Vaccine Explosion: Is America Healthier?

This informative piece from Newsmax.com explores whether the vast increase in the number of mandatory vaccines has actually resulted in better health.

Noteworthy content:

The HPV vaccine rebellion marks the first time that large numbers of parents have questioned the wisdom of a new vaccine. Before the HPV vaccine, new vaccines were regularly introduced and quietly mandated by states across the country. These mandates were enthusiastically supported by public health organizations including the FDA, the CDC, the American Academy of Family Physicians, and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

And this on the staggering number of vaccination doses a child is supposed to receive:

The CDC today recommends an aggressive immunization schedule beginning at birth with vaccination against hepatitis B. Over the next 12 years, children are supposed to receive a constellation of more than 50 vaccine doses to immunize them against 15 diseases, including HPV.

And this:

"In the last 25 years, we've gone from 23 doses of 7 vaccines to more than 50 doses of 15 vaccines by age 12," says vaccine-safety activist Barbara Loe Fisher, founder of the non-profit National Vaccine Information Center. "At the same time, we have seen an explosion in allergies, asthma and autism. Something has happened. I can't say it's all due to vaccines, but I think it's a question that needs to be answered."

Florida HPV Mandate Effort Stalls

This press release from the Florida Policy Roundtable, describing the fact that the Florida effort to mandate HPV vaccination has stalled in the Legislature.

Noteworthy content:

Two separate pieces of legislation, designed to mandate vaccinations for the human papillomavirus
(HPV) for 11- and 12-year old Florida students, appear to have stalled in the Florida Legislature. The Florida Policy Roundtable applauds this
development and urges Floridians to continue to contact state legislators.

Track HPV Developments in All States

The National Conference of State Legislatures has setup a location whereby you can track the progress of all HPV-related legislation in all 50 states. Click here for the site and track your state.

Top Cancer Researcher - Untested HPV Vaccine Could Harm

This excellent and revealing article reveals what a top cancer researcher believes to be true about the Gardasil HPV vaccine.

The whole article is worth reading, but if you're not able, here's some of the noteworthy content:

A researcher who worked on a vaccine for the human papillomavirus is warning that it hasn't been tested on young girls, is "silly" for states to mandate the vaccination, and in a worst-case scenario could even increase cervical cancer rates. In a report published by the Indiana-based Daily News, researcher Diane M. Harper said giving such a vaccine to 11-year-olds "is a great big public health experiment." Further, she said, requiring vaccinations now "is simply to Merck's benefit."

About Diane Harper:

Harper is a professor and director at the Gynecologic Cancer Prevention Research Group at Dartmouth, and told the publication that there "is not enough evidence gathered on side effects to know that safety is not an issue."

And this:

"This vaccine should not be mandated for 11-year-old girls," Harper said. "It's not been tested in little girls for efficacy. At 11, these girls don't get cervical cancer – they won't know for 25 years if they will get cervical cancer." She said the vaccine is not a cancer vaccine or cure – it just prevents development of a virus that could lead to cancer.

And finally this:

Harper told the publication she's attempted to publicize her opinion for months, "but no one will print it."

TN State Health Official Wary of Mandating Gardasil

From Tennessee direction, this article reports that the TN state health official does not presently believe an HPV vaccination mandate is appropriate. Although her language is less that firm (and is in fact the typical government-speak mumbo-jumbo), it is clear she's not yet ready to mandate Gardasil.

Noteworthy content:

"Do I think every female child should be protected against cervical cancer? If there's a way to do it, yes," said Tennessee Commissioner of Health Susan Cooper, speaking in Chattanooga. "Do I think we know enough about the long-term outcomes of this vaccine to say we ought to mandate it today? Maybe not."

And this which indicates a remarkable dose of sanity exists within at least some in the Tennessee Legislature:

In Tennessee, Republican legislators Rep. Joey Hensley, R-Hohenwald, and Sen. Raymond Finney, R-Maryville, introduced a bill last month that would give the General Assembly alone the authority to require the vaccine.

Bravo.

Let's Innoculate With the Facts!

From one of my favorite groups, the Cato Institute (www.cato.org) - comes this excellent analysis of the Gardasil HPV Vaccination fiasco in Texas. Read the full article here.

Noteworthy content:

There's nothing wrong with a drug maker publicizing its products and their benefits, but the lure of lucrative government contracts can prompt them to play fast and loose. In lobbying Texas lawmakers to make its latest vaccine mandatory, Merck has exaggerated both the threat of a disease and the ability of a drug to prevent it.

And this:

These mandates would be quite a boon for Merck, as Gardasil is one of the most expensive vaccines on the market. With a price tag of $360 for a series of three shots, vaccinating approximately 30 million middle school-aged girls in the United States would bring in more than $10 billion.

And finally this, which is consistent with the financial relevance questions we've been asking on this blog:

Gardasil is not all it is cracked up to be. A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association indicates that among women ages 14 to 24, the rate of all 37 types of sexually transmitted HPV combined is 33.8 percent — already a number much lower than the 50 percent figure sited on Merck's Web site. But the rates for the two types of HPV responsible for 70 percent of all cervical cancers (16 and 18), are far lower: only 1.5 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively.

The American Cancer Society sees its fight against cervical cancer as a success story even without Gardasil. When detected early through Pap testing, the survival rate for cervical cancer is over 90 percent. Thus, when early detection methods are used, only around 0.2 percent of the girls being vaccinated are actually at risk of dying of cervical cancer from HPV 16 or 18 even without the vaccine.

Under these circumstances, are we really prepared to spend $10 billion administering this vaccine?