In the past couple of years, the vaccine Gardasil has been touted as the best way to protect young women against cervical cancer.
Manufactured by Merck & Co, the vaccine is designed to prevent the initial establishment of HPV, the human papillomavirius, that causes cervical cancer and is transmitted sexually. Administered in three injections over six months, Gardasil is expensive ($360).
So effective was the new vaccine, many urged that it be given to all young teenage girls as a prophylactic before they became sexually active. Some parents were horrified at the idea; most greeted the idea with great relief.
Since HPV infection shows no symptoms and has no cure, the vaccine was heavily promoted in commercials which showed teenage girls saying "I want to be one less" who gets the HPV virus.
A number of states mandated the vaccine despite the fact that no one knew the long term effects.
Now from CBS news comes new worries about Gardasil safety and very serious side effects.
The National Vaccine Information Center, a private vaccine-safety group, compared Gardasil adverse events to another vaccine, one also given to young people, but for meningitis. Gardasil had three times the number of Emergency Room visits - more than 5,000.
Reports of side effects were up to 30 times higher with Gardasil.
"If I'd have known, we never would have gotten the shot," said Emily Tarsell, whose daughter, Chris, died three weeks after her third Gardasil shot. She was one of the 29 fatalities reported in two years. "And she'd be here to hug."
Barbara Loe Fisher, co-founder of the NVIC, said: "Now we know from this report that there are more reactions and deaths associated with Gardasil than with another vaccine given in the same age group. It's irresponsible not to take action."
Mary Beth Bonacci says "The vaccine is unnecessary, it's dangerous, and it's disabling and killing young women."
We have pap smears, which detect HPV-related warts and pre-cancerous changes to the cervix. It is because of our friend the pap smear that cervical cancer deaths declined 74% between 1955 and 1992 - - the same time period wherein the rate of unmarried sexual activity was rising dramatically. Those cervical cancer deaths, according to the American Cancer Society, continue to decline at a rate of about 4% a year.
We don't need Gardasil to prevent cervical cancer. Gardasil is the closest thing I've ever seen to an out and out pharmaceutical hoax foisted on American women under the guise of "public health."