One Less At What Cost

"One Less", is a chant that has been heard countless times in many American homes. The image of smiling young girls proclaiming that they will be "One Less" female diagnosed with cervical cancer due to HPV (Human Papillomavirus). The commercial for the Gardasil vaccine is sure to get anyone pumped up about a preventative treatment for cervical cancer. Recently the makers of Gardasil, Merck, have gotten the US government eagerly proposing to make the vaccine mandatory for young girls upon entering the 6th grade. Initially the idea seems great, but after careful analysis of the deeper affects, it proves to be more damaging than helpful. The Gardasil vaccine became FDA approved in June of 2006, after only two years of testing; since that time there have been 3 reports of death and 1,637 reports of adverse effects associated with the Gardasil vaccine documented to VAERS the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (Judicial Watch). The number may seem low, but as time passes and the vaccination is more pervasive, the number will most likely increase exponentially. Due to the short period of time that the vaccine has been approved and the rather short testing trial, there is no known evidence of the long-term effects the vaccine may have. Making the Gardasil vaccine mandatory, especially at such a young age, without the knowledge of its long-term effects is more for financial gain than the well being of the youth and women of America.

Human Papillomavirus or more commonly known as HPV according to Gregory S. Henderson, "is not actually a single virus: rather a family of virus ranging from no noticeable disease to typical warts to flat warts to cancer" (13). In an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association Lawrence Gostin and Catherine DeAngelis points out that HPV is the most commonly transmitted sexual infection in the U.S., it is has been estimated that at least 6.2 million people are infected with the virus each year. One must be infected with a high risk HPV strain to develop cervical cancer. The high risk strains 16 and 18 that are commonly associated with cervical cancer have a significantly low prevalence, and a lot of women infected with high risk HPV go on to never develop cervical cancer due to continued pap exams. Within 2 years of being infected with HPV, 90% of women's bodies clear the infection on its own (par. 2).

HPV is undoubtedly harmful and should require some means of preventative measures; however, it is highly risky to make such a lowly tested vaccine mandatory for the female youth. Though the makers of Gardasil stand by their product, they are known to conceal important information regarding the side effects that their products may have. In 2005, Merck lost a $235 million lawsuit for knowingly withholding documentation about the probable lethal cardiovascular effects of Vioxx, a drug they produced to treat pains associated with arthritis (Berenson). Vioxx underwent speedy trials by the FDA in the same manor as Gardasil Ð'- only to be pulled from the shelves on 2005, after causing a significant amount of deaths.

When documenting the adverse effects of Gardasil during the testing phase, instead of only using a Saline placebo group, they also used an Aluminum based placebo combining the findings for both groups. Many of the adverse effects caused by the Gardasil vaccine are also caused by admitting aluminum into the body; as a result the findings showed that the percentage of adverse effects for the test group and the placebo group were equivalent. These skewed numbers would cause an outsider to conclude that the side effects of Gardasil were fairly minimal. The use of the aluminum was very pertinent in Merck's attempts to down play the side effects because the Gardasil vaccine contains 225 mcg of aluminum. There were 17 deaths reported of people participating in the testing trial; however Merck conveniently ruled their cause of death to be unrelated to Gardasil.

Their have been 1,637 reports of adverse effects of the Gardasil vaccine with 3 being fatal. The reactions ranged from mild to serious; some were instant and others surfaced days and week after the third dose. Of the adverse reaction 317 were serous reactions that resulted in paralysis and chronic seizures. Many may feel that 3 deaths is far better than the thousands that occur from cervical cancer, but what about the remaining people that reported adverse effect. Will their problems be temporary or will they lay dormant and resurface with far worse complications that could have been avoided?

If the Gardasil vaccine is made mandatory, Merck stands to make