Gardasil Linked to Serious Reactions According to New Report

A series of news reports are warning about the serious side effects of the vaccine Gardasil. One such story aired on February 7, 2009 on the CBS Evening News. This story chronicles one specific case of injury to a teenage girl, Gabby Swank, who was a straight-A student and cheerleader. However, after receiving the standard dose of three Gardasil vaccinations she progressively got sicker, suffered seizures, strokes and heart problems. Her neurologist made the diagnosis connection to Gardasil. The CBS video of this story can be seen here.

In the CBS story, Gabby stated, "It was like a big hype among my friends, because we're like, 'we're gonna get it' because we felt almost pressured by the commercials." Neurologist, Dr. Dwight Lindholm commented on what he is seeing by saying, "I think there are too many people having serious long-term side-effects." Gabby's mom, Shannon Swank said, "I struggle with guilt a lot, because I made the choice to get the shot for her."

In addition to the story of Gabby, the CBS story also interviewed Emily Tarsell whose daughter died after having her third Gardasil shot. She said that she was totally unaware of any dangers from the shot. "If I'd have known, we never would have gotten the shot." She continued by saying that if she had not gotten the shot, her daughter would still be here, "And she'd be here to hug."

The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), a private vaccine-safety group, released a report comparing Gardasil's adverse events to another vaccine given to young people for meningitis. The results of the report showed that during the study time frame, reactions from Gardasil required twice the number of emergency room visits, more than 5,000, as compared to the meningitis vaccine. Additionally, the reports of side effects were up to 30 times higher with Gardasil, when compared to the meningitis vaccine. Gardasil was also associated with 4 times more Death reports; 5 times more "Did Not Recover" reports; and 7 times more "Disabled" reports. The full NVIC report can be downloaded here.

Barbara Loe Fisher, co-founder of the NVIC, said, "Now we know from this report that there are more reactions and deaths associated with Gardasil than with another vaccine given in the same age group. It's irresponsible not to take action." In a release by NVIC, Barbara Loe Fisher exposed the weakness of the original safety studies by the manufacturer by saying, "Merck only studied the vaccine in fewer than 1200 girls under age 16 and most of the serious health problems and deaths in the pre-licensure clinical trials were written off as a coincidence. If the new Administration and Congress want to make government recommended health care safer, more effective and less expensive, a good place to start is by looking into the human and economic costs of Gardasil vaccine."

The National Vaccine Information Center is petitioning President Barack Obama and Congress on behalf of families to investigate Gardasil vaccine deaths and serious injuries. They have started an online petition that consumers can go to and add their names to request a further investigation. The petition can be found here.