Covington Family Wellness

• THERE IS NO HUMAN PAPILLOMAVIRUS HEALTH CRISIS.

Cervical cancer in the United States has been at record lows for the past two decades.  Currently only an estimated 3,600 women die of cervical cancer each year.  The spectacular success in lowering the death rate from cervical cancer can be attributed to annual Pap screening – between 1955 and 1992 deaths from cervical cancer declined 74% and continue to decline annually by 4%. [^12]Part of the success of Pap screening lies in the fact that cervical cancer, unlike most other cancers, is very slow growing.  With screening, there is ample opportunity to catch and successfully treat cervical cancer before it gets out of hand.  It would be unlikely, then, for any further treatment to improve upon this already very low rate of cervical cancer death.

• HUMAN PAPILLOMAVIRUS INFECTION DOES NOT USUALLY LEAD TO CANCER

It is estimated that virtually all women in the US experience a series of human papillomavirus infections throughout their lifetimes.  What the makers of Gardasil try to hide is the well-documented fact that 90% of all HPV infections go away of their own accord within two years without causing any disease and with no treatment or intervention of any kind.^[13]

• GARDASIL DOES NOT PREVENT CANCER

The end point of all the efficacy studies for Gardasil was not, in fact, prevention of cancer.  Researchers couldn’t actually assess the development of cervical cancer following the vaccine because this process normally takes 20 to 40 years and their studies stopped after just five.  So instead, Merck’s scientists decided that the presence of atypical cervical cells was a valid “surrogate end point,” or substitute for cancer.  They used this hypothesis despite the fact that there is no evidence that the types of cervical lesions they chose as their end point would eventually lead to cancer.^[14] Merck has never acknowledged that their entire premise for the efficacy of Gardasil rests on pure speculation.  In fact, many if not most atypical cervical cells resolve on their own without intervention.^[15]

• GARDASIL IS NOT 98% EFFECTIVE AT PREVENTING HIGH-GRADE CERVICAL LESIONS.

Results of Merck’s efficacy study published in a 2007 article in the New England Journal of Medicine claim that Gardasil is 98% effective at preventing high-grade cervical lesions.  But the article itself reveals that Merck manipulated the data by excluding women and girls who did not follow the exact protocol.  When all women in the study were considered, vaccine efficacy dropped to 44%.  But even these numbers only actually reflect cervical lesions associated with HPV 16 and 18.  When Merck looked at Gardasil’s ability to prevent all cervical lesions, Gardasil was only17% effective!^[16]  And again, their definition of “effective” rests solely on the unfounded assumption that certain types of cervical lesions turn into cancer.

More damning is Merck’s own acknowledgement that in their controlled studies, a percentage of girls actually developed serious cervical lesions following Gardasil.  The vaccine seemed to cause the most lesions in girls with pre-existing HPV 16 or 18 infections, but also in girls who had no pre-existing HPV infections.[^17] At the very least, screening girls for HPV 16 or 18 infections would give HPV-positive girls the chance to avoid developing cervical lesions by declining the vaccine. Yet not only does Merck not recommend testing for HPV prior to vaccination with Gardasil, they have actually discouraged this practice, presumably so as not to draw attention to the danger.[^18]   Anything to maintain the fantasy that this is a safe and effective vaccine.

• GARDASIL DOES NOT PREVENT HUMAN PAPILLOMAVIRUS

Gardasil is designed to prevent only 4 HPV strains:  16 and 18, which can cause cervical cancer, and 6 and 11, which can cause genital warts.  However, there are 150 other types of HPVs, at least 15 of which can cause cancer, and Gardasil provides no protection against these other strains.^[19][20]  Does Merck’s so-called consumer education ever mention any of this?  Of course not.  Why would you have your daughter vaccinated if you knew the protection was so limited?

• VACCINATING PREPUBESCENT GIRLS WITH GARDASIL WILL NOT PROTECT THEM AGAINST HPV OR CERVICAL CANCER.

