Back in February, I expressed my concern about the mandating of the HPV, which passed the General Assembly last session. Today I was made aware of information on Judicial Watch regarding adverse reactions to the vaccine.
As of May 11, 2007, the 1,637 adverse vaccination reactions reported to the FDA via the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) included 371 serious reactions. Of the 42 women who received the vaccine while pregnant, 18 experienced side effects ranging from spontaneous abortion to fetal abnormities.
Included in the 1,637 adverse reactions were three deaths. This story details a case of paralysis.
There is much more information out about HPV now, including this, this, and this.
I guess the only saving grace in the Virginia law mandating the vaccine is the parental opt-out provision. The law goes into effect in 2008.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Vivian, I appreciate your highlighting this issue, but I do think it needs to be carefully presented.
Unfortunately, adverse events occur with treatments and without treatments. That’s why drugs and vaccines are studied with a placebo comparison, so it can be determined if one group experiences more adverse events then the other. Just because an event happened after a person took the medicine, doesn’t mean the medicine caused the event.
Also, every product that’s pharmacologically active will do some things we want and some things we don’t want. This is true whether it’s a vitamin, a dietary supplement, an over the counter drug with decades of use, or a vaccine. Even something that seems as harmless as aspirin can cause gastric bleeding that results in death. That’s why the aspirin companies got in trouble when they started touting it as a cure-all for heart attacks. More people were dying from the stomach bleeding then from the heart attacks.
Vaccines are very hard to make, whether its for polio or pertussis or anything else. Newer vaccines tend to be made using much better technology and much better facilities then the old ones. However, regardless of the vaccine, they have all saved thousands of lives and saved terrible suffering. The benefits outweigh the risks.
In my humble opinion, the biggest danger from vaccines is the knee-jerk way they are administered. Get in line, get a shot. This happened a lot with estrogen/hormone replacement. Doctors were so sure all the difference between men and women were all based in the uterus that they gave hormone replacements like candy. Did you know “hysteria” was treated with a “hysterectomy”? Now we know it’s more complicated than that. Patients need to talk to their doctor about any vaccine. What are the risks? What are the chances my child falls into a higher-risk category? What responses should I watch for after it’s been given? Ask for a copy of the package insert – and not those abbreviated ones made up in the store, get the real one.
However, I hope parents don’t turn down the vaccine because they think it will encourage promiscuity. I agree with Dear Abby this week who said something like that’s like saying a TB vaccine encourages people to sit next to an infectious person on an airplane.
Viv,
Very excellent find! I’m glad to see that I was mostly correct in my suspicions about this vaccine. I assume that Governor Kaine signed it into law, then? (I have unfortunately not been following it as of late…)
Most Respectfully,
Brian L.
Andrea – I agree. That’s why I linked to the report of the reactions. The whole idea is to have parents make informed decisions and this just gives them a bit of it.
Yes, Brian, the governor signed it.
When I was about six, my mom had a hysterectomy. I did ask my father if she would not be hysterical any more!
Anyway, the reason for mandatory vaccines is public health. Mandatory polio vaccines, despite the side effects, clearly rose to that level. I am not convinced that HPV does, because it is not casually contageous.
Judicial Watch has left out a very important part of the picture, to which I do not know the answer:
How many vaccinations have been administered?
These 371 serious reactions and 2* deaths should be put in some kind of context in order for parents to be able to judge the risks. Is this 2 deaths in 10,000 vaccinations or 2 deaths in 1 million vaccinations?
I’m not sure what I would do as a parent in regard to this vaccine. It certainly does seem to be rush to implement, which always gives me pause regarding the wisdom of the decision.
(*I changed the deaths to 2 because, upon reading the linked death reports, one is from a nurse who heard about somebody of unknown age who died after getting the shot, but not at her office i.e., rumor.)
I agree with both Andrea and Olivia. First of all, you do need context to judge how great the danger of an adverse reaction is. Secondly, it’s true that every drug or vaccine can have adverse reactions including fatal ones. Penicillin has saved countless lives but for those allergic to it, it can kill.
So, the HPV vaccine may indeed have some serious, as well as minor, adverse effects. But we need to know the percentage of a population that has these reactions. Is it 2 percent, 5 percent, 25 percent? Is the vaccine truly dangerous for large numbers of people, or is a small percentage of the target population especially sensitive to certain side effects? Those are the things you need to know to do a proper cost/benefit analysis of the vaccine.
Even the safest medications can be dangerous for some people. The question is do they help more people than they harm and are the risks reasonable.
“The question is do they help more people than they harm and are the risks reasonable.”
That is NOT for the government to decide. The only reason for government involvement is the effect on others. Since the vast majority of HPV cases are contracted by sexual activity, not causal contact, there is no reason for those who are not sexually active to get a vaccination, and there is no reason for the government to mandate it.