It would seem that anyone seeking a position of great power and responsibility should be willing to admit it when he/she makes a dangerous mistake.
But not these modern times, apparently.
Huge character flaw: Can’t admit mistakes
- Post author:Erich Vieth
- Post published:September 16, 2011
- Post category:Communication
- Post comments:3 Comments
Erich Vieth
Erich Vieth is an attorney focusing on civil rights (including First Amendment), consumer law litigation and appellate practice. At this website often writes about censorship, corporate news media corruption and cognitive science. He is also a working musician, artist and a writer, having founded Dangerous Intersection in 2006. Erich lives in St. Louis, Missouri with his two daughters.
To the best of my knowledge, there have been some cases of encephalitis reported to VAERS following Gardisil injection. However, the reports are very rare and may result from an undiagnosed underlying allergy or other condition.
There are three items of note concerning Gardisil. First, it is a quadvalent vaccine, made from rDNA fragments which are considerably safer than attenuated live virus vaccines, but research over the years has indicated that more vaccines administered at the same time significantly increases the probability of an adverse reaction. Before Gardisil, one or two quadvalent vaccines were taken of the market due to an unacceptable frequency of adverse reactions, but since then the the acceptable threshhold has been raised slightly, and most vaccines have moved away from attenuated live components where possible.
Second, Merck, the manufacturer of Gardisil, is a corporate sponsor of the American Legislative Exchange Council, which has authored model legislation approving and expanding the required use of Gardisil.
Third, Merck, continually increases the range of recipients that they say wll benefit from the vaccine (of which they are the patent holder). Initially they targeted teen girls, then expanded the target group to younger and younger girls to include 9 year old girls and boys.
It seems they might be more motivated by profit than by a concern for the patients. There may be incentive for the business side of Merck to overlook or “misfile” test results which could damage their bottom line.
Niklaus: Fair enough. But when Bachmann shoots off her mouth, she should be well informed, and I haven’t heard any information that would suggest that there is a significant risk to these vaccines such that the risks counterbalance the benefits.
Erich,
I’ve come to expect accusations of being “Anti-Vaxer” when I state my opinion on vaccine safety. Thank you for not jumping to conclusions.
As you may recall, I read the original health care reform bill that was proposed by the House. One component of that bill would have established a national medical records database The Republican party seems dead set against a national medical records database, but they are okay with the idea of multiple private medical databases maintained and controlled by insurance and pharmaceutical companies.
There are a few obvious benefits to a national medical record database (NMRD). By making critical information available, such as medications, and medical histories it could save countless lives. Combined with a biometric identified, it could be used to identify victims of violent crime, much in the way dental records have been used for years for the same purpose.
There are other benefits to an NMRD. Data analysis techniques can be used to identify shady practices by pharmacies. It could also be used to identify cases of doctor shopping. (While Doctor shopping is illegal, it is being actively promoted by advertising of prescription drugs.) Most significantly, an NMRD could be used to identify long term adverse effects of therapies, including drugs (anyone for VIOXX or thalidomide?) and vaccines. It would be a powerful research tool for improving the safety and effectiveness of medicine in this country.
Currently, where vaccines are concerned, the CDC maintains the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). I first became interested in VAERS, when I heard of the suggested link between the MMR vaccine and autism, because my older son developed late onset autism about three months after the first MMR vaccine.
BTW, I know that when Mark reads this will jump in to quote numerous studies dismissing any connection between MMR and autism. I expect it from him.
In addition to VAERS, the CDC also through two other monitoring systems.
There have been over 35 million doses of Gardasil administered, and fewer than 18000 reports of adverse events reported after the vaccination. The serious events numbered less that 1500, The frequencies of the serious events were well within the statistical occurrence rates for populations not taking the vaccine, indicating that Gardasil was not a contributing factor.
The VAERS data does indicate an increased risk autoimmune disorders with the concurrent administration of multiple vaccine protocols. The disorder include arthritis, Guillain-Barre Syndrome, and metabolic syndrome. My concern is that the pharmaceutical companies are pushing the vaccines to a broader recipient base to boost profits. Gardasil was originally administered to post puberty teen girls. Later it was recommend for 9 year old girls. Now is it recommended for boys and girls starting at 9 years.