Despite the sanctimonious advertising which suggests that both mothers and daughters can empower themselves through Gardasil, Merck’s own studies show that the vaccine is only effective for 5 years.^[21]  So if your 11 year-old daughter gets the Gardasil vaccine, it will have stopped working by the time she is 16.  But since Merck doesn’t give out this information voluntarily, these girls and their mothers will be in the dark.

• GARDASIL VACCINATION DOES NOT ELIMINATE THE NEED FOR ANNUAL PAP SCREENING

In portraying Gardasil as a treatment that will prevent 98% of cervical cancer, the strong implication is that vaccinated girls will no longer be at risk of cervical cancer at all.  As we have already seen in Finland, this can lead to the false assumption that there is no longer a need for annual Pap testing.  When women in Finland stopped getting Pap screens, cervical cancer increased to 4 times the incidence in only 5 years![^22]  This complacency about risk, started and fostered by Gardasil advertising, is also likely to lead to an actual increase in cervical cancer in the US as more females receive the vaccine and stop taking actions that have been proven to be protective.

• THERE IS NO EVIDENCE THAT GARDASIL IS EFFECTIVE IN BOYS AT PREVENTING GENITAL WARTS AND ANAL CANCER.

Merck’s study of HPV vaccine efficacy in males published in the New England Journal of Medicine states that Gardasil is 89% effective against genital warts and 75% effective against anal cancer.  Given the fact that there are approximately 300 annual deaths from of anal/rectal cancer among men in the United States, one wonders how Merck was able to prove such a huge reduction in such a rare problem. As with the female group, external lesions substituted for actual cancer with no proof that lesions of that type actually lead to cancer at all.  Yet, Merck’s statistics regarding their cancer substitute penile/perianal/perineal intraepithelial neoplasia (PIN) listed in their appendix to the article show that in men who did not have HPV prior to vaccination, both the vaccinated group and the placebo group had the same number of these types of lesions, making the observed efficacy of Gardasil minus 98%!    And for HPV strain 18-related genital lesions, there were actually more lesions in the vaccinated group than the placebo group. So as in the previous study, Merck’s impressive numbers for the efficacy of Gardasil in men can only be attained by excluding one-quarter of the study participants.  When everyone is included and all outcomes are assessed, the efficacy drops to zero!^[23]

• GARDASIL IS NOT SAFE

Most significantly, Gardasil has been associated with an unacceptable number of serious, life-altering adverse events following vaccination.  According to World Health Organization data, the rate of serious adverse reactions reported to the VAERS system is 2.5 times higher than the current age-standardized death rate from cervical cancer. VAERS data show that Gardasil has been associated with 24,184 adverse effects since its debut in June of 2006, including seizures, anaphylaxis, paralysis, transverse myelitis, Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS), acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM), opsoclonus-myoclonus syndrome (uncontrollable movement of the eyes back and forth and jerking movements of the extremities), brachial neuritis, loss of vision, postural tachycardia syndrome, facial palsy, deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, chronic fatigue syndrome, blindness, pancreatitis, speech problems, short term memory loss, miscarriage, multiple sclerosis, autoimmune disorders, Guillain-Barre Syndrome, abnormal Pap smears and even cervical cancer.^[24][25][26]Yes, you read that correctly – VAERS reports 41 cases of cervical cancer following vaccination with Gardasil!

Also, while Merck has not made pregnancy a contraindication for Gardasil vaccination, recent data released by VAERS reveal that Gardasil is by far the most dangerous vaccine to receive while pregnant, having caused more than 1300 adverse reactions in its five year existence compared to the next most dangerous vaccine frequently given to pregnant women, the flu vaccine, which has caused 200 adverse events over the past 20 years.  Gardasil vaccination while pregnant has also been associated both with frequent miscarriage and a high rate of birth defects.[^27]But most tragically, as of November 2011, 4 more deaths have been added to the Gardasil toll, bringing the tally to 108 deaths due to the Gardasil vaccine! ^[28]