Government Says Gardasil Drug is “Safe and Effective”

The U.S. government announced Wednesday, Oct. 22 that Gardasil, the vaccine prescribed to prevent Human papillomavirus (HPV) and cervical cancer, is safe to use with no serious side effects. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stated that even though there have been 10,326 adverse effects reported since the drug was released 2 years ago, no associations were found between Gardasil and any serious side effects.

Adverse events were reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) between June 8, 2006 and August 31, 2008. 94% of events were considered non-serious with 6% of them being serious. The most common non-serious events included fainting, pain and swelling at the injection site (the arm), headache, nausea and fever. A serious event is defined by the CDC as involving hospitalization, death, permanent disability, or life-threatening illness. Serious events experienced included Guillain-Barré Syndrome, blood clots in the heart, lungs, and legs, and 27 reports of death. 3 causes of death are unknown, 1 is still under review, and 7 deaths could not be evaluated because they didn’t have enough information. According to the CDC, all serious effects have been reviewed by medical experts with no pattern suggesting Gardasil was the cause.

The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) is requesting that the CDC and FDA release the study and methods used to determine Gardasil’s safety. "Transparency in government is essential to trust in government and replication is the hallmark of good science," said NVIC President, Barbara Loe Fisher. "Parents of young girls and women cut down in their prime - some of them paralyzed or dead within hours or days of getting Gardasil vaccine - deserve better answers than a whitewashing of this vaccine's very serious side effects. Until there is an independent confirmation of these unverified findings by individuals and companies without financial ties to the government or industry, it is not credible."

According to the CDC, 25 percent of girls between the ages of 13 and 17 have received the Gardasil vaccine. Merck & Co., the makers of Gardasil, have attempted in the past but failed to make the vaccine mandatory in states throughout the U.S. The CDC currently has an entire web page endorsing the major HPV vaccine brand name, Gardasil. Their HPV safety section proclaims that “studies have found no serious side effects” and that the Gardasil vaccine is both “safe and effective.”

What is your opinion regarding this announcement? Have you or anyone you know experienced any side effects associated with the Gardasil vaccine? Please share your experiences!