HPV Vaccine Resources

SB1958 by *Finney R., *Burchett, *Tracy, *Ketron, *Crowe, *Watson, *McNally, *Norris, *Stanley, *Beavers, *Southerland. (HB1580 by *Hensley, *Bell, *Lollar, *Cobb J, *Watson , *Hawk, *Baird, *Maggart, *Todd, *Eldridge, *Strader, *Lynn, *Lundberg, *Ford, *Campfield, *Hill, *McDaniel, *Johnson P, *Mumpower, *Dean, *Casada, *Floyd, *Rowland, *Johnson C, *McCormick, *Coley, *Matheny, *Matlock, *Harrison, *Swafford, *Williams, *Dunn.)

Requires the general assembly, instead of authorizing the commissioner of health, subject to the approval of the public health council, to specifically authorize an immunization for a disease only transmitted sexually, for which a preventive vaccine has been approved and recommended for girls and women in a specific age group. - Amends TCA Section 49-6-5001
To read the bill, go to: http://www.legislature.state.tn.us/bills/currentga/BILL/SB1958.pdf

When signing on as co-sponsors, many legislators thanked TN Eagle Forum for being pro-active and taking a leadership position on this important issue of family privacy and decision making.

To contact your legislators, go to: http://www.legislature.state.tn.us/
There, under “Senate” or “House” you can select “Members” and get the information you need to urge their support for this legislation.  For additional information or to subscribe to the Eagle Forum's email network, you can email bobbie@tneagleforum.org.

This bill does not address the merits of Gardasil, however, there are many concerns about the vaccine and parents should research the material provided here before making a decision to inject these powerful chemicals into the bodies of young girls just as they are about to enter puberty.  

Parents should remember that HPV is a sexually transmitted disease. It is not a contagious disease like measles or chicken pox which can be caught by casual contact.  Gardasil is thought to be effective for only four types of the 30 genital HPV types.


HPV vaccine being pushed for teen girls isn't all you may think it is

By BOBBIE PATRAY
Tennessee Voices

Republican Texas Gov. Rick Perry set off a nationwide firestorm by issuing an executive order mandating that by the fall of 2008, all sixth-grade girls in his state be given the new Merck Gardasil vaccine for human papillomavirus (HPV), which was developed to prevent some cervical cancers. Although there is a rather involved opt-out provision, parents and legislators were furious at the government interfering with the private health-care decisions of families for their minor children.

This action coincided with Merck's expensive national television marketing campaign to promote the vaccine and the company's efforts to pass legislation mandating its use. Part of the campaign was donating generously to Women in Government (WIG) a Washington-based advocacy group composed of female legislators. Neither Merck nor WIG will reveal the amount given, however, according to the WIG website, mandating legislation has been introduced in nearly 20 states.

At a minimum price of $360 for the three injections, mandating the vaccine for a never-ending supply of sixth-grade girls would be a windfall for Merck.

It didn't take Texas lawmakers long to introduce legislation to countermand the executive order, and the parents of three Texas girls have filed a lawsuit claiming Perry's order went beyond his authority and illegally mandated the vaccine. See:http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007703170330


Perry orders HPV vaccine
AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry – usually a hero to social conservatives – surprised many of them Friday by making Texas the first state to mandate a vaccine for sixth-grade girls to prevent a sexually transmitted infection that leads to most kinds of cervical cancer.

In his executive order, Mr. Perry said girls must receive the human papillomavirus vaccine before school starts in September 2008. While noting that parents may opt out of the vaccine for conscience or religious reasons, he said it "provides us with an incredible opportunity to effectively target and prevent cervical cancer."
See: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/DN-hpv_03tex.ART0.State.Edition2.29833d6.html

OBGYN Questions HPV Vaccine Gardasil
Obstetrics and Gynecology
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists

I am writing in response to the recent Committee Opinion 344 Published in the September issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology. I have several concerns regarding Gardasil.

First, the Gardasil’s product insert states their endpoint is the prevention of "High Grade Disease", this encompasses CIN II-III and adenocarcinoma in situ (AIS) which are "immediate and necessary precursors" for squamous cell and adenocarcinoma of the cervix.1 The MAXIMUM median follow up in any of their studies is FOUR years.
See: http://www.vaccineinfo.net/immunization/vaccine/hpv/doc_against_HPV.shtml


HPV Vaccine Mandates Risky And Expensive
Main Category: Sexual Health / STDs News
Article Date: 03 Feb 2007 - 0:00 PST

The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), the nation's leading vaccine safety and informed consent advocacy organization, is urging state legislatures to investigate the safety and cost of mandating Merck's HPV vaccine (GARDASIL) for all pre- adolescent girls before introducing legislation amending state vaccine laws. In an analysis of reports made to the federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) since the CDC's July 2006 universal use recommendation for all young girls, NVIC found reports of loss of consciousness, seizures, joint pain and Guillain-Barre Syndrome. In a separate evaluation of costs for young girls being vaccinated in private pediatrician offices, NVIC discovered that parents living in the Washington, D.C. area will be paying between $500 and $900 to have their daughters receive three doses of GARDASIL.
See: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=62176


Feb. 7, 2007, 11:46AM
Doctors say Perry's vaccine mandate for girls is premature
They hail inoculation for cancer-causing virus but cite liability, cost concerns
By TODD ACKERMAN
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

Gov. Rick Perry's order requiring schoolgirls to get inoculated against a sexually transmitted virus linked to cervical cancer may be unpopular with social conservatives, but another important group also is lining up against it: doctors.

