Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Gardasil Victory

The following is the text of an editorial I wrote about the 2010 vaccination schedule issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The topic doesn't apply to my own sons and daughters because Israel does not routinely vaccinate children for HPV.

I became aware of the Gardasil vaccine controversy during research for a series of articles I was hired to write on the topic of sexually transmitted diseases (STD's). The implicit message of the drug company and the American governmental bodies responsible for creating and distributing the Gardasil vaccine as something for women only, aroused my feminist ire. I was thrilled to discover that the 2010 vaccination schedule includes boys and men on the Gardasil roster.


"Those of us who felt anger that our daughters had to be vaccinated against the HPV virus (and not our sons) have been handed a victory. The newest vaccination schedule issued by the CDC advisory panel in October 2009 now recommends that boys receive the vaccine, too.

The Gardasil controversy has many factors. For one thing, vaccinating youngsters is seen by many as the equivalent of tacit approval for sexual activity in children as young as 9 years of age. Of course, as parents, we'd like to protect our daughters against STD's contracted during sexually violent encounters such as rape, but does vaccinating a young girl give her the impression that it is safe for her to become sexually active? Will she get the wrong impression that this vaccine means she has the permission of her parents and her government to have sex?

Why Daughters?

Then again, the feminists among us had other fish to fry: why are the girls being vaccinated and not the boys? Aren't boys every bit as responsible and even more so if one considers the act of rape, for spreading the human papilloma virus (HPV)? Why should our daughters submit to this vaccine and its risks and not our sons?

Drug manufacturers and our government tried to tell us that the vaccine was not proven effective in boys and men but underestimated the ability of the public to reason. The thing is, the effectiveness of the vaccine in girls and women was known because it was TESTED in girls and women (and not in boys and men), until at last, angry parents hammered the idea into the heads of the people who run the drug companies that boys and men be tested, too. Parents were not surprised to discover that the vaccine was found to be just as effective in boys and men as it is in girls and women.

So, we can see the new 2010 vaccination schedule as a victory of sorts for American parents, who have learned better than to shut up and put up with whatever the drug companies and the government wants to do to their children. Yes, we are grateful as parents that medical interventions have been found to protect our children from HPV and its effects, but we have issues in the way this solution was presented to us and our children.

Carte Blanche

We don't want our boys and men to think that they have carte blanche to engage in any sexual behavior they choose and that it's the girl's job to protect her person against a boy's undeniable urges. Boys and men must also take responsibility for their pleasures. We need equal rights to apply to our medical care every bit as much as we need these rights to apply to our employment situation.

As parents, no matter whether we are mothers or fathers, we need our children to think outside of gender stereotypes that permit boys and men to be all-empowered when it comes to sex while women must be protected from them. We must teach our children the concept of equal responsibility."

10 comments:

  1. Not something I know anything about, but I want you to know that I read it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well, I know a lot about the Gardasil issue and although I agree with your premise - and wholeheartedly, the vaccine is very dangerous for girls and for boys. The heavy metals in the vaccine that are used as adjuvants or preservatives are crossing the blood brain barrier and causing severe neurological problems in thousands (15,000 adverse reactions reported to VAERS). Diane Harper stated that there are now more adverse reactions to Gardasil than there are cases of cervical cancer.

    As for boys - the potential reactions could be more numerous and more severe. To some extent the hormone estrogen repels heavy metals while testosterone absorbs them. Which is another reason why there are more boys with autism.

    So victory on one hand - but at what cost?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dear Stephen,

    I read about your daughter Chescia. I'm so sorry to hear of her serious health issues and hope she will have a complete recovery!

    It does sound as though her issues with CFS should have been seen as a contraindication for having the Gardasil vaccine.

    My husband was advised to avoid having the H1N1 shot when he was ill with a virus. Sick people should probably avoid all vaccines.

    I'm not saying that she's NOT having a Gardasil reaction. I'm saying that the picture has been muddied by the fact that she had a preexisting condition--one that is often accompanied by other chronic ailments that are autoimmune by nature.

    I can't find any proof of the heavy metal/hormone connection. Everything I found was based on conjecture by alternative health healers.

    I'm quite ready to believe that Gardasil can cause serious reactions, but can you point me to some mainstream literature that echoes your beliefs? I'd like to explore this further.

