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Will Merck's Gardasil HPV Vaccine be its Next Vioxx?

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Merck's Legislative ZombiesÂ

In 2007, almost every state had legislation filed to mandate the HPV vaccine. It is rather extraordinary that so many states would have state officials in unison calling for mandatory vaccination. Well, it might appear rather odd and remarkable until the extent to which Merck's greedy tentacles reach the fringe corners of state governments are fully recognized.

Women in Government is a nonprofit organization with a stated mission to bring elected women state legislators and business leaders together. In reality WIG is little more than a well-funded shill for the pharmaceutical and energy industries. Over 50 percent of its corporate sponsors are Big Pharm firms, including the two HPV vaccine manufacturers Merck and GlaxoSmithKline. The organization also hosts a "Business Council", a six member advisory group consulting state women legislators about critical business issues. Three of the six Council members represent the pharmaceutical industrial complex, and not surprisingly these include Merck's Executive Director of Health Policy and GlaxoSmithKline's Director of Public Policy. The third drug member is Digene Corporation's VP for Women's Health. Who is Digene, a firm very few people have heard of? It is certainly not one of the larger multi-national pharmaceutical firms among WIG's corporate sponsors. It turns out Digene is the company that manufactures Gardasil.Â

The WIG's recent report, "A Roadmap for Success: The State of Cervical Cancer Prevention in America 2010," which is being disseminated through state health departments and women's health organizations, is nothing more than a fidgeting and arrangement of data about the severity of cervical cancer and rates of infections leading to the conclusion that vaccinating all girls in the US will eradicate HPV infection.

 Individual state initiatives to mandate the HPV vaccine can be traced back to WIG. Texas governor Rick Perry is perhaps the most rabid among state governors seeking mandatory vaccination. Perry's former chief of staff is now a Merck lobbyist and Perry himself received Merck donations for his reelection campaign. The former chief's mother, state representative Diana White Delisis is WIG's state director. Now that the FDA approved Gardasil for males from 9 to 26 years of age to protect against genital warts and extremely rare penile and anal cancers, the Texas Medical Association voted this month in favor of vaccinating young boys as young as 9 years of age.Â

Efforts are still being made in some states to mandate HPV vaccines. In New York, Liz Kreuger, a leading voice in WIG, sponsored a State Senate bill for mandatory vaccination. Fortunately that bill was placed on hold last February.Â

WIG, however, is not the only state legislative organization that has been won over by Merck and GlaxoSmithKline. The National Foundation for Women Legislators and the National Conference of State Legislators each include the two HPV vaccine makers as sponsoring corporate members. Along with WIG, Merck's viral propaganda has infected almost every state health department.

In the June 2008 issue of the Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics, three scholars representing Johns Hopkins Institute of Bioethics, George Washington School of Medicine, and Georgetown University's Law Center determined that the evidence for the benefits of HPV vaccines on public health provides no rationale whatsoever for making it mandatory. In fact, such a mandate would be unethical and unconstitutional.Â

The consequences of Merck's actions and the actions of the corporation's zombies in government health agencies and organizations, such as WIG, to promulgate scientific falsehood has had an immense impact on seducing local health facilities, hospital staffs, physicians and pediatricians. The efforts to mandate unproven and questionable vaccines, such as Gardasil, border on medical fascism. One story of a terrible casualty illustrates how far Merck's marketing campaign has reached:Â

One mother reports on the website Medications.com a story of her 13-year old daughter who was otherwise a physically active and healthy daughter until she became partially paralyzed after receiving a Gardasil vaccination. Her leg muscles shrank; her feet contorted as her muscular deterioration and nerve damage increased. She was taken to the best medical facilities: Case Western Hospital, the hospitals at Stanford University and the University of California at San Francisco, John Hopkins and others. Then the mom shares some information indicative of Merck's marketing success. "This has been a very long, hard road and battle for my child. All because of vaccines. I was not fully informed of possible deaths or serious side effects linked to Gardasil. I did not give written consent; I was told this was practically mandated in other states and would soon be mandatory for all school girls age 11-12years old. I was told it was a good vaccine and led to believe I would not have to worry about my daughter having cervical cancer some day."Â

Merck's aggressive lobbying of federal and state officials has paid off. In 2008, Gardasil became one of the top five selling vaccines allowing the drug giant to cash in on $2.7 billion in sales. It is also the most expensive vaccine on the market, costing almost $400 for the series of three inoculations. Medical writer Judith Siers-Poisson has called it the "financial equivalent of the Holy Grail for the pharmaceutical company."Â

It is highly unlikely that Merck will ever reconsider its marketing assault to vaccinate the world's female population. Gardasil is already approved in over 100 countries. It is much easier for Merck to do what it has done best and has had the greatest success: cover-up their product's health risks and dangers, withhold clinical information, continue to ferret federal health officials and governments, and simply pay a fine if and when the company gets caught for its criminal behavior. Then it is back to business as usual to find another blockbuster drug to repeat their strategy all over again.Â

The Slow Backlash Against HPV VaccinationÂ

Even if the US government and its health officials don't give a damn about the physical health and well-being of its citizens, and particularly its children, there are some countries that actually care population's health. India commenced with a 2-year study to determine the efficacy of Merck's Garadsil. Last April, the nation's health ministry suspended the study after 4 girls died and 120 serious complications were reported. To date, India has no plans to launch the vaccine on its young girls and women.

In Bhutan, Merck promised free Gardasil for the tiny Himalayan nation's female population. On May 14, the Bhutan Observer reported that the country's Drug Regulatory Authority, after witnessing events in India, ordered a halt to the vaccine until greater proof of safety can be produced. In Spain, the government recalled Gardasil after two serious hospitalizations occurred following inoculation. Yet in the US, we have thousands of Gardasil casualties, and nobody in government is doing anything about it.
There is also some additional good news. Gardasil is now the mostly commonly declined vaccine, by 56 percent over other vaccines, among parents. And the professional journal Pediatrics has reported on a 2009 survey showing that 1 out 8 parents have refused at least one Gardasil vaccination recommended by their physicians or pediatricians. Therefore, we are witnessing the success of educating people about the dangers of vaccination and exposing the lies and fraud of the vaccine industry as the best chance available to preserve the health of children and young people.Â

The bad news is Merck is relentless in its pursuit for profits and no longer wants to limit Gardasil as a predatory revenue on girls and woman used as crash test dummies. On the very day the FDA approved GlaxoSmithKline's HPV vaccine Cervarix in the US, it also approved Gardasil for boys 9 to 26 years old for genital warts. In May, Merck started marketing the vaccine towards America's sons. Again, it is fueled under the deceptive advertizing that genital warts are sexually transmitted. And the FDA simply continues mimics Merck's information campaign. The FDA's director Dr. Karen Midthun in the agency's press release states, "This vaccine is the first preventative therapy against genital warts in boys and men ages 9 through 26, and, as a result, fewer men will need to undergo treatment." The caveat of facts not mentioned by the FDA is that boys infected with HPV rarely have symptoms, and as with girls and women, infections disappear rapidly and naturally.Â

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Richard Gale Social Media Pages: Facebook page url on login Profile not filled in       Twitter page url on login Profile not filled in       Linkedin page url on login Profile not filled in       Instagram page url on login Profile not filled in

I am the Executive Producer of the Progressive Radio Network in New York City and producer of the nationally syndicated Gary Null on public stations.

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