Salon.com pushing HPV vaccine - please give your opinion

[Guest guest]

From: " Suzanne N " <daffydog@...>

: Salon.com

Hi, Sherri.

I was hoping you could post something on the Vaccine list about

<http://Salon.com>Salon.com and get people on the site to comment about

their constant promotion of the HPV vaccine.

Here is today's piece:

<http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/2006/12/13/hpv/index.html>http://www.sa

lon.com/mwt/broadsheet/2006/12/13/hpv/index.html

You have to watch a day-pass ad in order to read it, and make sure your

cookies are enabled.

I already left a comment. I think it could be great if lots of people could

comment on their towing of Merck's line on this one. They have a column

called Broadsheet and it touts anything the editors deem pro-women, which

apparently they have decided this vaccine is. Salon, of course, is the

publication that ran the brave piece by RFK, Jr., on autism and mercury in

vaccines. Now they have gotten chicken. Let's show him that people are

awake and demanding better journalism.

Suzanne

<http://honesthuman.com>honesthuman.com

Here is today's Broadsheet column:

Fighting cervical cancer around the world

If you've been watching much TV lately -- especially shows like, say,

<http://dir.salon.com/story/ent/feature/2005/03/29/veronica_mars/index.html>

" Mars " -- you've probably seen Merck's ads touting Gardasil, the

company's new HPV vaccine. The " One Less " ad campaign shows girls of

various races and ethnicities playing basketball, dancing and vehemently

asserting that they don't plan on getting the disease, to convey " a strong

and positive message that is designed to empower them to want to become (or

help their daughters want to become) 'one less' person who will battle

cervical cancer, " according to a Merck

<http://www.merck.com/newsroom/press_releases/product/2006_1113.html>press

release. <http://englishplus.com/grammar/00000214.htm> Grammatical snags

aside, it's a pretty motivating message, and the frequency with which these

well-designed spots are running is a good indication that the company plans

to sell plenty of Gardasil in the near future.

But with the three-shot cycle costing around $360, how are poor women

supposed to become " one less " ? As we

<http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/2006/08/22/hpv_vaccine_in_schools/index

..html>noted back in August, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

has recommended that Gardasil be covered by the federal Vaccines for

Children program, which should help disadvantaged young women get the

vaccine stateside, but internationally it's another story. On Tuesday,

representatives from public health agencies, pharma companies,

nongovernmental organizations and philanthropic foundations convened in

London to figure out how to get the vaccine to women in poor countries,

where it's most urgently needed, ABC News

<http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory?id=2720065>reports.

Given that 90 percent of cervical cancer cases occur in the developing

world, and that the disease is usually fatal if left untreated, the

strategies dreamed up at this week's conference are potential lifesavers.

But the goal of getting as many women vaccinated as possible, as quickly as

possible, is at odds with strategic hurdles like getting results from

vaccine trials in poor countries and assessing whether social barriers will

discourage women from getting vaccinated. ABC News notes that " the lag time

between the discovery of a new vaccine in the West and its implementation

worldwide, which often coincides with development of a cheaper version of

the original, has typically been at least 10 to 15 years. " The best idea to

come out of the London confab so far seems to be the suggestion that a

global vaccination partnership called the GAVI alliance would subsidize the

cost of the vaccine " in the short term, if in the long term it became

affordable, " as one representative put it. But first, GAVI would have to

deem the HPV vaccine a high priority and come up with the funding, so even

this preliminary plan remains up in the air.

More than 500,000 cases of cervical cancer were diagnosed worldwide last

year, making the disease the second most common cancer in women. With this

in mind, we're crossing our fingers that the conference participants heed

International Planned Parenthood Federation official Nothemba Simelela, who

told the group, " With a technology like this vaccine, the world has a moral

obligation to make sure it reaches the women who need it. " We'll keep you

posted.

-- Page Rockwell

Here is my response:

What about safety?

Why is it that everyone is trusting that Merck is telling the complete,

unvarnished truth about this vaccine, when its financial success is the

company's best hope to recover from the Vioxx disaster?

The studies the FDA's approval were based on are fatally flawed in that

they didn't look at the safety rates against a true placebo but instead

compared vaccinated groups with " control " groups that were given the same

aluminum adjuvant that is in the vaccine itself. Aluminum has never been

independently tested for safety, and it has an increasingly well-known

reactivity profile. The studies that have been done looking at aluminum's

safety have shown it causes all sorts of negative effects in the body,

starting with neuron death.

Thus, comparing the groups that were given the vaccine against those who

received an aluminum " placebo " only serves to falsely prop up the safety

profile of the vaccine, because there is no true control group.

This is not science. And it's not " evidence-based " medicine.

Do we believe tobacco companies when they tell us their product isn't

harmful? Why would we automatically believe pharmaceutical companies'

marketing campaigns when they have so much to gain by telling half-truths

and outright lies? Do your own research and don't assume that your doctor

has done his or her own independent investigation, either. Read the

studies. Look for what they don't say. Ask your own questions, and don't

assume that the media is asking adequate ones for you, even Salon, which

used to engage in gutsier journalism but now has decided to play with the

big boys.

Suzanne

--------------------------------------------------------

Sheri Nakken, R.N., MA, Hahnemannian Homeopath

Vaccination Information & Choice Network, Nevada City CA & Wales UK

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