, I really don't see a moral problem, per se, if one choses to take this. Simply because one can't guarantee that one won't be raped, or have a husband that isn't exactly 100% faithful. So simply from that perspective I see no reason why a woman should have to suffer should a husband be alley catting around.
When our Catholic Secondary School decided to start up this HPV vaccination programme in our school we parents received a letter brought home by our girls which had to be signed and returned 1/ in the event that we did wish our child to be vaccinated with all the usual disclaimers and caveats, and 2/ in the event that we did not want our child vaccinated with reasons why.
Well my wife and I stated that we did NOT want our child vaccinated and attached our reasons in the form of three photocopied articles on the dangers, nasty side effects and deaths caused in the States by the Gardasil vaccine.
No-one could say for sure at the time that the UK use of Cervarix would be any different to the experience of Gardasil in the States - yet they went ahead anyway and vaccinated the first 'batch' of girls (except ours and two others).
Now that a death has occurred in the UK the old 'knee-jerk' reaction comes into play! Too late for that poor girl and her family.
In light of this tragedy our school has stopped the vaccination programme as of immediate effect - the first 'batch' of girls were to be jabbed today!
The pernicious ramifications of our hedonistic culture, our celebration of promiscuity, pornography and all kinds of dysfunctional anti-life and anti-family behaviour, are coming home to roost.
Galatians 6:7 comes to mind - "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap".
Schools are a forum for teaching and forming our children into the upright young men and women that will contribute to and maintain a good and just society. Schools are not 'laboratories' and our children are not 'lab rats' for Governments and NHS to tinker with and experiment on with their 'latest' pharmaceutical inventions. That's why I've called the vaccinations being given in 'batches', no doubt each batch is marked up and the results are followed closely over the coming years (I've a scientific background too with a degree in biological sciences - that's how we ran our experiments!).
Time to reflect on the fact that we are selling our children cheap. Out with the promiscuous behaviour, sex-ed, condomania and the mad TV and media circus which accompanies and reinforces this deadly behaviour and a voice please for a return to sanity, morality and human dignity.
Now please correct me if I am wrong but I have just been told that you need your child vaccinated against MMR if they are to be accepted by primary schools.
No MMR, the more difficult it will be to get a place????
Is autism a requirement to?.
What are they putting into the vaccines that every child must be jabbed with one thing or another??
Conspiracy theory here I come!!
Did I say conspiracy theory - Hey Mac have a look at this
http://www.illuminati-news.com/Articles/27.html
I know the powers that be will deny it and associate it to crop circles and aliens, but it makes interesting reading and listening.
The answer to the puzzle is money. Huge huge huuuuge amounts of money have been paid out to see that the product gets to the customers.
One aspect of this story which particularly offended me was the alacrity with which those responsible for the vaccination programme declared that this unfortunate girl's death was nothing to do with the vaccine. Something along the lines of "no-one else has died".
There is no possible way they could have known. Young girls do die very suddenly - sometimes. And I don't know what the likelihood would be of a girl dying this way coincidentally within hours of receiving this vaccine, but I'm prepared to stick my neck out and suggest that the likelihood of this happening just once over a period of many years is so small that it is grossly irresponsible and downright dishonest to assume coincidence in this case.
The result: the people responsible lose all credibility in my eyes. They will tell us that the post mortem shows that the death was a coincidence; I will say "I don't believe you. I don't trust you. I will not believe you in the future".
Where I work, I can think of two girls who were opted out of the school vaccination because their fathers (both doctors) had made sure they had the Gardasil jab.
There was a bit of "Oh yea and we won't get genital warts either" from the pair of them.
Yeuch. The whole thing stinks and one feels quite ashamed of being in a profession that is allowing this to happen to our young girls. More enforced sexualisation of young people who really are far more innocent and child like than we can ever imagine.
And within a couple of days we have this from our medical 'experts' trying desperately to play down and paper over this tragedy:
"A girl who was vaccinated against cervical cancer died from a malignant tumour of the chest and not from a reaction to the jab, it has emerged.
Deputy coroner for Coventry Louise Hunt said the vaccine was not thought to have been a contributing factor.
A pathologist said her undiagnosed condition was "so severe that death could have arisen at any point".
To which I say (using Simon Platt's very apt words) - "I don't believe you. I don't trust you. I will not believe you in the future".
Surely to goodness such a 'severe malignant imminent killer of a chest tumour' would have triggered at least a little bit of pain as it was growing in young Natalie, who would have been whisked off to the GP, followed by tests in the hospital etc... there is simply no way that this alleged tumour would not have been picked up!
There is a real 'smell' in the air. Not content with jabbing our kids with HPV vaccine they are now starting to jab them with Swine Flu vaccine. What's in these vaccines that government wants ALL our kids to be so fully 'immunised'?
NONE of my 8 daughters will be having the filthy vaccine! Sorry! Have notified the school & health authority & they've assured me that they won't take the girls requests over mine as mother..not that they want 3 jabs anyway!
