Merck Bankrolled Anti-Parent Bill
SEPT. 6, 2011
By JOHN SEILER
Key California legislators passing an anti-parent bill grabbed campaign financing from the gigantic Merck conglomerate, a CalWatchDog.com investigation revealed. The legislation is AB 499 by Assemblywoman Toni Atkins, D-San Diego. In the bill’s language, it “authorizes a minor, who is 12 years of age or older, to consent to medical care related to the prevention of a sexually transmitted disease.”
Current law allows such care only with a parent’s permission. AB 499 passed both houses of the Legislature and awaits a decision by Gov. Jerry Brown.
AB 499 commonly is called the “Gardasil Bill” because the major drug to be administered to 12-year-old girls — without their parents’ consent — is Gardasil, manufactured by Merck. According to Merck’s Gardasil Web site:
GARDASIL is the only human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine that helps protect against 4 types of HPV. In girls and young women ages 9 to 26, GARDASIL helps protect against 2 types of HPV that cause about 75% of cervical cancer cases, and 2 more types that cause 90% of genital warts cases. In boys and young men ages 9 to 26, GARDASIL helps protect against 90% of genital warts cases.
GARDASIL also helps protect girls and young women ages 9 to 26 against 70% of vaginal cancer cases and up to 50% of vulvar cancer cases.
But the drug is not without risk. The Web site itself cautions:
The side effects include pain, swelling, itching, bruising, and redness at the injection site, headache, fever, nausea, dizziness, vomiting, and fainting. Fainting can happen after getting GARDASIL. Sometimes people who faint can fall and hurt themselves. For this reason, your health care professional may ask you to sit or lie down for 15 minutes after you get GARDASIL. Some people who faint might shake or become stiff. This may require evaluation or treatment by your health care professional.
So, your lovely little girl comes home from school, faints, shakes and becomes stiff. And you have no idea why.
Merck Contributions
I cross-matched the votes for AB 499 in the Legislature with Merck Corporate PAC Contributions in 2010 and came up with this list:
Senate:
Kevin De Leon, D-Los Angeles, $2,000
Ed Hernandez, D-West Covina, $2,500
Elaine Alquist, D-San Jose, $1,000
Noreen Evans, D-Santa Rosa, $1,500
Juan Vargas, D-Chula Vista, $3,500
Alex Padilla, D-San Fernando Valley, $300
Curren Price, D-Los Angeles, $1,700
Roderick D. Wright, D-Inglewood, $1,500
Lois Wolk, D-Vacaville, $2,000
Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, $1,500
Assembly:
Ben Hueso, D-Chula Vista, $1,000
Bob Blumenfield, D-Van Nuys, $1,500
V. Manuel Perez, D-Indio, $1,500
Richard Pan, D-East Sacramento, $1,000
Bill Monning, D-Santa Cruz, $1,500
Felipe Fuentes, D-Arleta, $1,500
Holly J. Mitchell, D-Culver City, $2,500
Speaker John A. Perez, D-Los Angeles, $1,500
Ricardo Lara, D-South Gate, $1,000
Mary Hayashi, D-Hayward, $1,500
Roger Dickinson, D-Sacramento, $1,000
Nancy Skinner, D-Oakland, $2,500
Jose Solorio, D-Santa Ana, $1,500
Steven Bradford, D-Inglewood, $1,500
Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, $1,000
Total that Merck donated to legislators voting yea on AB 499: $39,500
True, some Merck money went to those who voted against the bill. But an overwhelming amount went to those who backed it. For Merck, which stands to make tens of millions of dollars off the bill, it was an investment that paid off big time.
Who Pays?
The bill’s fiscal analysis is unclear. “The bill says parents are not financially viable, so taxpayers will have to pay for it,” Paulo Sibaja, director of legislation at the Capitol Resource Institute, told me. “We’re still trying to calculate the cost. But the cost will be 50 percent from the state, 50 percent from the federal government.”
He said there be other consequences, such as “who will be legally liable for medical liability, the state or the parents? The bill undermines the parents, who are totally out of the decision affecting their child.”
Texas’ Experiment
A similar program was imposed by Texas Gov. Rick Perry in 2007, then repealed by the Texas Legislature later that year. Perry, currently the Republican front runner for the 2012 presidential race, still defends his decision. Before his action, he received a $6,000 campaign donation from Merck.
