The data say yes: yet the FDA might approve the vaccine for adults. Action Alert!

A new study shows that women aged 25-29 who received the HPV vaccine have a lower probability of becoming pregnant. This is just the latest in a stream of evidence that points to the dangers of the HPV vaccine, particularly to those already infected with the virus—yet the FDA is considering a request from Merck to expand the population to whom the vaccine can be marketed. If the request is granted, it would be another example of how the agency sells out consumers for the benefit of the vaccine industry.

In addition to the study on the HPV vaccine preventing pregnancies, the government’s vaccine adverse event reporting system (VAERS) lists a startling 57,287 adverse events from the vaccine, including 419 deaths—far more than any other vaccine. A World Health Organization study demonstrated that the vaccination has a tendency to produce clusters of serious adverse events. The American College of Pediatricians raised concerns that the vaccine could be linked to premature ovarian failure. And let’s not forget the former Merck doctor who said that Gardasil “will become the greatest medical scandal of all time,” that it “serves no other purpose than to generate profit for the manufacturer,” and, like some other vaccines, that it can cause “Guillain-Barré syndrome, paralysis of the lower limbs, vaccine-induced MS, and vaccine-induced encephalitis.”

Consider, too, that for women who have already been exposed to certain strains of the HPV virus, vaccination can actually increase the risk of precancerous lesions by 44%. That’s right: if you are already infected with HPV, getting vaccinated could increase your risk of getting cancer. To put this in perspective, 79 million Americans are infected with HPV, and about 14 million are newly infected each year, making HPV the most common sexually transmitted infection. The CDC says that “HPV is so common that almost every person who is sexually active will get HPV at some time in their life.”

Despite substantial evidence of the dangers of vaccinating for HPV, the FDA has granted a request from Merck, the manufacturer of the Gardasil vaccine, to conduct a “priority review” for an expanded application of the vaccine, so it can be given to adults aged 27-45 as well as children. Priority review, as opposed to standard review, simply means that the agency is on an accelerated timeline: priority reviews take six months, standard reviews take ten months.

Merck originally asked for the expanded application in 2008, but the FDA rejected the request and asked for more long-term data. Not much seems to have changed. Gardasil’s current label references a study on 3,000 women aged 27-45 and states there was “no statistically significant efficacy” demonstrated by the vaccine in preventing cervical cancer or cervical lesions. Instead, Merck is pinning its hopes to observational data that supposedly demonstrates that the Gardasil vaccination can protect women from acquiring new HPV infections.

Given all this evidence, the discussion should be whether the HPV vaccine should be given to anyone—certainly not if it should be given to more people. Is the government so beholden to vaccine manufacturers that they will turn a blind eye to this evidence?

If the government won’t protect our health, it is up to consumers to educate themselves. Check out our documentary, Manufactured Crisis: HPV, Hype & Horror.

Posted with permission from the Alliance for Natural Health.