Dear Catholic Mom of 10, isn't it just soooo reassuring to know that the School and Government Health Authority have 'assured you' that they will not violate your rights as Parent and No 1 Educator of your children.
This is such a slimy response by people who want to usurp your rights over your children at any opportunity! I remember the Headmaster of a Catholic Primary School whom we challenged on his insistence to shove explicit sex education in front of our children say that "these are MY children and I do what is best for them!"
Needless to say we were out of there with our children like a shot!
You can't trust anyone out there in the 'system'. If you are parents I would strongly suggest you stay well tuned-in to what's going on in your schools and CHALLENGE the system if you feel things are not as they should be.
If your child is coming home telling you that in RE today they were being taught Islamic chants - TAKE YOUR HEADTEACHER TO THE CLEANERS!!! If they come home telling you that the school nurse was in for a whole lesson and told them all about the fact that you don't need a man to have a baby, you just squirt some 'cream' into your 'body' and can have babies like that! Yes this actually happened to my daughter in Yr 5 Catholic primary school! We challenged the Head who was 'very very sorry that this event happened in the school', Fine apology accepted but damage was done and it took a lot of firefighting to damp down and put out those 'flames from hell'.
Mac there's a whole host of scientifically oriented issues out there affecting our children from 'dodgy unneccessary vaccines' to the very dangerous 'one sided one argument no experimental, rational or reasoned challenge to the government approved rubber stamped politically correct way' that the all important subject of Science is taught these days!
As a Scientist yourself perhaps you can pick up on these issues and give us your view of what's going on and where and whom to challenge? Hope you're feeling better and God Bless.
More horror on this HPV vaccine issue:
"October 6, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - An 18 year-old U.K. girl has suffered severe brain damage from seizures that began after receiving the vaccination Cervarix.
Stacey Jones, 18, of Bilston in the West Midlands of England, began to have seizures days after receiving the first injection. The fits eventually caused such severe brain injury that she had to be admitted to a rehabilitation unit to relearn simple tasks.
Stacey's mother, Julie Jones, believes that the vaccine Cervarix is unsafe and caused the swelling in the brain that has been diagnosed as the cause of Stacy's neurological problems".
I can just see the Local Health Authority writing up their reponse, something along the lines of 'while we deeply regret this incident and sympathise with the family there is no evidence to suggest that Cervarix vaccine was responsible for this incident, only tests will show'.... and this will be followed by 'there was such a massive tumour in poor Stacey's brain that it could have triggererd this brain damage at any time'.
To which I say "I don't believe you, I don't trust you, I won't believe you in the future".
Mac - you're the Scientist - what the heck is going on. What are they doing to our children and why????
Oh, this really is a beaut! From the horses mouth so to speak:
"Dr. Diane Harper, who helped develop the drug (Cervarix), has claimed in an interview with the Sunday Express that the drug is being "over marketed" and that there could be serious side effects. The risks of taking the vaccination, according to her, could be worse than the risk of developing the cancer the vaccine helps prevent. She also claimed that the drug would do nothing to lower rates of cervical cancer".
I'm speechless but very angry. Why? Because my young teenage girls are in the firing line and when we as parents object to these vaccinations and sex education classes etc... we are told BY THE TEACHERS AT THE CATHOLIC SCHOOLS that we are 'irresponsible'!
This is deeply upsetting.....
Oh my Good Lord - a little fishing around on the Internet has come up with the Vaccine Awareness Network (VAN for short).
This is just a small snippet from their incredibly informative but equally scary website:
"WHO Lauches Global Mandatory Swine Flu H1N1 Vaccination Programme
The World Health Organization has issued a binding ‘recommendation’ to all member countries requiring them to institute mandatory vaccination programs. Under an existing multilateral agreement this formally invokes each state’s pandemic plan and puts coordination under control of WHO. For some European states the pandemic plan includes setting aside government as normal and ruling the country by a special council under control of the EU and WHO. France has already announced that it will effect a move to military rule beginning in September.
The global pandemic vaccination program will begin somewhere around the end of September and last about two months. Many countries are in the process of acquiring from Baxter, Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline and other pharmaceutical companies enough doses of vaccine to vaccinate their entire population twice. They remain quiet about mandatory vaccination, simply saying they will make vaccination ‘available’ to all on a priority basis. But Greece and Switzerland have already announced that their programs will be mandatory and enforced by the military. There are unconfirmed reports that Norway and Israel have done the same. The United States is preparing for military ‘assisted’ mandatory vaccination but has not explicitly declared its intentions to the public.
Source: Columbia Valley News, 14 August 2009."
Military Rule????? Police State??? Jailed if you do not have a vaccination?? Are we at war with some One World Government????
I suggest anyone reading this does their own serious searchying and finds out what is going on in their 'back yard'.
PS - remember folks - "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you"!
God Bless.
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