Another Gardasil HPV vaccine victim
October 9, 10:55 AMLong Island Parenting ExaminerPatty KnapPrevious Comment Print Email RSS Subscribe Subscribe
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Last month, I wrote a piece on the Gardasil vaccine controversy. The vaccine, marketed by Merck Pharmaceuticals, is purported to cut the risk of sexually transmitted diseases and thereby reduce the risk of cervical cancer. I was surprised at the number of comments I received and more importantly, by the number of victims wanting to get the word out. One person who contacted me is Rosemary Mathis, from North Carolina, who wrote to me about her teenage daughter Lauren's tragic experience with Gardasil, and her frustration that little or nothing is being done to prevent more victimization. Here is Rosemary's story in her own words.
Because of Gardasil, my beautiful now-14 year old daughter missed almost her entire eighth grade year, and a year and a half after the vaccinations, she continues to suffer. Symptoms over this past year and a half have included: enlarged liver, gall bladder attacks, severe nausea, chest pain, severe abdominal pain, severe headaches, brain freezes, stomach ulcer, and sensitivity to light.
She became severely depressed because she could not attend school or be with her friends like a normal child. Because of Gardasil, she was “One Less” in all aspects of her life. (Author's note: That's tragically ironic, as Gardasil's TV ads have teen- and pre-teen girls chanting" one less" as they jump rope, referring to the supposed "one less" victim of cervical cancer each time a girl receives the Gardasil vaccine!) She went from being an academically gifted student to one who struggled to complete her 8th grade year of school. She was placed on a modified school plan by her principal who fully backed her because she was an excellent student who had been in the North Carolina Academically Gifted Program since 2nd grade. Her life became an endless round of hospital and doctor visits with little resolution to the severe pain that she was experiencing. She was even sent for surgery on her gall bladder at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center where a skilled surgeon recognized the symptoms were more than gall bladder dysfunction and thankfully did not operate. We have spent the past year researching this horrible vaccine and the side effects and treating her with vitamins and medicine. My daughter is currently being treated by Duke University’s Children’s Hospital and Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center’s Brenner’s Children’s Hospital and the bills are now in the tens of thousands of dollars. Thankfully, I have a good insurance policy which has helped cover the costs associated with the effects of Gardasil.
Lauren’s vaccinations were in 2008, when she was 12 years old, following her pediatrician's recommendation.
The horrible realization is that VAERS (vaccine adverse effects reporting system) is not accurate. Prior to Gardasil, I did not know what VAERS was. When my daughter became ill, I found out about VAERS by research performed on the internet. My daughter’s doctors did not even know what it was and they did not file a report until I filed one myself and told them they were obligated by law to file a report. How can the #’s be accurate if doctors don’t file the reports? Many doctors apparently don't even know about this method of reporting serious symptoms, and certainly many parents have no idea where to turn to report them. Shouldn’t VAERS and the adverse side effects of vaccines be taught in medical school or shouldn’t the doctors at least receive periodic newsletters from the CDC explaining VAERS and its importance?
The CDC and FDA are not doing their jobs. If they were, after tens of thousands of people died from Merck’s VIOXX, how was Gardasil so quickly pushed into the marketplace? Someone with the proper authority needs to research this and get a full understanding as to how this could happen when Merck had already been proven to be at fault for so many deaths. Who is protecting the American citizens and our precious children? How many girls will have to die before someone takes this seriously? I beg of you to please ensure that this is investigated and that some changes are made to the VAERS reporting system which includes doctors being held responsible for reporting all adverse reactions following vaccinations. They should not simply brush reports of adverse reactions aside and just referring to them as “she just has a virus.” A virus would not last for over a year, and the doctors do not understand the serious, sometimes permanent side effects of the vaccines that they are giving. It should be mandatory that the doctors fully understand vaccines and their side effects and that they inform the parents UPFRONT of what could happen.
I knew nothing about the vaccine, but trusted Lauren's pediatrician. He wanted to give it to Lauren because it prevented cancer. He said the only side effect was pain and swelling around the injection site. He didn't explain what Gardasil really is, a vaccine to prevent cancer caused by HPV. If he had, I wouldn't have given it to my 12 year old. I also should have researched it, but again, I trusted him. I will NEVER fully trust a doctor again. I will reseach myself. I am a member of the Lets_Talk_about_Gardasil on Yahoo Groups, which has over 400 members in just under one year. It is a board which mother's use to communicate to each other about their daughters and what treatments are helping. I'm also a member of the Facebook board called Helping the Gardasil Girls which has over 1,400 members. Obviously this is a major issue to a lot of people.
