WSJ: A Win for Merck? Paper (Toronto Star) Removes Investigation of Gardasil Side Effects (From Internet)

[Emily]

By Ed Silverman

Associated Press​

Ever since Gardasil was approved in 2006, Merck has struggled to transform the vaccine into a blockbuster for combating the human papillomavirus, or HPV, which can cause cervical cancer. But the drug maker has repeatedly run into obstacles. And a controversial story that was published recently in The Toronto Star ? but removed today from its website ? illustrates the problem.
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Mostly, though, side effect concerns have dogged Gardasil, even though the vaccine has repeatedly won endorsement from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and several studies have suggested the vaccine is safe. Nonetheless, anecdotal reports of harm have persisted and gained media attention, sometimes reflecting concerns over vaccines, in general.
An example occurred on Feb. 5 in The Toronto Star, which published a front-page investigation entitled ?A Wonder Drug?s Dark Side.? The piece focused on several young women who had become sick sometime after being vaccinated with Gardasil and attributed their problems to the vaccine. The piece did include a caveat their illnesses were not ?conclusively linked? to Gardasil.
Nonetheless, the coverage generated controversy and led the Star publisher to pull the story.. In a note on the Star website, publisher John Cruickshank writes that the ?weight of the photographs, video, headlines and anecdotes led many readers to conclude the Star believed its investigation had uncovered a direct connection between a large variety of ailments and the vaccine.?
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[UPDATE: A SaneVax spokeswoman writes us that "by pulling the article, the publisher of The Toronto Starmay be leaving survivors of adverse reactions to HPV vaccines with no voice... Investigations are the critical issue - the people who are at risk for serious adverse reactions must be identified, quantified and excluded from HPV vaccination programs.,, The families who told their stories were not against vaccines, their daughters had been vaccinated all of their lives. But surely it has to be their right to identify if a particular vaccine or medication has caused harm to their child."]...

Censorship makes me curious, so I managed to track down some quotes from the 'removed' Star article:

?It?s very sad because what I see is the physicians are not accepting the fact that these young women have pain and issues,? said Dr. Diane Harper, who was the principal investigator of a major clinical trial for Merck as the company was developing the blockbuster vaccine for the worldwide market. ?The docs in the trenches have been conditioned to respond, ?vaccines don?t have side-effects.? ?

Harper, now the chair of family and geriatric medicine at the University of Louisville in Kentucky, said Gardasil?s approval by the FDA was fast-tracked unnecessarily, since the progression of an HPV infection to cancer often takes decades and can be detected through regular pap screens. She said the vaccine could have been analyzed over a much longer time frame.

?There could be harm,? Harper said. ?You just don?t know until you look at it in the full population.?

Merck said it monitors reported adverse reactions and, ?while no vaccine . . . is completely without risk,? health regulators around the world continue to recommend its use.

But in promoting the vaccine, Harper said, health officials often omit the importance of still getting regular pap screens to protect from the HPV strains not covered by Gardasil.

The WSJ article did not mention the girl that died.

Annabelle got her first Gardasil shot on Oct. 9, 2008. Morin remembered that on Oct. 25 Annabelle ?came out of (her) room disoriented, she could hardly walk, she couldn?t speak. She was mumbling.? Annabelle was also vomiting and complained of a bad headache. Morin took her daughter to the hospital, where a brain scan turned up nothing. Soon Annabelle felt better.

The episode occurred 16 days after her first Gardasil shot.

Annabelle got her second shot on Nov. 24. After about the same span of time, 15 days later, she died.

Morin says that despite the coroner?s call for an investigation into the role Gardasil played in her daughter?s death, none occurred.

She sued Merck but abandoned the legal action in part, she said, because of difficulty finding a Quebec doctor who would say Gardasil contributed to Annabelle?s death.

?I am not against the vaccine,? Morin said. ?I want people to be responsible about Gardasil. I am trying to inform people.?

A couple of coincidences, or challenge/re-challenge? We are entitled to our opinions.


Link to WSJ article:

http://blogs.wsj.com/pharmalot/2015...moves-investigation-of-gardasil-side-effects/