And Merck, according to Wikipedia, hired “former Perry Chief of Staff Mike Toomey to handle its Texas lobbying work” and Perry’s “current chief of staff’s mother-in-law, Texas Republican state Rep. Dianne White Delisi [as] state director for Women in Government”.[106][109]
Reported USA Today in 2007:
Texas Gov. Rick Perry is so enthusiastic about Gardasil that a week ago, he ordered all girls in the state to be immunized before entering sixth grade, as of September 2008. (Parents can opt out for religious and other reasons.) Prompted in part by a vigorous lobbying campaign by Merck, which stands to earn billions of dollars if the vaccine is required, legislators in 23 other states and the District of Columbia have proposed mandating vaccination against HPV for girls as young as 11.
In California, the Gardasil injection — or other injection — is not mandatory. But neither is there a religious opt-out because parents just won’t know what’s happening to their precious child. Only government will.
Dead Girls
A year ago, the Washington Examiner reported:
Documents from the Food & Drug Administration obtained by Judicial Watch under the Freedom of Information Act indicate that Gardasil, a cervical cancer vaccine manufactured by Merck that FDA officials fast-tracked for approval in 2006, may not be not as safe as its industry and government backers assured the public it was.
FDA records show that 16 new deaths (including four suicides) and 3,589 “adverse reactions” tied to Gardasil were reported in the 16 months between May 2009 and September 2010. The adverse reactions included 213 cases of permanent disability. The FDA also received 25 reports of paralyzing Guillian Barre Syndrome in young girls and women who had received the vaccine.
Here’s a horror story in the Judicial Watch report:
One mother of a 13-year old girl who died 37 days after receiving the vaccination noted in a report: “I first declined getting her the vaccination but her doctor ensured me that it was safe…” After her daughter complained of a severe headache, no feeling in her foot and a tingling feeling in her leg, a doctor’s appointment was set for October 23, 2009. “My daughter never made it to Oct[ober] 23rd, which is also her birthday,” the mother noted. “She passed on Oct[ober] 17th, I found her cold unresponsive in her room at 7 am….”
Because there will be no parental notification in California, girls could start dropping dead and their grieving parents won’t even know why.
Tags: AB 499, Capitol Resource Institute, Gardasil, John Seiler, Rick Perry
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Comments(16)
1. Richard Rider says:
September 6, 2011 at 5:26 pm
What is odd in the story is that ALL the bribes (excuse my French) were paid to Democrats – 25 in all. None to Republicans. As we all know, Republicans can be bought too, but apparently on this issue, they are not for sale — or perhaps too expensive to rent.
Apparently all those damn Republicans still think that parents should have a say in what drugs their 12 year old child ingests.
2. GoneWithTheWind says:
September 7, 2011 at 8:04 am
I oppose non-critical treatment of minors without the parents consent but I don’t really see why it is news that merck or anyone who favors it trys to get it passed. Is this a non-story?
3. Mindano Iha says:
September 8, 2011 at 1:24 am
There are several reasons for this bill:
CORRUPTION, CORRUPTION, CORRUPTION, CORRUPTION AND CORRUPTION.
4. karen Haack says:
September 8, 2011 at 7:05 am
If someone poisons your daughter or son with this horrible vaccine how can this be a non-story? You must not have children or if you do you don’t mind the government taking over their medical treatment. Gardasil is a killer vaccine. My daughter now has ovarian failure on top of over 50 food allergies after gardasil. So now not only do the side effects from gardasil injuries now it’s makeing eating impossible for her…she has been in anaphalactic shock so many times it’s a miracle she is still alive.. She was not allergic to food before gardasil. isn’t that lovely. Poor kid can’t eat real food. I guess it would have been worse if I came home and found her dead in the shower or in her bed like so many others have been found. Thanks California for taking away the parents rights for medical care so you can poison the kids of california. I hate Merck, FDA and now the California reps that stole away the parents rights to be informed.
5. GoneWithTheWind says:
September 8, 2011 at 7:51 pm
My daughters best friend at 17 died from an overdose of Tylenol. Thousands and thousands of people die every year from common over the counter pain relievers. The variations in humans is so great that even the safest medications can and do harm some people. Does that mean all medications are “killer medications”??? Only if you failed science in high school.
The reason I think it is a non-story is why shouldn’t you or I or anyone be able to lobby for a bill to be passed or to not be passed?? This is what our constitution intended.
6. Susan Bailey says:
September 8, 2011 at 10:54 pm
Would this be a non story if it were your daughter dead and you didn’t know why????
Please can we do away with lobbying before ALL our basic human rights are completely discarded and destroyed? What’s more important, corporate profit or human life?
7. Eddie says:
September 9, 2011 at 1:10 am
SAVE THE CHILDREN VOTE THESE KILLERS OUT OF OFFICE AND GOV. MOONBEAM BROWN!
Democrats wake-up stop putting your children’s lives in the hand of your enemy the democrats.
