anti-cancer vaccine

There are now vaccines coming onto the market which are being promoted as providing some protection against cancer. This page looks at one of those vaccines, the Gardasil HPV vaccine produced by the drugs company Mercks.

It is claimed that there is an association between sexually transmitted viruses and cancer risk and the claim is, therefore, that the HPV vaccine by reducing the number of viruses contracted though sexual promiscuity will reduce cancer risk.

In some countries there is a move to make the vaccine compulsory for teenage girls, regardless of their morals. In other countries the vaccine is promoted as a responsible choice for parents who have the best interests of their daughters in mind. Little, if any, weight is given to the underlying social causes, and similar regard appears to be given to any effect vaccination may have in further degrading attitudes and values.

Early GE vaccines (and some current ones) used a type of e-coli in the manufacturing process which resulted in contamination of the vaccine with endotoxins from the cell wall of the e-coli. Endotoxins can also contaminate the vaccine from other sources, such as the packaging, even if yeast rather than e-coli is used in the manufacturing process,

In addition to the risks from the presence of vaccine impurities, the chances of cascade occurring are increased if the vaccine is given when the likelihood of subsequent infection is greater, e.g. winter, and also if the vaccine is used as a herd vaccine where it exposes an entire population to risk, e.g. to children at school, rather than targeting the at-risk group of any particular disease.

As a consequence, anyone receiving endotoxins at vaccination is at risk of toxic shock syndrome, also called cascade, which could occur up to several weeks after vaccination rather than at the time of vaccination. This is because the cascade process is triggered by a subsequent infection, like the flu or a cold.

Once the cascade has started, the subsequent deterioration in health is rapid and death can occur within hours. Cause of death is often recorded as the trigger infection.

If a vaccine company sells faulty product, then the vaccine company will be asked to improve the quality of their product.

This link will take you to a page with an abbreviated letter sent to Mercks about contamination of Vioxx (Rofecoxib). You will see that rather than rejecting faulty batches, they were simply averaged with better batches to skew the results and allow the faulty batches to be sold.

Not only were Mercks being dishonest in their manufacturing process, they were being dishonest in their marketing. This link will take you to a warning letter, and as you will see Mercks had already been warned but continued to misrepresent Vioxx.

Vioxx has, of course, now been withdrawn from the market but it does serve to remind us that Mercks are in business to make money, and have a track record of dishonesty which includes misrepresentation of both the quality and safety of their product.

"First, do no harm" should be applied. This would mean, for a start, that the vaccine should not be used as a herd vaccine.

Secondly, promotional material should identify sexual promiscuity as the mode of transmission of HPV viruses.

Thirdly, it should be clearly stated that the vaccine is genetically engineered, that there are risks associated with this type of vaccine, and there should be warning material about cascade and the symptoms to look for in the weeks following vaccination.

Finally, as yet I see no convincing argument for the long term efficacy of the vaccine and suspect that because it cannot provide protection against all HPV viruses, and given the nature of viruses to mutate, that the effect on cancer rates will be negligible.