No more American children as guinea pigs

The issue of forcing kids to accept unproven and untested vaccines briefly became an issue in the GOP presidential campaign.

But it deserves far more exploration than it got.

In fact, the Big Media portrayed Rep. Michele Bachmann in the unfavorable light of the anti-science zealot for raising the controversy over Texas Gov. Rick Perry's decision to administer Gardasil to teen-age girls in his state to ward off a sexually transmitted disease that has been linked to cervical cancer.

The evidence continues to mount, however, that Gardasil vaccinations are risky – especially for kids who are not even at risk of contracting human papillomavirus, or HPV. In other words, Bachmann's warnings about Gardasil were more than justified.

The latest development is a report from the Food and Drug Administration that shows another 26 deaths associated with those who got the vaccine – in the span of one year. Those deaths are in addition to thousands of other adverse reactions ranging from seizure and paralysis to blindness and Guillain-Barré Syndrome.

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Keep in mind, no one is even sure whether the drug, peddled by Merck, is even effective at preventing HPV and, thus, reducing cervical cancer. Merck spent millions lobbying state legislatures across the U.S. trying to persuade them to get the drug administered to all teenage girls. More than 35 million girls in the U.S. have since been vaccinated.

But an even bigger scandal might be the fact this information had to be pried out of the hands of the FDA through the Freedom of Information Act – and that the FDA is still keeping lots of data secret from the American people.

The latest release, obtained through a filing by Judicial Watch, still keeps hidden specific information that could shed even more light on the ill effects of Gardasil. It was, of course, the FDA that approved dispensing the drug in America, even though it has been banned in other countries.

HPV, like all other sexually transmitted diseases, can be prevented 100 percent of the time simply through abstinence from promiscuous sex by teenage girls.

But to really appreciate the horrors behind the statistics, you need to read some of the case studies gathered by the FDA:

• The information was received from the patient's mother ... concerning her healthy 14-year-old daughter who in August 2007, January 2008 and June 2008, was vaccinated with a first, second and third dose of Gardasil. ... It was reported that the patient experienced several symptoms including numbness and tingling in her fingers and toes, fatigue, a really hard time falling asleep, urinary tract infections, ovarian cyst, moody, trouble getting out of bed and seizures. The patient had had upwards of 150 seizures following her third shot in June 2008. During her seizures she stopped breathing for periods of 30 to 40 seconds. The patient was diagnosed with Neurocardiogenic syndrome and seizures. It was reported that the patient died due to ovarian cyst. The reporter felt that the patient's symptoms were related to vaccination with Gardasil.
• Additional information was received from a newspaper article concerning an 18-year-old female … who on 10-MAY-2007 was vaccinated with Gardasil ... in the right arm. ... The patient who was a college freshman traveled on 05-OCT-2007 to visit her family for the weekend. The patient reportedly felt "slightly ill" upon her arrival and subsequently took an aspirin and went to bed awakening at 1:30 PM the following afternoon "appearing refreshed." The patient became feverish again that night and woke at 1:00 a.m. the morning of 07-OCT-2007 with chills and a severe headache complaining that "my headache is about to explode." The patient was taken to a local hospital, where a brain computed axial tomography (CAT) scan was performed and the brain revealed meningococcal disease in her brain and brain stem. The patient was immediately transferred to another hospital and died the evening of 07-OCT-2007 due to complications of meningitis.
• Information has been received from a physician regarding a 15-year-old female who on 26-SEP-2007 was vaccinated with her second dose of Gardasil for prevention of HPV. ... Thirty minutes after the vaccination, the patient experienced a headache and that night went home and slept until the next morning. The patient woke up the next day and went to school. The school nurse called the patient's mother and informed her that the patient felt tingling in both hands. Later that day, the patient was again sent to the nurse's office due to a shaking sensation all over. Later that evening, things became worse and the patient started crying from the pain and burning in her back. The patient was taken to the emergency room by her parents. In the emergency room, the patient collapsed and was not able to walk; she was paralyzed from the waist down. It was reported that the patient was hospitalized for two months.

The Gardasil controversy came up in the presidential campaign because Perry signed an executive order to administer the drug to all teenage girls in the public school system of Texas. The legislature overturned the order. Bachmann challenged Perry's judgment on this.

"To have innocent little 12-year-old girls be forced to have government injections through an executive order is just flat-out wrong," Bachmann said during the Sept. 12 tea-party debate in Tampa, Fla.

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum also took aim at Perry's inoculation push.

"This is big government run amok," Santorum said, receiving applause from those in attendance. "It is bad policy, and it should not have been done."

Perry said he regretted his decision to push for the vaccine using an executive order, but said he was standing up against cancer.

"At the end of the day I am always going to err on the side of life," Perry said. "At the end of the day this was about trying to solve cancer."

But some doctors have even challenge the link between HPV and cervical cancer.

How many nightmare stories do we need to hear about Gardasil before governments recognize such vaccinations of children should only be administered with full disclosure of the facts?

I suspect many millions of parents would have opted their children out of these inoculations if they had understood the grave health dangers they were imposing on their own children. Maybe if the Big Media were acting in their watchdog role instead of cheerleading Big Government and Big Pharma, the truth could have saved many young lives.