X-tian Opposition To Cervical Cancer Vaccine

[Guest eejay]

Sometimes I feel that x-tians want to go back to the dark ages. Our medical advances are improving, and we're getting better at finding cures/prevention for many diseases and ailments. But some of these raise severe opposition and controversy from the x-tian cultists in our society. One example is the new cervical cancer vaccine that many states wanted to implement in girls before they reach their teens. Why on earth would a parent, not want to protect their children from cancer. Oh... is it because a woman deserves to be punished for having sex? Even if the woman is not promiscuous, if the man she marries been around some he may carry that HPV virus and give it to her. I just don't understand that mentality. If any 'other' type' cancer had a vaccine that would prevent it, it would be mandatory that a child be vaccinated before entering school. But this is a dirty sex organ we're talking about, so it's okay to let the dirty sluts die. It just pisses me off that people can be so fucking ass backwards. Same with stem cell reseach. I'd like to see paralyzed people walk and have feeling again. Whatever it takes. But again x-tianity throws an iron in the fire to try to curtail this sort of research.

[Grandpa Harley]

TBH, I'm not a great supporter of the vaccine, simply because there's a protein carrier for the virus particles and I've not seen it certified mercury free.

 

Injecting raw protein (usually egg white) can induce IgG or IgE reactions, that can cause anaphalaxys at worse, or render the recipient vulnerable to developing allergies for a few months after (since it wrecks the immune system and renders it hyper sensitive)

 

OK, all the Christian objections I've seen are about 'morals'... but they may have the right point for the wrong reason...

[Jubilant]

I choose not to give our dd this vaccine mainly because of risks associated with it and also it has not been around long enough to know what may happen a few years after taking it. One does not need religious reasons not to get their child(ren) vaccinated. Worrying about our dd thinking it is okay to just have sex without worry of getting cancer or that it somehow would cause her to be promiscuous is the furthest thing from my mind.

[Guest eejay]

I choose not to give our dd this vaccine mainly because of risks associated with it and also it has not been around long enough to know what may happen a few years after taking it. One does not need religious reasons not to get their child(ren) vaccinated. Worrying about our dd thinking it is okay to just have sex without worry of getting cancer or that it somehow would cause her to be promiscuous is the furthest thing from my mind.

Those who are concerned because the vaccine is relatively new, well, I can understand that. But when someone isopposed to it just because they think it may promote sexual promiscuity still does piss me off. I realize there needs to be a little more research on the long term effects, as with any vaccine, but the x-tian perspective is all about discouraging sex.

[pitchu]

Several months ago there was a thread about this, which revealed that Merck engaged in many suspicious practices in attempts to make their highly profitable Gardisil mandatory for young girls. Also, the percentages of types of viruses Gardisil actually controls is small, and Pap smears still prove the most effective in deterring cervical cancer from all causes. Really bad side effects can happen with the vaccine, too.

 

The web is full of info on this. Below is just one paragraph from one article. As GH says, "...they may have the right point for the wrong reason..."

 

 

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m081...31/ai_n16838086

Another disturbing aspect of the Gardasil approval process involves the small number of young girls who actually participated in Merck's trials. The company states that its trials had more than 20,000 participants, but it would take considerable time to pour through the numerous pages of documentation in order to separate the adults from the children. A New York Times reporter did just that last July. Roni Rabin, who is also the mother of a nine-year-old girl, found that fewer than 1,200 participants were under 16 and the younger girls were followed for only 18 months.

[Grandpa Harley]

I've been getting stuff on the subject for months but having neither a daughter, nor a major role in the health care of a girl of applicable age, I've not really taken much notice. I just tend to be leery of big pharma trying to make govt policy.

