Challenges of independent assessment of potential harms of HPV vaccines

I applaud Lars Jørgensen, Peter Doshi, Peter Gøtzsche, and Tom Jefferson for publishing this in-depth look at the lack of transparency and accessibility of clinical data, and revealing the volumes of suppressed data.

The average parent--indeed, the average doctor who administers vaccines, and the average public health employee promoting vaccination--has no idea that this is happening.

Parents are bombarded with messages to vaccinate their children with HPV vaccines. Many millions are spent annually by Merck and GSK to saturate public health messages and silence any whisper of risk.

If it were simply the manufacturers pushing, it would be bad enough, but our government agencies push even harder. Campaigns are waged with tax-dollars and pharmaceutical company grants channeled through "non-profits", coercive scripts are provided by the CDC (a patent-holder that profits from the sale), to convince "hesitant" parents, and the mantra of "safe and effective" is trumpeted along with "mountains of studies showing they are safe." None of it is true because, as this article explains, the full clinical trial data--generated by the companies that stand to profit-- has never been reviewed.

I recently attended a WA State Vaccine Advisory Committee meeting at which a CDC program was gleefully announced-- "HPV Vaccine is Cancer Prevention Champion Award for clinicians, clinics, or health systems who meet certain criteria for fully immunizing their adolescent patients against HPV." This news was followed by an hour-long presentation by a researcher on vaccine hesitancy and communication research. The DOH intends to educate vaccine providers how to use the researchers "presumptive" approach to drive rates higher. There was not a single word of caution, of contraindication, of adverse reactions, of prescreening for previous infection, of providing full information for informed consent to be respected.

In fact, it was also announced at this meeting that WA State's Immunization director is now chair-elect of AIM, the Association of Immunization Managers. This is a collaboration between every single US state immunization director and vaccine makers. They have a memo of understanding that ensures pharmaceutical reps are allowed phone calls, meetings, and access to policy information. At their annual conference in June, materials boasted that "Leadership Development Training was made possible through a Merck educational grant", and in a presentation, Informed Consent organizations were labelled as their opposition. How have we come to this? In a country that is supposed to be the leader of the free world-- yet our state public health officials are being trained by Merck to oppose those of us protecting our human right to fully informed consent?

Trust in government vaccine policy is swiftly vanishing as details emerge from all angles. I agree most emphatically with the authors that "Urgent changes are essential for open and transparent assessment of the harms and benefits of interventions." The entire system needs changing.

It has been made clear from this article and many others that HPV vaccines cannot be claimed to be safe or effective and we cannot wait for our public health agencies to do the right thing. The vaccines must be pulled from the market, and something must be arranged to support those who were harmed by them, and the health of all recipients closely monitored for many years to come. If justice is served, this cost will be borne by Merck and GSK and the CDC from the profits made from HPV vaccine sales.