America we need God, back in schools not government and not SB48 & SB499 so lets stop these bills and get rid of these Godless thugs.
8. John Eagle says:
September 9, 2011 at 6:05 am
I have done EXTENSIVE research on vaccinations. Trying to remain non-biased, I still have to lean toward the “vaccinations cause far more harm than good” camp. One most important reason is that every pro-vaccination person I discuss vaccinations with has done almost no research on the issue, and gets emotional about how everyone should get vaccinations, and how they should be mandatory. This is like teaching a parrot to sqauwk something. On the other hand, most (not all) anti-vaccination people that discuss this with me are well-informed on its issues. They tend to be more rational and less emotional (unless vaccinations have damaged someone they love). It’s like the pro-vaccination people have something to hide (which is often their ignorance on the subject) and the anti-vaccination people do not. Besides, there are big warm fuzzys for pro-vaccination types (most people warmly support them and they don’t have to worry about legal problems because of their stances) while anti-vaccination types often risk social condemnation and because of that, loss of opportunities (because it’s who you know (and agree with) rather than what you know). So follow the money trail (or psychopath???… trail).
9. BamaCarGirl says:
September 9, 2011 at 7:17 am
My daughter received the Gardasil vaccine, at my request. It is administered in multiple shots. She did faint, but it was at the time of injection, and only lasted momentarily. As scary as it is to watch your innocent child keel over, it is not as described above: “So, your lovely little girl comes home from school, faints, shakes and becomes stiff. And you have no idea why.”
At least in my case. The doctor also advised her to EAT before her next shot (she had not eaten all day, which is a challenge for parents of teens trying to live up to unrealistic body images, but that is another discussion) so she did. The next shot was well received.
10. martin says:
September 9, 2011 at 7:23 am
CALIFORNIA CONSTITUTION
ARTICLE 1 DECLARATION OF RIGHTS
SECTION 1. All people are by nature free and independent and have
inalienable rights. Among these are enjoying and defending life and
liberty, acquiring, possessing, and protecting property, and pursuing
and obtaining safety, happiness, and privacy.
You have an unalienable God given right secured by our Constitution to defend you and your family against anyone who is a threat.
Have our legislators crossed this line ? If so you must let them know and if they don’t change, vote them out before the do more damage to you and your family.
11. Glenn says:
September 9, 2011 at 8:16 am
Has this vaccine been analyzed for actual ingredients?
12. GoneWithTheWind says:
September 9, 2011 at 8:22 am
Prior to the 20th century half of all children died before their 5th birthday from common childhood diseases, another half of all remaining children died prior to their 18th birthday. This idea is foriegn to us today because of vaccinations. It is likely that everyone on this forum is alive today ONLY because of vaccines. It is also likely that you are all ignorant of this simple fact because all of those serious diseases are gone from our lexicon except when we look up the actual meaning of MMR. Small pox used to kill millions and millions of people in huge epidemics and now kills no one in. The very reason we are here today to discuss the merits of vaccines is thanks to vaccines. Do you understand the irony in that? When you make your bogus claims about the negatives of vaccines you can thank your lucky stars for vaccines because that is why you are alive today.
P.S. Just as a reminder it is time for your yearly polio shot. I am going to get mine.
13. GoneWithTheWind says:
September 9, 2011 at 8:24 am
Ooops I meant flu shot !!
But think about it. I am old enough to remember the very real fear polio caused in America and thankful to Jonas Salk for creating the vaccine that prevents it.
14. Ethan says:
September 9, 2011 at 8:39 am
Great article. Vaccine supporters fail to understand that improved hygiene fights diseases, not shooting your kids up with Mercury, Squalene and Aluminum. See Vaccine Nation by Gary Null. Why won’t even one pharmaceutical executive make the claim that vaccines are safe? Why was a special court created to handle lawsuits involving vaccine deaths and injuries? Why does the government indemnify vaccine companies for vaccine death and injuries?
Voluminous Research Proves Vaccines are Deadly:
http://www.infowars.com/voluminous-research-proves-vaccines-are-deadly/
http://www.vaccinenation.net/
http://www.infowars.com/vaccine-deaths-and-injuries-skyrocket-as-cover-up-implodes/
15. Bob says:
September 9, 2011 at 9:38 am
All Pharmaceutical companies are majority owned by the government. Which means, the people of America own them but we never see the royalty checks. If we own 60% share, then we the people have the right to shut them down. They are all killing us softly. Wakey wakey everyone!
16. j r says:
September 9, 2011 at 10:38 am
Amazing how Americans are so used to government corruption that they think it’s perfectly acceptable for corporations to bribe politicians. They call it lobbying, but it’s still bribery.
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