    I did read up on Diane Harper, and that story, too, is kind of muddied. She seems to be backtracking or is claiming her comments were taken out of context. The anti-Gardasil people are claiming that "someone got to her," but it just seems to me that her words could be taken however someone wants to take them. I don't think she ever WAS anti-Gardasil to begin with.
    Varda

    ReplyDelete
  4. good grief - this is the most ignorant thing I've heard in a long while

    no wonder the world is a mess - so your feminist ire was raised cos boys weren't getting jabbed as well - sure thats a typical first response - but look at the devastation this vacc is having - now they want to give it to boys - Diane Harper has some words of wisdom but YOUR clearly not listening

    have you ever talked to a cancer doctor a specialist HPV alone doesn't cause cancer so the HPV vacc is BS its another way the drug companies have of using women to make money

    its deadly to young girls who knows how its going to affect their ability to reproduce or even carry children - its got a known carcinogen in it which also made lab rats sterile and you have no idea - no wonder the world is like it is with such willingness to buy into such govt BS and you call yourself a feminist

    as a feminist surely your suspicion would be aroused as to why target young girls for a start especially ones so young - and also world wide the cervical cancer rate is going DOWN not up - but it will probably go through the roof with the generation of girls its targeting now - where is your feminist ire for their health

    so much evidence is out there but ....there are none so blind they will not see - open your eyes before one of YOUR kids becomes one of those statistic you rubbish

    people become anti vaccination because they see the BS and the crap that is in them that assaults the bodies CNS and causes so much harm - there are other ways to protect from virus that are natural that mother earth provided - not man made synthetic crap that you all buy into without question - no wonder there are so many sick people in the world - you would think that there would be less with all the marvels of 'modern' medicine - but the human race today is sicker than it ever has been
    wake up!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marcia-g-yerman/an-interview-with-dr-dian_b_405472.html

    ReplyDelete
  6. You're right, anonymous...there was a lot I didn't know about these issues and I spent the afternoon researching the topic in depth.

    When I said that the issue doesn't affect me or my family, I meant that: Jewish women have the lowest incidence of cervical cancer.

    An interesting article on the topic can be found here: http://www.cirp.org/library/disease/cancer/menczer1/

    ReplyDelete
  7. thank you for admitting that there was a lot you didn't know -
    interesting link and story - that is all very well and good for jewish women - that means you really don't need to get what is - after looking at the research - a bogus vaccination that doesn't stop cancer doesn't cure cancer

    HPV alone doesn't even create cancer - thats something that has been known by the FDA since 2001 - but it all changed by 2006 when the market $pin doctor$ hit the media - there is so much people do not know -

    Gardasil - the Cervical Cancer Vaccine? FDA Approval Not Based On Actual Cancer Prevention
    http://judeanrose.blogspot.com/2010/01/gardasil-victory.html

    including this

    Vaccinating Teens During Menstrual Phase May Increase Adverse Reactions

    http://holyhormones.com/about-2/articles-by-leslie/vaccinating-teens-during-menstrual-phase-may-increase-adverse-reactions/

    yes I wrote an angry response to you - however you have graciously left it up and it did make you think - I hope you read the links and seriously reconsider your support and don't get your children get vaccinated - there is a movement starting to try and get this stopped because we are women, we are concerned mothers with daughters and sons - and mothers intuition over rides any research especially when it comes to our daughters reproductive health - its all to risky to gamble with

    i had just finished writing an opinion piece when I a friend sent me your comments -

    HPV vaccination Gardasil kills three New Zealand girls and debilitates hundreds of others
    http://www.infonews.co.nz/news.cfm?id=46752

    ReplyDelete
  8. opps sorry cut n past error - this is correct link

    http://drtenpenny.com/gardasil_leap_of_faith.aspx

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thank you for those links. Here's the deal:

    I write web content. My editor gives me a great deal of leeway on subject matter.

    In March 2008, I was asked to write a series of articles on STD's. I was writing about HPV and found material on the Gardasil vaccine. At the time, I was struck by the inequity of the idea that only girls and women were being vaccinated. It truly upset me.

    I didn't find a lot of people complaining about this on the net--it seemed like I was one of the few people that noticed this issue. So, I wrote about it, glad I could do something for my "sistahs."

    Jump forward to 2010 and my editor tells me once again to write about STD's. I went to Google and searched for news on Gardasil and saw that the new vaccination schedule included men. I was thrilled because this was an issue that had made me see red in 2008.

    Since Jewish women don't get cervical cancer, or HPV, the subject was never personally relevant and I'd had no need to research the topic. Therefore, I was completely unaware of these new issues.

    Yesterday, I uploaded several articles I wrote about the safety and efficacy of HPV vaccines, of which I am now aware, thanks to you, anonymous.

    I have space constraints, so couldn't treat these topics in as much detail as I would have liked. But I was glad to at least bring these issues to light.

    ReplyDelete