 

I do know I was nearly killed by a protein based vaccine as an infant, which had the saw bones telling my mother and father that, if I didn't die, then I'd be retarded, blind, deaf, possibly paraplegic, or they may have to amputate parts for the blood poisoning not to kill me (I'm 43, a little middle aged sight deterioration, being long sighted in my right eye and have near perfect hearing... I'll leave it to you scurvy knaves and a harlots to decide on the 'brain damaged' part... from in here there aren't many clunks or wheezes other than depressive illness... oh and I have the customary 10/10/ pair of everything side mounted/one of everything median mounted config of parts)

[Mike D]

Christians seem to always oppose things that are related to sexual "sins", because they are obsessed with the sex lives of others (like their god is), so rather than just mind their own business they want to be in everyone's bedroom and monitor what they do. Where's the outrage when it comes to gossip, or gluttony? Has anyone ever seen a Christian group protest large food portions at restaurants or to ban gossip columns in the newspaper or online because they tempt people to sin? No, because Christians indulge in those sins regularly, that's why in most churches you rarely see anyone who weighs less than 350 lbs (women and children included). Look at Jerry Falwell, that fat fuck probably weighed 500 lbs and I don't recall seeing him on TV protesting Dunkin Donuts as tempting people to sin. Oh wait, didn't he die because he choked on a bear claw?

[Guest eejay]

Christians seem to always oppose things that are related to sexual "sins", because they are obsessed with the sex lives of others (like their god is), so rather than just mind their own business they want to be in everyone's bedroom and monitor what they do. Where's the outrage when it comes to gossip, or gluttony? Has anyone ever seen a Christian group protest large food portions at restaurants or to ban gossip columns in the newspaper or online because they tempt people to sin? No, because Christians indulge in those sins regularly, that's why in most churches you rarely see anyone who weighs less than 350 lbs (women and children included). Look at Jerry Falwell, that fat fuck probably weighed 500 lbs and I don't recall seeing him on TV protesting Dunkin Donuts as tempting people to sin. Oh wait, didn't he die because he choked on a bear claw?

Mike...thanks for the laugh about Jerry Falwell. I needed that today. But you are absolutely right.

[Mike D]

You're welcome, glad I could assist

[upstarter]

Don't know why I always find myself on the wrong side of things here lately, but let me throw in my 2 cents. There are major risks with any vaccine, including the ones that Gramps mentioned. This will NEVER keep me from vaccinating my children. There are major risks with general anesthetic too, and that has not stopped me from allowing people to operate on my son more than 2 dozen times. Risks are part of healthcare and you have to balance the risks.

 

I for one, will beg my daughter to be vaccinated. I have had HPV, and that puts me at higher risk for cervical cancer. It also gave me the most painful and horrible case of genital warts when it was activated by the hormones of pregancy. If there is a way to spare my daughter this, I will do it. Just the same way I spared my kids from polio, pertussus, hep B and all the other things they have been vaccinated against.

 

50% of adults in North America have or will have HPV. Many of you probably have it and won't ever know. Lucky you. But that is a way scarier statistic to me than a few (sad) stories of vaccine reaction.

 

Heather

[Grandpa Harley]

My reaction was to Diptheria and Whooping Cough... I've been semi-seriously diagnosed as very high functioning autist spectrum... but hell, I'm so much a coward I wouldn't roll my genetic dice for children...

 

I tend to go for people being able to make an informed choice, as opposed to them being rail roaded...

[SilentLoner]

^ Agree w/upstarter

 

I think I should get the vaccine, issue is my female parental unit is wary of it for many reasons stated above. I find it funny that she would be since she got cervical cancer as a result of HPV. Maybe she just doesn't like bringing up the issue...

 

I'm getting it soon if I can.

[godlessgrrl]

Oh... is it because a woman deserves to be punished for having sex?

 

When it comes to the puritanical argument against the HPV vaccine, this pretty much sums it up right there. Whether that "punishment" is an STD or cancer or a bad reputation or eternal damnation or an unwanted pregnancy, to the puritanical, it just doesn't matter, so long as a girl receives some kind of retribution for daring to admit she's a sexual being, or daring to act on it according to her own desires.

