July 2, 2008

Doctor's Orders

Take a look at 6697 reports of issues with the HPVR vaccine, familiarly known as Gardasil. Those are a lot of reports, especially as it is a known fact that not all people follow up with reporting their reactions.

Did you have a reaction from your Gardasil inoculation? If so, l want to know about it.

Now, bear in mind that these reactions include developing hives or a big red spot at the site of the vaccination. In fact, they include pregnancy, headache, dizziness, pain, fainting, shaking, loss of consciousness, pallor, fever, flu, dry eyes--and that is just on the first page. Database reports run the gamut. Ok, to be completely fair, the pregnancy was a "false pregnancy report" apparently caused by the vaccine. Dizziness fainting and pain are not unexpected for anyone with any kind of doctor phobia. (And I'd like to know what is NOT natural about having symptoms of dread about strange people in white coats poking you with sharp needles?)

But to get back to the topic--you can revisit the reports and find 103 events where HPV4 reactions are considered life-threatening. Life threatening reports are a whole other thing. There were some anaphylactic reactions that were life-threatening, and at least 5 deaths--though it isn't always clear from the report what caused some of those deaths.

But let's never mind all that.

Let's go back to the beginning of Gardasil. Let's go back to Dr. Diane Harper. If you aren't familiar with her, Harper is the Dartmouth Medical school doctor who helped develop Gardasil. If anyone is an expert on the vaccine, it is she. What does SHE think of how Gardasil is being marketed as a cancer preventative? She's not a happy camper.

Take at a couple of quotes from this FW Daily News article by CINDY BEVINGTON.
Not only does Harper say that it is silly for states to be mandating Gardasil for younger girls. She says, "Giving it to 11-year-olds is a great big public health experiment." It isn't helpful and it might be harmful.

Furthermore, she says the same thing I have been saying all along.

"There also is not enough evidence gathered on side effects to know that safety is not an issue."

Shouldn't we be considering safety first? But, remember that Dr. Diane Harper is not a Marketing Whiz. She's just one of the scientists who created the vaccine which is effective against 4 of 20 strains of HPV. In her opinion, the vaccine is not for 9 year old girls. (Go on, read the article.)

Harper is also concerned about the adults. She goes on to say, "Also, the public needs to know that with vaccinated women and women who still get Pap smears (which test for abnormal cells that can lead to cancer), some of them will still get cervical cancer."

What? Did I hear that right? Merck has been telling us the vaccine is supposed to make us all "ONE LESS." You know Merck. Merck & Co., Inc. is a global research-driven pharmaceutical company that tells the world it is all about putting patients first. But if that is the case, why is this vaccine aimed at an age group not recommended by one of the vaccine's developers; and why is it acting as if it has found the preventative for cancer?

Maybe we need one less Pharmaceutical company. Or at least one less Marketing Department.

April 28, 2008

Remember Gardasil

Don't forget about Gardasil if I don't talk about it every week. They won't talk about it in Australia, either. Hundreds of Australian girls have experienced paralysis, dizzy spells and seizures and more. Australian records are not to my knowledge made public as they are in the US.

Gardasil is a vaccine that claims to be partially effective against some strains of HPV, some of which may cause cancer. Look at all of that equivocation: partially effective against some strains which might...

Weigh that against the ad campaign about wanting to be one woman less who has cancer.
There's a huge leap between partially effective against some...especially when there's some indication that taking the vaccine may be related to Acute Demyelinating Encephalomyelitis. Don't believe it? Look up "Brittany bell" and Gardasil.

How did MERC push its way thru the FDA approval process and get put on the market before it had completely complied with U.S. protocols and procedures? We know at least one reason why: they were in a rush to beat a competitive European product before it hits the US. Market.

Before you jump in with all four feet defending this vaccine as a cancer preventative, please remember that drug companies are NOT all about protecting our daughters. They are all about selling products. The vaccine has not been fully tested. No one has been studying it long enough to know what the LONG TERM consequences are. They don't even know how long the vaccine is effective or how frequently it will require boosters. How can anyone be talking about requiring ALL our young girls to be vaccinated with such an unknown quantity? What about the side effects? What are they?

