CDC: HPV, the 'Anti-Cancer' Vaccine?

By Dr. Mercola

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is playing on Americans’ cancer fears by calling the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine the first "anti-cancer" vaccine. This comes on the heels of a statement by CDC director Tom Frieden that “we’re dropping the ball” when it comes to HPV vaccination rates.

While US health officials (and vaccine makers) would like to see an 80 percent vaccination rate among 11-12-year-old girls and boys, the actual rate for receipt of one dose of HPV vaccine is hovering at just over half of 13- to 17-year-old girls (and only 33 percent if you include only those who have gotten all three of the ‘recommended’ doses).

Clearly, in calling the HPV vaccine an ‘anti-cancer vaccine,’ the CDC is trying to inflate the vaccine’s value in the eyes of the American parents, who so far have remained highly skeptical. There’s only one problem: the HPV vaccine has not been proven to prevent cancer.

Borderline Fraudulent to Call the HPV Vaccine an ‘Anti-Cancer’ Vaccine

To paint Gardasil or Cervarix, the two HPV vaccines, as vaccines that prevent cancer is beyond stretching the truth and could be described as borderline fraudulent. For those who are still unaware, the HPV vaccine only contains two strains of HPV associated with cancer (HPV-16 and HPV-18).

But there are MORE THAN 100 different strains of HPV in all, and about 15 of them have been associated with development of cancer IF HPV infection persists over a long period of time. In more than 90 percent of all cases, however, the infection resolves on its own within two years and does not lead to any health complications.

Last year, research also revealed that the HPV vaccine reduced HPV-16 infections by only 0.6% in vaccinated women vs. unvaccinated women – and data showed other high-risk HPV infections were diagnosed in vaccinated women 2.6% to 6.2% more frequently than unvaccinated women.¹

There are also suspicions that Gardasil HPV vaccine might actually paradoxically increase your risk of cervical cancer. This pre-licensure information came straight from Merck and was presented to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) prior to FDA approval.² According to Merck's own research, if you have been exposed to HPV-16 or -18 before you get a Gardasil shot, you may increase your risk of precancerous lesions, or worse, by 44.6 percent!

HPV Vaccine Effectiveness Is Overstated and Unproven

The real smoking gun, however, is a systematic review of pre- and post-licensure trials of the HPV vaccine by a University of British Columbia (UBC) research team.³ It showed that vaccine effectiveness is not only overstated (through the use of selective reporting or "cherry picking" data) but also irresponsibly and dangerously unproven.

The summary stated:

"We carried out a systematic review of HPV vaccine pre- and post-licensure trials to assess the evidence of their effectiveness and safety. We find that HPV vaccine clinical trials design, and data interpretation of both efficacy and safety outcomes, were largely inadequate.

Additionally, we note evidence of selective reporting of results from clinical trials (i.e., exclusion of vaccine efficacy figures related to study subgroups in which efficacy might be lower or even negative from peer-reviewed publications).

Given this, the widespread optimism regarding HPV vaccines long-term benefits appears to rest on a number of unproven assumptions (or such which are at odd with factual evidence) and significant misinterpretation of available data.

For example, the claim that HPV vaccination will result in approximately 70% reduction of cervical cancers is made despite the fact that the clinical trials data have not demonstrated to date that the vaccines have actually prevented a single case of cervical cancer (let alone cervical cancer death), nor that the current overly optimistic surrogate marker-based extrapolations are justified.

Likewise, the notion that HPV vaccines have an impressive safety profile is only supported by highly flawed design of safety trials and is contrary to accumulating evidence from vaccine safety surveillance databases and case reports which continue to link HPV vaccination to serious adverse outcomes (including death and permanent disabilities)."

79 Million Americans Have HPV… So What?

Health officials report statistics that about 79 million Americans have the sexually transmitted HPV virus, and 14 million are newly infected each year.⁴ At face value, this might make parents rush to get their children vaccinated, but it sounds far more frightening than it actually is.

Gardasil is now recommended as a routine vaccination for young US girls and women between the ages of 9-26, and even boys between the ages of 11 and 21 are advised to get it for partial protection against genital warts and cancers of the penis and rectum, and to reduce transmission of HPV to girls, thereby preventing cervical cancer deaths (which is highly questionable, as noted above).

