Uncensored MagazineUncensored Magazine of New Zealand invited me to write the following article regarding information I have uncovered on the HPV vaccine "Gardasil".  It features in their issue (June 09) and is also on their website http://www.uncensored.co.nz/

THE GARDASIL SCANDAL GATHERS MOMENTUM

BY  JULIE SMITH

Being the mother of a ten your old daughter I was curious when I initially heard Helen Clarke announce the government was implementing a $180 million HPV vaccination programme for our daughters. Having investigated the meningococcal vaccine and seeing how our Ministry of Health was less than truthful with that programme, I was naturally suspicious to say the least.

I started with Helen Clarke's speech notes in which she states "about eight in every ten women who have been sexually active will have HPV at some stage of their life.  Normally there are no symptoms, and in 98 per cent of cases it clears itself.  But in those cases where it doesn't and isn't treated, it can lead to precancerous cells which may develop into cervical cancer."

I then delved into the facts of how HPV viruses cause cervical cancer.  Not much in the way of concrete facts there, however I did find information that suggests HPV is an unlikely cause of cancer as no set of viral genes is consistently present or expressed in human cervical cancers.  HPV does not replicate in the cancer cells.  All that has ever been shown is that HPV is sometimes present in cervical cancer tissue.  Also there appears to be a lack of evidence that cervical cancer presents in women with HPV more often than in women without it.

Armed with this information I decided to enlighten other parents by writing a letter to the editor of our local paper "The Timaru Herald" concluding "this costly programme is needlessly vaccinating our girls for a minuscule at-risk group, with a vaccine that only covers four out of the possible 100 HPV viruses, and offers only five years immunity.  But most importantly, it hasn't even been proven to prevent cervical cancer".

Dr Alison Roberts, Senior Adviser public health medicine MOH wrote an attacking reply saying there were a number of factual errors in my letter.  As did Helen Petousis-Harris Immunisation Advisory Centre University of Auckland.  Their replies made me even more curious that they should, for one be reading "The Timaru Herald" and two, see my letter needing such swift replies of condemnation.  Perhaps there was something they didn't want made public about this vaccine, so thanks to these two women, rather than just leave my investigating at this level I decided to dig deeper.

This lead me to Dr Diane Harper.  She was contracted by Merck to head the clinical trials for "Gardasil" because of her credentials, 20 years of HPV vaccine research and development.  In a Radio NZ interview Aug 01 2008 with Dr Alison Roberts mentioned above she asked that our government postpone this vaccination programme for several years, that they take a wait and see approach due to her concern that Merck had embarked on a very aggressive marketing campaign with Gardasil and that too many girls were being vaccinated too quickly, without waiting to see what long-term results and risks present in the general population.  Many adverse reactions have occurred from this vaccine and she said parents and girls should be made aware of this.  Dr Roberts replied the programme would continue as planned.

Dr Harper also asked that the vaccine should not be promoted as a cervical cancer vaccine as it would be another 20-30 years before this claim could be made and that girls and parents should also be informed of three other facts concerning Gardasil

The vaccine has not been tested on girls under 15 years
Immunity has been shown to wane after five years and booster shots are highly likely
That there have been many serious adverse reactions

Dr Roberts gave her assurance to Dr Harper that the MOH would do this.

Interestingly the information/consent form sent home to parents includes the heading "Cervical Cancer Vaccine".  Nowhere in the form are the first two facts mentioned.  The third has been given an understated mention, although it also states "the vaccine was shown to be safe during large clinical trials".  My question in regard to this interview is what obligation will the MOH and ultimately the Government have in the event of girls being maimed by this vaccine, when they have knowingly withheld credible information from parents and girls, which is crucial in their decision of whether to be vaccinated or not.

There are so many questions as to why the MOH would go against this advice from Dr Harper.  Our government has all the facts just as I uncovered, yet still chose to go ahead with this vaccine programme, which to me, suggests there's another agenda behind all this and it certainly doesn't include the health of our girls.

Polysorbate 80 one of the main ingredients of Gardasil when injected into prepubescent rats caused a rapid growth of reproductive organs, however growth was abnormal and the rats were rendered sterile.  Many of the side effects presenting in girls are continued pelvic pain with ovarian cyst complications.  In ten or fifteen years time will these girls be known as the Gardasil Generation, those who were covertly sterilised by their own government?

Cynthia Janak from the USA has uncovered a link with girls who are very athletic having a higher risk of being struck down by Gardasil.  Her research suggests due to the link of testosterone with autism that these girls have higher levels of testosterone due to their fitness and this makes them more susceptible.  This raises the concern that the healthiest girls, many of which would produce the next generation of children, are being cut down. Here in New Zealand where we are very much a sports orientated country our rates of serious adverse reactions may well be much higher than other countries per capita. Merck is now pushing for all boys to be vaccinated with Gardasil so their level of adverse reactions may well exceed what we are seeing in the girls due to the testosterone link.