HPV Vaccine Order Unleashes Parents Anger

"Health experts are dismayed by the controversy over Merck's Gardasil, which protects against two common forms of the sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer. But it has hardly surprised them. Never has compulsory use of a drug been pushed with such breakneck speed -- with concerted lobbying by its manufacturer...."Why is this happening so fast? Why is there a mandate when this is such a different kind of disease?" asked Barbara Loe Fisher, president of the National Vaccine Information Center, a nonprofit consumer organization that opposes HPV legislation. Most states did not add the chickenpox vaccine to schoolchildren's immunization schedules until several years after its approval in the mid-1990s, she noted." - Susan Levine, Washington Post , March 4, 2007, Parents Question HPV Vaccine

"More than 5,900 e-mails and printed notes have been sent to Perry about his Feb. 2 executive order that girls entering the sixth grade in 2008 be vaccinated against the human papilloma virus, which causes most cases of cervical cancer...."Please, reconsider. Please, return parental choices, control, power to parents," wrote Bette D. Bittner of Caldwell. Ned Funnell of Longview also told Perry the decision to vaccinate belongs to parents, not the state.....of the e- mails and letters on the vaccine received by the governor's office as of Tuesday, 89 percent opposed his order, while 11 percent favored it......Most of the e- mails and letters on the cervical cancer vaccine were from Texans, with about 1,500 coming from out of state...." - Kelly Shannon, Associated Press March 7, 2007, Vaccine Order Unleases Flood of Anger

" I am happy our Senate [Indiana] chose to scale down the legislation before they approved it and not make the vaccine mandatory for young girls across the state. Legislation that makes it mandatory, I believe, takes away a parent's right but also the child's choice to get the vaccine, especially when the side effects of the vaccine hasn't been studied for any lengthy period of time. Who knows what disastrous side effects the vaccine could have. I'm not sure if it is worth the risk....A vaccine against HPV to prevent cervical cancer isn't the only answer, and only time will tell whether it is even an answer at all. However, I do know there are many more damaging killers in the world that should be getting the attention that Merck and Gardasil have brought to cervical cancer." - Tonya Windell, Corydon Democrat Gardasil Vaccine Should Be Parent's Choice, March 7, 2007

Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:

There is a message that is being sent by parents to the Centers for Disease Control, drug companies, medical organizations and legislators in every state in response to proposed HPV vaccine mandates: we are not going to sit back and watch more vaccines be added to the long list of mandatory vaccinations for our children without having something to say about it. Parents, who have never questioned vaccine mandates before, joined with parents, who have been questioning vaccine mandates for a long time, and have drawn a line in the sand on forced vaccination with a vaccine that has not been proven safe in little girls for an infection that cannot be transmitted in the school setting.

For 25 years, the National Vaccine Information has been a strong advocate for the right to informed consent to vaccination as part of a broader national campaign to prevent vaccine injuries and deaths through public education. We have long questioned why, every time the pharmaceutical industry produces a new vaccine, it is automatically recommended for universal use by the CDC and AAP and automatically added by states to the mandatory list of vaccines required for children to get an education.

It has never been a secret to those of us working with parents, who have difficulty obtaining medical, religious and conscientious belief exemptions to vaccination, that drug companies, public health officials and medical organizations lobby hard to get new vaccines mandated. Thanks to Merck's heavy handed lobbying efforts using a Merck-funded "non- profit" organization to carry out its blitzkrieg introduction of HPV vaccine mandates in several dozen states, the whole nation now understands that new vaccine mandates are powered by the CDC's "universal use" recommendations and drug company-financed lobbying campaigns.

After a quarter century of remaining underground, the debate about state-forced vaccination is now taking place publicly. Much to the surprise of many doctors and lawmakers, a majority of parents across the country are standing up and saying "Show us the science and give us a choice." Mothers and fathers of vaccine injured children, who learned the hard way just how important it is to make well informed vaccine choices, are not surprised at all.