Back in February, I wrote this post on Texas governor Rick Perry ordering all girls to be vaccinated with the human papillomavirus vaccine. HPV causes, among other things, genital warts and cervical cancer.
At the time, I questioned whether the government should be mandating teenage girls to get this vaccine when (a) it hadn't been tested long enough on teenagers and (b) the assumption that all teenage girls were having sex and needed the protection was both paternalistic and hysterical. The vaccine hasn't been on the market long enough to know how long it works (current recommendations are for girls as young as nine to receive the vaccine). I was also concerned about the rights of parents to refuse injecting more bugs into their children for dubious purposes. If a girl turns 18 and wants the vaccine, that's her right. But I also think parents have the right to object to vaccines like this being mandated for their children.
Of course, Amanda Marcotte jumped to the perfectly logical conclusion that parents who objected to the vaccine just wanted their daughters to die of cervical cancer. I mean, it couldn't be that the vaccine might be unsafe, right?
Well, sorry to break the news to the Pandagonistas, but Judicial Watch has released new documents from the Food and Drug Administration which show Gardasil might not be as safe as claimed before.
Judicial Watch...today released new documents obtained from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, detailing 1,824 reports of adverse reactions to the vaccination for human papillomavirus (HPV), Gardasil, including as many as eight deaths related to the vaccine. Judicial Watch had previously obtained 1,637 reports relating to Gardasil on May 15, 2007, bringing the known total to 3,461 adverse reactions including eleven deaths since FDA approval...
From May 10 to September 7, 2007, the 1,824 adverse vaccination reactions reported to the FDA via the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) included 347 serious reactions. Of the 77 women who received the vaccine while pregnant, 33 experienced side effects ranging from spontaneous abortion to fetal abnormalities. Other serious side effects continue to be reported including, paralysis, Bells Palsy, Guillain-Barre Syndrome, and seizures.
It sounds to me like this vaccine needs more study before being mandated, even if protective parents are accused of wanting their kids to get cancer.
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