 

My own mother was as sexually conservative as they come. She never would've let me get the HPV vaccine, largely for moral reasons. She regrets teaching me about birth control because she's convinced, to this day, that I became sexually active in my teens because I knew about BC. She probably would rather have had me get a painful, disfiguring STD (with the possibility of deadly cancer later in life) than allow the possibility that I was an autonomous, sexual individual - largely because I am female, and girls aren't supposed to have sex. We're supposed to put the brakes on sex, regulate both our sexuality and boys' sexual drives, draw all the lines and have all the responsibility for making sure sex doesn't happen until marriage. The virgin/whore dichotomy is alive and well to this day. It's bollocks, of course, but there it is: Good Girls still aren't supposed to want or have sex, except under a restrictive set of crap circumstances.

 

I see things like vaccines, birth control, sex education, and family planning as public health issues, not moral ones. Rational or secular reasons for wariness towards the HPV vaccine make far more sense to me than religious ones do. I'm not a fan of Big Gov or Big Pharma, either; and hell, as Gramps pointed out, some folks have bad reactions to vaccines.

 

But I gotta admit - I think sometimes of some of the women and girls in my life, and I just gotta wonder. My best friend got HPV as a child when her mother's boyfriend raped her. She's suffered through outbreaks and expensive treatments to keep it in check. Is my sister going to have my new niece vaccinated when she's old enough, and thus save my niece from having to deal with the same disease that was thrust upon my best friend?

 

Honestly, I hope so.

[pitchu]

I really hope those considering use of Gardisil will thoroughly research it first.

 

One thing Merck doesn't exactly care to broadcast is that Gardisil only prevents diseases caused by HPV types 6, 11, 16 and 18 -- out of more than 100 types of HPV. Considering the issues raised in the article below, one has to wonder if that small coverage is worth the potential risks.

 

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/feb/07022109.html

Wednesday February 21, 2007

 

Merck Drug Company Drops Campaign for Mandatory HPV Vaccine

Alarm raised over incomplete disclosure of serious side effects

 

By Gudrun Schultz

 

WHITEHOUSE STATION, New Jersey, February 21, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The drug company Merck & Co. has canceled nationwide lobbying efforts to make their new vaccine against the sexually transmitted human papilloma virus mandatory for all school girls.

 

Growing opposition among family and medical organizations, along with allegations that the vaccine was inadequately tested and had produced serious side effects, together convinced the massive drug conglomerate to pull back from campaign efforts promoting the Gardasil vaccine, Bloomberg reported Feb.20.

 

Among the groups opposed to the campaign was the American Academy of Pediatrics and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

 

“Merck’s early push was not the way to go,†said Larry Pickering, executive secretary of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) for the CDC. “We want to convince people to use the vaccine because of its benefits.â€

 

The vaccine’s benefits were sharply questioned by the National Vaccine Information Center prior to the CDC’s approval of the Gardasil vaccine for all pre-adolescent girls in June 2006.

 

In a statement to the press June 27, 2006, the NVIC criticized the Food and Drug Administration for “fast-tracking) the vaccine without adequate tests of its safety for young girls, and accused Merck of obscuring side effects that resulted from clinical trials of the vaccine.

 

“Merck and the FDA have not been completely honest with the people about the pre-licensure clinical trials," said NVIC president Barbara Loe Fisher. "Merck's pre and post-licensure marketing strategy has positioned mass use of this vaccine by pre-teens as a morality play in order to avoid talking about the flawed science they used to get it licensed. This is not just about teenagers having sex, it is also about whether Gardasil has been proven safe and effective for little girls.â€

 

In particular, the use of aluminum in the vaccine and placebo used in trials raised concern, since studies have linked aluminum to brain cell death and joint inflammation. About 60 percent of those participating in trials experienced headache, fever, nausea, dizziness, vomiting, or diarrhea, the NVIC reported. Among those who received Gardasil, more serious side effects included gastroenteritis, appendicitis, pelvic inflammatory disease, asthma, bronchospasm and arthritis.

 

"Merck and the FDA do not reveal in public documents exactly how many 9 to 15 year old girls were in the clinical trials, how many of them received hepatitis B vaccine and Gardasil simultaneously, and how many of them had serious adverse events after being injected with Gardasil or the aluminum placebo,†the statement said.

 

“Clinical trial investigators dismissed most of the 102 Gardasil and placebo associated serious adverse events, including 17 deaths, that occurred in the clinical trials as unrelated.