ads for hpv vaccine yanked from canadian tv

[Guest guest]

http://www.thestar.com/OntarioElection/article/257699

Auditor decides they contravene rules about government advertising in

an election campaign

Sep 18, 2007 04:30 AM

Kerry Gillespie

Queen's Park Bureau

Provincial radio and print ads about a vaccine program to protect

girls from cervical cancer have been pulled until after the Oct. 10

election.

The auditor general decided the ads contravened rules covering what

government advertising is allowed during an election.

The government had hoped that since the ads are about public health

and time is tight – the vaccine program started this month and

parents are already being asked to sign consent forms – the ads would

make it under the radar screen.

Last month, Premier Dalton McGuinty announced that Grade 8 girls

across Ontario would be offered a free vaccine to protect them from

the most deadly forms of human papillomavirus (HPV), a sexually

transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer.

The ads, which didn't promote the vaccine, but talked about the

connection between HPV and cervical cancer, said that vaccines were

being offered in schools, and encouraged parents to look for the

consent forms from schools and check out a website for more

information, according to a health ministry spokesperson.

" We look very closely at anything they want to run during the writ

period, " Auditor General Jim Mc said yesterday.

While not commenting specifically on the HPV ads, Mc said very

little government advertising gets by him during an election.

The only exceptions would be an " urgent " matter affecting public

health and safety, or something so innocuous as a Foodland Ontario

spot advertising peaches, he said.

" Innocuous " isn't a word that many people would use about the vaccine

Gardasil.

To start with, anything about girls and sex, particularly in

Ontario's Catholic schools, is bound to bring on a heated debate.

Then, there's the controversy here in Canada and south of the border

about the well-connected government lobbyists that work for the

company that produces Gardasil and whether this has contributed to

the speed with which the vaccine is getting approved.

Merck Frosst Canada Ltd., the maker of Gardasil, hired public

relations giant Hill & Knowlton to push the immunization strategies

using some well-connected lobbyists: Ken Boessenkool, a former senior

policy adviser to Prime Minister Harper; Bob Lopinski,

formerly with Premier Dalton McGuinty's office; and Grier,

former chief of staff to Health Minister erman.

The ads will run after the election, said health ministry

spokesperson A.G. Klei.

In the meantime, the government will try to reach parents and

students through fact sheets that are being sent along with the

consent forms and brochures that are being sent to public health

units and through the website www.hpvontario.ca, he said.

Local public health departments are also doing their best to get the

word out.

" Any time a new vaccine is introduced, we'd like as much information

as possible to be provided, " said Barbara Yaffe, associate medical

officer of health in Toronto.

" Sure, I'd like to see more public education ... but I don't really

want to get into the politics of the situation, " she said, referring

to the provincial ads not being allowed to run during the election

campaign.

" (Our) main focus is local, getting the information out to schools,

parents, the Grade 8 girls, and making sure they all have the

information they need in the most culturally and linguistically

accessible form we can get it to them. "

The Toronto District Catholic School Board is having a meeting

tomorrow night to decide how to handle the vaccine program in their

schools, Yaffe said.

" We're hoping the clinics will be run in the schools, " she said.

The $39 million vaccination program was intended to reach as many as

84,000 Grade 8 girls this year. The voluntary vaccine is administered

by public health officials in three doses over six months.

Health Canada approved Gardasil last summer for use in girls and

women aged 9 to 26.

The free vaccination program is only for Grade 8 girls. Gardasil is

available in Ontario for others but OHIP does not cover the $400 per

person cost of the vaccine.

The vaccine protects against infection from four separate strains of

HPV, which combined, cause 70 per cent of all cases of cervical

cancer.

Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer for women aged 20 to

44, after breast cancer.

In Ontario, some 550 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer and 150

die every year.

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