[PAA-Discuss] Fwd: OpEd News - Was Perry Wrong to Push HPV Vaccine?

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-----Original Message-----
From: Vince Boehm <vince_19805 at yahoo.com>
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Sent: Wed, Sep 14, 2011 9:39 pm
Subject: Rosenberg - Was Perry Wrong to Push HPV Vaccine?


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Chicagoan Martha Rosenberg frequently writes about the impact of the 
pharmaceutical, food, and gun industries on public health.

Martha is a feature writer for the Consumers Digest, and a former 
medical copywriter whose work has appeared in the Boston Globe, San 
Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, Consumers' Digest and in the 
Huffington Post. 

Her first book, tentatively titled "Born with a Fritos Deficiency: How 
Flaks, Quacks and Hacks Pimp the Public Health", will be published by 
Prometheus Books next year.

Martha is a gifted writer, a talented editorial cartoonist, and a 
friend.




Vince   
 







http://www.opednews.com/articles/Was-Perry-Wrong-to-Push-HP-by-Martha-Rosenberg-110914-674.html

September 14, 2011
Was Perry Wrong to Push HPV Vaccine?
By Martha Rosenberg
 

Whether you are against politicians helping Pharma loot our health care 
dollars or mandatory medicine, Texas Governor Rick Perry's facilitation 
of Merck's Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, Gardasil, has angered 
Repubicans and Democrats alike.
Gardasil and GSK's Cervarix vaccine protect against the virus which 
causes cervical cancer and genital warts.
The vaccine protects against the two HPV strains that cause 70 percent 
of cervical cancers and 90 percent of genital warts but isn't effective 
against all HPV strains. Nor does it outperform the Pap smear or even 
make subsequent Pap smears unnecessary. Researchers also don't know how 
long protection lasts and when, or whether, a booster is necessary to 
retain protection.
The HPV vaccine is also the most expensive of all recommended vaccines 
at $359.25 for all three doses says Pew Research.
Despite poster-sized ads at city train stations and fancy TV 
commercials, many women are just saying no to the vaccines, according 
to research presented at the American Association for Cancer Research 
in Philadelphia.

Fewer than one-third of 9,658 teenagers and young women who were 
eligible for the vaccine actually began the three-injection series 
between 2006 and 2010, according to data analyzed at the University of 
Maryland. Others started the regimen but didn't get their second or 
third injection.
Merck is also using Continuing Medical Education (CME) courses to sell 
product. One, on Medscape, written by two Merck employees, was titled 
"Quadrivalent HPV Vaccine May Be Effective in Women 24 to 
45-Years-Old," sounding like the commercial it was. Upon completion of 
this activity, you'll be able to "specify the currently recommended age 
range for the administration of the quadrivalent human papillomavirus 
vaccine,"   doctors who take the "course" are told. Who can say Dumbed 
Down?
In addition to causing fainting, allergic reactions, Guillain-Barr 
Syndrome and blood clots, girls have died after receiving the vaccines, 
according to the CDC, though the vaccine is not clearly the cause. 
Trials were suspended in India in April after the vaccine was suspected 
in the deaths of six children in clinical trials.
Critics also question the   science behind clinical studies that make 
the vaccines look effective against placebo and why cervical cancer, 
not malaria, Dengue fever or potable water, is a burning third world 
is$sue.

 "I was greatly offended that Merck suggest I vaccinate my 
nine-year-old daughter against an STD," says Kelley Watson, a mother of 
two in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park. "Especially insulting to me was 
that there was never any mention of HPV as being a sexually transmitted 
disease. It was presented as something women can contract through 
tampons or nylon stockings--as if men played no part."
 There are also transparency questions beyond Perry's Faux Pas. Why did 
former First Lady Laura Bush promote the original vaccine, even working 
with Pharma-funded citizen groups, according to some reports? Why was 
University of Queensland lecturer Dr. Andrew Gunn silenced by his own 
university when he questioned the vaccine and ordered to apologize to 
the vaccine maker, CSL, according to the Courier Mail?
 Dr. Gunn expressed doubts about marketing the vaccine "as a solution 
to cancer of the cervix when at best it's expected to prevent about 
two-thirds of cases." He was also concerned about "the incorrect and 
dangerous perception that it might make Pap smears unnecessary; and the 
difficult question of the best age to give a vaccine whose effect might 
yet prove to wear off before many recipients even start having sex."
 It's no secret that Pharma is pushing vaccines as a new profit center 
now that many of its expensive blockbuster pills are going off patent. 
It's no secret that Pharma is using high level politicians to 
accomplish the task, like Former CDC Director Julie Gerberding, MD, now 
head of Merck vaccines.
 Will parents uphold public health by giving the vaccines to their 
children--the public health of Big Pharma?

 



                                              




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