However, this is all highly questionable when you consider the fact that most HPV infections do not lead to cancer and, instead, clear up on their own within two years. There’s no treatment necessary and often no health effects felt whatsoever in 90 percent of HPV infection cases! Likewise, cervical cancer accounts for less than ONE percent of all cancer deaths, while anal cancer claims approximately 300 a year. So, this vaccine is certainly not aimed at any major public health threat, no matter which way you look at it.

Even though cervical cancer is very uncommon, it does occur and it can be deadly. But it’s important to understand that it is one of the most preventable and treatable forms of cancer there is with interventions that are far less risky and expensive than HPV vaccinations, which cost more than $125 per dose in a doctor’s office.⁵

If you are a parent, it is important to educate your pre-teens and teenagers so they know that the risks of getting or transmitting HPV infection can be greatly reduced by choosing abstinence or use of condoms. Furthermore, even if they get vaccinated, there are still recommendations for girls and women to have pap screens every few years to detect any cervical changes that may indicate pre-cancerous lesions because there is little guarantee that either Gardasil or Cervarix will prevent HPV infection or cervical and other cancers.

Routine pap smear testing is a far more rational, less expensive and less dangerous strategy for cervical cancer prevention, as it can identify chronic HPV infection and may provide greater protection against development of cervical cancer than reliance on HPV vaccinations. Cervical cancer cases have dropped more than 70 percent in the US since pap screening became a routine part of women's health care in the 1960s, as it can detect pre-cancerous cervical lesions early so they can be effectively removed and treated.

Risk factors that increase your chances of developing chronic HPV infection include smoking; co-infection with herpes, Chlamydia or HIV; having multiple sex partners; compromised immunity; and long term use of hormonal contraceptives. Most of these are modifiable risk factors, and you can boost your immune system health to help reduce your risk of contracting or having complications from infections, by following my nutrition plan.

HPV Vaccine Is Associated with Death and Permanent Injuries

It is notoriously hard to receive compensation for vaccine injuries, but as of March 20, 2013, the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program has awarded nearly $6 million to 49 victims for harm resulting from the HPV vaccine.⁶ Two of the cases involved death due to the vaccine, and there are many, many more reported injuries and deaths still in need of investigation.

Health problems associated with the Gardasil vaccine include immune-mediated inflammatory neurodegenerative disorders, suggesting that something is causing the immune system to overreact in a detrimental way—sometimes fatally. Last year, UBC research also revealed that Gardasil may cause a type of inflammation in the brain involving blood vessels (cerebral vasculitis) that can lead to death.⁷

• Between June 1, 2006 and December 31, 2008, there were 12,424 reported adverse events following Gardasil vaccination, including 32 deaths. The girls, who were on average 18 years old, died within two to 405 days after their last Gardasil injection
• Between May 2009 and September 2010, 16 additional deaths after Gardasil vaccination were reported. For that timeframe, there were also 789 reports of "serious" Gardasil adverse reactions, including 213 cases of permanent disability and 25 diagnosed cases of Guillain-Barre Syndrome
• Between September 1, 2010 and September 15, 2011, another 26 deaths were reported following HPV vaccination
• As of July 7, 2013, VAERS had received 30,320 reports of adverse events following HPV vaccinations, including 138 reports of death,⁸ as well as 935 reports of disability, and 557 life-threatening adverse events

Deadly blood clots, acute respiratory failure, cardiac arrest and "sudden death due to unknown causes" have all occurred in girls after they've received the Gardasil vaccine. These are atrocious risks when cervical cancer can be prevented with early detection of pre-cancerous cervical changes through routine pap screens. And for boys, these are profound risks to theoretically prevent the spread of HPV to girls and potentially prevent 300 anal cancer deaths a year…

The bottom line is that the HPV vaccine is largely ineffective, potentially very dangerous, both for girls and boys, and a major waste of money. Of course, you need to do your own careful research to weigh the benefits and risks of HPV vaccination for yourself, but I simply cannot recommend this vaccine for anyone.