I called Merck and reported my daughter to them. They refused to speak to
me, but assigned me a # in their database. They told me they could only
talk to me if I was a medical professional. Well, I asked if my doctor
called them, would they talk to him, they said they would. I called my
doctor's office and asked him to call. He was busy, but his nurse said she
would. I gave her the information and she called with my daughter's Merck
ID #. Merck then refused to speak to her because they told my doctor's
office that I had threatened to take legal action against them. I did not
in anyway do that. It made be angry that they flatly lied to my doctor. I
called back and told Merck that I knew their calls were taped and I didn't
appreciate them lying about me and told them they better go back and pull
the tape and see what the truth was. They put me on hold and then came
back. They said it was a misunderstanding and they didn't understand why
the operator thought I had said I would take legal action. They apoligized
and said they would get back with me which they never have. I don't know if
it was related, but my school nurse called me about my daughter and said
that Merck was asking questions and said they didn't understand why my
daughter was sick because they haven't heard about any sick girls. I told
the nurse to tell Merck to look up my daughter in their database. If they had
any questions, they could have asked them when I called in our when they were
supposed to call me back. They continued to call the nurse and ask questions
until I told the nurse not to talk to them anymore about my daughter. It's
been an unbelievable run-around. The FDA/CDC (www.cdc.gov) has followed up with
questions about my daughter regarding our VAERS Filings and they have been nice,
but there has been no result, no change, no banning the drug. I wish I had
researched before my daughter was vaccinated, but I feel it is now my job to
warn others because I am 100% sure this vaccine made my daughter sick. However, according to the sample of victims provided to me by Lauren's mother, itis difficult to believe that the VAERS site is comprehensive. As she states, manyparents don't know about VAERS and wrongly assume their doctor is reporting theensuing consequences. She also feels that many doctors are still not reporting toVAERS even after being alerted by their patients because a) the reporting methodis so cumbersome, requiring detailed info such as product lot numbers, dates ofvaccinations, numerous follow-ups, all seemingly designed to deter reporting, andb) with the FDA's approval of Gardasil,and with the manufacturer Merck not alertingdoctors or the public to the growing number of serious side effects and even deaths,many doctors wrongly and tragically assume that any problems their patientsencounter must be unrelated to the vaccine! More than once an FDA-approved drug has been recalled following public pressureabout safety. And Merck has received an FDA "warning letter," in April, 2008,regarding conditions at it's Pennsylvania plant where Gardasil is made. One ofthe key researchers involved in the clinical trials for Gardasil has NOW GONE PUBLIC with warnings about their safety and effectiveness. This highly unusualwarning against these vaccines by one of Big Pharma's own researchers surfacedin an exclusive interview with the Sunday Express in the UK over the last fewdays. There, Dr. Diane Harper openly admitted the vaccine doesn't even preventcervical cancer, stating, "[The vaccine] will not decrease cervical cancer rates at all." This is astonishing news. The whole push behind the cervical cancer vaccinesis based on the belief that they prevent cervical cancer. That belief, it turnsout, is a myth. Dr. Harper also warned that the cervical cancer vaccine was being"over-marketed" and that parents should be warned about the possible risk ofsevere side effects from the vaccine. She even concluded that the vaccine itself is more dangerous than the cervical cancer it claims to prevent! Dr. Harper is agraduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She studied additionalcourses at Stanford and received her medical degree from the University of Kansas.She was a key researcher in both Gardasil and Cervarix vaccines, and she's one ofthe most experienced researchers in the world on HPV-related diseases. She's donework for both Merck and GlaxoSmithKline. Dr. Harper's warnings about cervicalcancer vaccines are especially relevant considering her expertise in thecost/benefit analysis of vaccines. Her conclusion is that cervical cancer vaccinesaren't worth the risks, nor are they worth all the effort being put into hypinghem to the public. "This may not be the best use of our resources at this time,"she said in a Washington Post article. In a NY Times article published last year, Dr. Harper spoke about the fear-basedmarketing of Gardasil by Merck: "'Merck lobbied every opinion leader,women's group, medical society, politicians and went directly to the people - - it created a sense of panic that says you have to have this vaccine now....." For more info on Dr. Harper, check out http://iconicwoman.com/gardasil/hpv-vaccine-how-we-got-here/ or www.naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2009/08more-on-gardasils-lack-of-logic.html This behavior by drug companies -- using fear tactics to promote a particulardisease in order to sell the "treatment" -- is called disease mongering. Most ofthe pharmaceutical profits generated today are based on precisely this tactic:Spread the fear, then sell the treatment. Meanwhile, many wonder where the great need for a cervical cancer vaccine isanyway. According to Dr. Karen Smith-McCure, ob-gyn at UC San Francisco School of Medicine, cervical cancer is already easily preventable, in that it takes yearsto develop and can be detected early through Pap screening already in widespreaduse. She points out that, while this form of cancer is common in developingcountries, it has a low incidence in the US, primarily due to routine screening.To find out more about how the drug Gardasil has affected the lives of young women,go to:http://voices.injuryboard.com/fda-and-prescription-drugs/gardasil-and-how-it-has-affected- the-livesof-young-american-women-and-their-families-.aspx?googleid=271666CDC websites with info on this vaccine are:http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/recs/acip/downloads/mtg-slides-oct08/12-3-hpv.pdfSummary of HPV Adverse Event Reports Published in JAMAhttps://secure.vaers.org/VaersDataEntryintro.htm, or by mail to Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System,P.O. Box 1100, Rockville, MD 20849-1100.
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