From, among others, the Texas Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, many doctors are saying it's too early to mandate the vaccine, which was approved for use last June. It protects against four strains of the human papillomavirus that cause 70 percent of cervical cancers.
See: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4532274.html


The HPV Vaccine and School Mandates:
Questions and Answers – comprehensive list
http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=IF07B01&f=WA07B42


Cancer-virus vaccine targets wrong age group
By Gregory Lopes and Christopher M. Dolan
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
February 21, 2007

Lawmakers looking to force preteen girls to take Gardasil, a new vaccine against a virus that causes cervical cancer, are targeting the wrong age group, cancer data shows.
Middle-school girls inoculated with the breakthrough vaccine will be no older than 18 when they pass Gardasil's five-year window of proven effectiveness -- more than a decade before the typical cancer patient contracts the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus (HPV).

Infectious disease specialists and cancer pathologists say the incubation period for HPV becoming cancer is 10 to 15 years -- meaning the average cervical cancer patient, who is 47, contracted the virus in her 30s and would not be protected by Gardasil taken as a teen.
See: http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20070221-123326-7587r.htm


American College of Pediatricians States Position on HPV Vaccine

The American College of Pediatricians commends the researchers, prelicensure study participants, and vaccine manufacturers for bringing the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine to fruition. Despite the monumental contribution of Dr. George N.
Papanicolaou, who developed the “Pap” test in 1928 and published a description of its use in diagnosing uterine cancer in 1943, cervical cancer is still a major health problem for women. It is the 2nd most common cancer worldwide, and the 11th most common cancer in American women. Despite a 70% reduction in deaths from cervical cancer with the routine use of Pap smears, in 2005 it still took the lives of 3710 women in the United States, and 290,000 worldwide. While the average age of death from malignancies in general is 72 years, the average age of women dying of cervical cancer is 57 years. The cost of cervical cancer screening and treatment has been calculated to be as high as 6 billion dollars per year in the United States alone.

Currently, an HPV vaccine is approved for children and adults ages 9-26. Despite encouraging results in prelicensure studies, research definitively establishing the duration of HPV vaccine protection, degree of protection and spectrum of side effects remain to be determined.
See: http://acpeds.org/?CONTEXT=art&cat=12&art=95&BISKIT=801841645

Vaccine center issues warning
By Gregory Lopes
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
February 3, 2007

The National Vaccine Information Center yesterday warned state officials to investigate the safety of a breakthrough cancer vaccine as Texas became the first state to make the vaccine mandatory for school-age girls.
Negative side effects of Gardasil, a new Merck vaccine to prevent the sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer, are being reported in the District of Columbia and 20 states, including Virginia. The reactions range from loss of consciousness to seizures.
See: http://www.washingtontimes.com/business/20070202-100152-9747r.htm


MERCK'S GARDASIL VACCINE NOT PROVEN SAFE

National Vaccine Information Center Criticizes FDA for Fast Tracking Licensure

Washington, D.C. - The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) is calling on the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) to just say "no" on June 29 to recommending "universal use" of Merck's Gardasil vaccine in all pre-adolescent girls. NVIC maintains that Merck's clinical trials did not prove the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine designed to prevent cervical cancer and genital warts is safe to give to young girls.

"Merck and the FDA have not been completely honest with the people about the pre-licensure clinical trials," said NVIC president Barbara Loe Fisher. "Merck's pre and post-licensure marketing strategy has positioned mass use of this vaccine by pre-teens as a morality play in order to avoid talking about the flawed science they used to get it licensed. This is not just about teenagers having sex, it is also about whether Gardasil has been proven safe and effective for little girls."

The FDA allowed Merck to use a potentially reactive aluminum containing placebo as a control for most trial participants, rather than a non-reactive saline solution placebo.[1] A reactive placebo can artificially increase the appearance of safety of an experimental drug or vaccine in a clinical trial. Gardasil contains 225 mcg of aluminum and, although aluminum adjuvants have been used in vaccines for decades, they were never tested for safety in clinical trials. Merck and the FDA did not disclose how much aluminum was in the placebo.[2]

Animal and human studies have shown that aluminum can cause nerve cell death [3] and that vaccine aluminum adjuvants can allow aluminum to enter the brain, [4 5] as well as cause inflammation at the injection site leading to chronic joint and muscle pain and fatigue. [6 7] Nearly 90 percent of Gardasil recipients and 85 percent of aluminum placebo recipients followed-up for safety reported one or more adverse events within 15 days of vaccination, particularly at the injection site.[8] Pain and swelling at injection site occurred in approximately 83 percent of Gardasil and 73 percent of aluminum placebo recipients. About 60 percent of those who got Gardasil or the aluminum placebo had systemic adverse events including headache, fever, nausea, dizziness, vomiting, diarrhea, myalgia. [9 10] Gardasil recipients had more serious adverse events such as headache, gastroenteritis, appendicitis, pelvic inflammatory disease, asthma, bronchospasm and arthritis.
See: http://www.909shot.com/PressReleases/pr62706gardasil.htm