Before my daughter ingests or is exposed to any chemical, I want to know it has been fully tested and is judged completely effective as well as completely safe.

After 5758 documented complaints of adverse reactions and up to 8 DEATHS, I believe a safety check is warranted. Individuals with Lyme disease, for example, had especially adverse reactions; and there are a lot of undiagnosed cases of Lyne disease out there.

And frankly, even if it is safe, it is NOT effective. *"Protective efficacy of this vaccine against different types of human papillomavirus was very low and the protection may be because of sub-clinical infection with human papillomavirus or antigenically related viruses." Pendru Raghunath, Senior Research Fellow.

And why is it not approved for use in males? Males get HPV, even if they do not get cervical cancer. Is it possible that marketing it to boys would remind people that the vaccine is not really a cancer preventative but a partially effective measure against a sexually transmitted disease?

The National Vaccine Information Center issued a press release that Gardasil MERCK'S GARDASIL VACCINE NOT PROVEN SAFE FOR LITTLE GIRLS National Vaccine Information Center Criticizes _FDA for Fast Tracking Licensure. The issues include flawed science, marketing strategy, and a need to show apparent results in a race for research grants.

Shades of Orwell and Doublespeak.

Are those the drug companies claim to be helping today actually tomorrow's victims?

February 5, 2008

A Figment or Not a Figment: Morgellons Reality Bites

There are Unidentified Flying Objects. There are Unidentified Submarine Objects. Now there are Unidentified Cutaneous Objects. (For those of us without an MD, and even for those WITH an MD, cutaneous means relating to or existing on or affecting the skin.) These "UCO" are classified officially as Delusional Parasitosis since the Center for Disease Control and Prevention doesn't know what they are, or even IF they are. And of course, what they don't know about must be delusional.

I suppose whenever humankind faces something new, it is a throwback to the day when we believed we lived in a geocentric universe in which the sun and everything else revolved around us, and everyone who was anyone said the world was flat. Just like those long ago days, now they're all having a whopping case of denial. And I'm not talking about that river in Egypt. I'm talking about Morgellons syndrome. It IS denial when a scientist won't even look at the problem. Not investigating. . . that is not scientific method.

Maybe it is a scary thing when we have to admit there's something new out there in the big bad world. After all, we humans are creatures of habit. Most of us would like to be able to take a snapshot of things and be able to relax and say "This is how it is." But the world keeps turning. We keep discovering new things about our old world. Our body of knowledge keeps on growing, in spite of denial. Things grow. Things change, even if we say they don't.

You'd think a researcher would be thrilled to find something new. But they (the official powers that be) spent years denying the existence of Morgellons syndrome. It is a debilitating condition which wears down those afflicted by it, a condition which is characterized by itching skin, the sensation of crawling or biting on or below the skin, skin lesions, and weird fibers that grow below the skin.

In fact, experts don't agree on anything about this condition. Is it a single parasite? Are there misdiagnoses in addition to legitimate cases? Is Morgellons a collection of other conditions mislabeled and lumped into a single category? Is the syndrome imaginary? Is it a mental illness?

For now, it is classified as an Unexplained Dermopathy; at least it's been acknowledged to the point of being investigated in epidemiological studies by the CDC. For the past few years, sufferers have had http://www.morgellons.org/ which is working toward getting more money for more research centers. Because of Morgellons Org., there are some legitimate researchers getting involved: Oklahoma State University, California State University – Hayward, State University of NY – Stonybrook, a microbiologist at Clongen Laboratories, and possibly others.

So, how is the research going? Some scientists think that the fibers are consistent with substances created by the body. They've discovered half of the people they've investigated who have symptoms of Morgellons also have Lyme disease. At least they're looking at the problem. There may not yet be a light at the end of the tunnel, but at least they're admitting there is a tunnel, and not declaring it hysterical spelunker syndrome.

Links
On Wikipedia
Morgellons Research Foundation
Study seeks clues on skin-crawling Morgellons