The Figures Speak For Themselves.

We have been slowly watching in horror as the numbers of young woman having Adverse Reactions to the vaccine Gardasil rise. For a vaccine that has only been in use since June 2006 the number of casualties have now risen many thousands. This is a vaccine that Merck, the FDA and the CDC continue to say is perfectly safe. Well, so was the drug Vioxx, this was a painkiller also manufactured by Merck, used to relieve the pain in patients suffering from arthritis and yet sadly it has been estimated that this drug could have caused as many as 27,785 heart attacks since it was approved for use in 1999. A patient who suffered two strokes after taking this drug has said at the time that "Merck should be made to pay for what they've done to the people who have been taking this product, because they have put their profits first, before lives". A jury in Texas awarded a $235.4m settlement to a widow of a US man who died suddenly after using this painkiller however after his trial Merck still denied that Vioxx was the cause of this mans death, their attorney had this to say "There is no reliable scientific evidence that shows that Vioxx causes cardiac arrhythmia, which an autopsy showed was the cause of Mr Ernst's death" Merck ended up agreeing to pay $4.85bn to settle claims that Vioxx caused many users to suffer strokes and heart failure. I find it extremely difficult to believe that Merck would agree to pay these sorts of figures in settlements if they were confident their drug was safe. The drug Vioxx has since been removed from sale. All this went on just 10 months before the launch of Gardasil.

How can we trust a drug company who refuses over and over to accept any responsibility for their actions and yet agrees to pay out $4.85bn for causing adverse reactions? So far Gardasil has been reported to have caused 35 deaths and thousands of side effects.Of course these are only the reported side effects. Many people have a minor side effect and do not think to report them. For example a swollen arm or a head ache may be thought too trivial to report, others may have side effects a few days after the vaccine and do not even connect it to the vaccine.

In the UK, Cervarix, the HPV vaccine that is used in preference to Gardasil has now been in use for four months. Slowly similar to Gardasil the reports of adverse reactions begin to mount. Instead of VAERS, the reporting system used in the USA the UK use the Yellow Card reporting system to log adverse reactions caused by drugs and vaccines. Here is a break down of adverse reactions that are believed to be caused by Cervarix as of December 2008 just three months into the vaccine programme.

Total number of reports received 623

Total number of suspected reports 1416

Estimated number of doses administered to date : unavailable at present

Overall adverse reaction reporting rate: unavailable at present

You can follow what the adverse reactions are here

It seems odd that the figures of how many estimated doses administered are not available, maybe this is to cover up the shocking statistics of the percentage of young girls possibly affected that may have been worked out if the correct figures were to hand.

Cervarix is a Glaxo Smith Kline product but then so to is Seroxat. Seroxat is a drug used for depression. In a report in the Daily Mail in January 2007 Glaxo Smith Kline was attacked for reportedly covering up a string of suicides associated with the drug. It was claimed that before the drug was banned for use in patients under 18 in 2003, Seroxat was taken by 50,000 youngsters and yet after close scrutiny of emails, it was revealed that GSK had had fears for the drugs safety years earlier and yet still promoted its use for youngsters with depression.

An investigation led to the discovery of three key documents among thousands released for a U.S court case brought by bereaved parents.

One from GSK?s marketing department in 1999 refers to side-effects, adding: "It seems incongruous that we state [the drug] is safe yet report so many serious adverse effects."

In 2001, the firm still claimed it was safe, telling sales staff it showed "remarkable safety and efficacy in the treatment of adolescent depression".

And an e-mail from a PR executive, admits research showed it did not work on teenage depression. It says: "Essentially, the study did not really show it was effective in treating adolescent depression, which is not something we want to publicize."

GSK hid this and continued to market this drug for use in children as young as six the Daily Mail reveals..

This drug, similar to Cervarix, was hailed a wonder drug, whilst at the same time patients were dying and all the time GSK continued sitting on this information whilst reaping the profits.

It was not until 2004 that GSK published full details of studies from as early as 1993 showing children on Seroxat were twice as likely to feel suicidal as those on a dummy pill.

This could mean by my reckoning that it will not be until 2019 until the truth will come out about Cervarix. How many children will have been injured by then? How many children like Ashleigh Cave will be paralized after one shot of this vaccine or die like the many on the site 'Only the Truth' for profit? Far more perhaps than those who may have gone on to have Cervical Cancer in the first place!!

Research Articles

Vioxx BBC News

Only The Truth

Vioxx Settlement

Seroxat Daily Mail