Your Right to Informed Consent Is Under Attack

I cannot stress enough how critical it is to get involved and stand up for your fundamental human right to exercise informed consent to medical risk-taking and your legal right to obtain non-medical vaccine exemptions. This does not mean you have to opt out of all vaccinations if you decide that you want to give one or more vaccines to your child. The point is, everyone should have the right to evaluate the potential benefits and real risks of pharmaceutical products, including vaccines, and opt out of getting any vaccine or drug they decide is unnecessary or not in the best interest of their child's health.

While it seems "old-fashioned," the only truly effective actions you can take to protect the right to informed consent to vaccination and legally obtain vaccine exemptions is to get personally involved with your state legislators and the leaders in your community. Vaccine use recommendations are made at the federal level but vaccine laws are made at the state level, and it is at the state level where your action to protect your vaccine choices can have the greatest impact.

Signing up for the National Vaccine Information Center’s free online Advocacy Portal at www.NVICAdvocacy.org not only gives you immediate, easy access to your state legislators so you can become an effective vaccine choice advocate in your own community, but when state and national vaccine issues come up, you will have the up-to-date information and call to action items you need at your fingertips to make sure your voice is heard.

So please, as your first step, sign up for the NVIC Advocacy Portal.

Contact Your Elected Officials

Write or email your elected state representatives and share your concerns. Call them, or better yet, make an appointment to visit them in person in their office. Don't let them forget you!

It is so important for you to reach out and make sure your concerns get on the radar screen of the leaders and opinion makers in your community, especially the politicians you elect and are directly involved in making vaccine laws in your state. These are your elected representatives, so you have a right and a responsibility to let them know what's really happening in your life and the lives of people you know when it comes to vaccine mandates. Be sure to share the "real life" experiences that you or people you know have had with vaccination.

Share Your Story with the Media and People You Know

If you or a family member has suffered a serious vaccine reaction, injury or death, please talk about it. If we don't share information and experiences with each other, everybody feels alone and afraid to speak up. Write a letter to the editor if you have a different perspective on a vaccine story that appears in your local newspaper. Make a call in to a radio talk show that is only presenting one side of the vaccine story.

I must be frank with you; you have to be brave because you might be strongly criticized for daring to talk about the "other side" of the vaccine story. Be prepared for it and have the courage to not back down. Only by sharing our perspective and what we know to be true about vaccination will the public conversation about vaccination open up so people are not afraid to talk about it.

We cannot allow the drug companies and medical trade associations funded by drug companies to dominate the conversation about vaccination. The vaccine injured cannot be swept under the carpet and treated like nothing more than "statistically acceptable collateral damage" of national one-size-fits-all mass vaccination policies that put way too many people at risk for injury and death. We should be treating people like human beings instead of guinea pigs.

Internet Resources Where You Can Learn More

I encourage you to visit the following web pages on the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) website at www.NVIC.org:

• NVIC Memorial for Vaccine Victims: View descriptions and photos of children and adults, who have suffered vaccine reactions, injuries and deaths. If you or your child experiences an adverse vaccine event, please consider posting and sharing your story here.
• If You Vaccinate, Ask 8 Questions: Learn how to recognize vaccine reaction symptoms and prevent vaccine injuries.
• Vaccine Freedom Wall: View or post descriptions of harassment by doctors, employers or school officials for making independent vaccine choices.

Connect with Your Doctor or Find a New One Who Will Listen and Care

If your pediatrician or doctor refuses to provide medical care to you or your child unless you agree to get vaccines you don't want, I strongly encourage you to have the courage to find another doctor. Harassment, intimidation, and refusal of medical care is becoming the modus operandi of the medical establishment in an effort to stop the change in attitude of many parents about vaccinations after they become truly educated about health and vaccination.

However, there is hope.

At least 15 percent of young doctors recently polled admit that they're starting to adopt a more individualized approach to vaccinations in direct response to the vaccine safety concerns of parents. It is good news that there is a growing number of smart young doctors, who prefer to work as partners with parents in making personalized vaccine decisions for children, including delaying vaccinations or giving children fewer vaccines on the same day or continuing to provide medical care for those families, who decline use of one or more vaccines.

So take the time to locate a doctor, who treats you with compassion and respect and is willing to work with you to do what is right for your child.