Thread: Scientists say Bachman misstates facts on HPV vaccines

Scientists say Bachman misstates facts on HPV vaccines

By Liz Szabo, USA TODAYUpdated 27m ago

At a time when once-forgotten infectious diseases are making a comeback, health advocates say they're concerned that life-saving vaccines could become a casuality of the fight to win the Republican presidential nomination. The Food and Drug Administration has approved two vaccines to help prevent cervical cancer, which affects more than 12,000 women each year and kills 4,200.

During Monday's debate, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) criticized Texas Gov. Rick Perry's attempt to require the shots for school girls. In TV interviews Tuesday, Bachmann attacked the vaccines themselves as "dangerous," relating a conversation with a mother who blames the shots for her daughter's mental retardation.

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But there's no evidence that the HPV shot — or any other vaccine — causes retardation, says Kevin Ault, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Emory University School of Medicine. He notes that the HPV shot is approved for girls beginning at age 9, and is recommended as part of the normal round of shots that girls receive at age 11 or 12.

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"I'm not an expert on mental retardation, but I think you would know a long time before age 12," Ault says.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scrutinizes vaccines carefully and has found no sign that it causes serious side effects, other than a sore arm and occasional fainting, Ault says. Before approval, the HPV shot was tested in more than 30,000 people, Offit says.

In fact, vaccines have been more closely scrutinized than just about any other drug, Offit says. Since approval, the CDC has tracked its safety in two majors ways. First, the CDC monitors reports to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, a database to which anyone can report a suspected side effect. CDC officials then investigate to see if reported problems could possibly be caused by vaccines, or are simply a coincidence.

Second, the CDC has been following girls who receive the vaccine over time, comparing them to a control group of unvaccinated girls, Ault says. Again, the HPV vaccine has been found to be safe.

Parents also have a choice about vaccinating their kids against HPV. Although Perry tried to require HPV shots with an executive order, he was challenged by the state legislature, and his measure never took effect. Only Virginia and the District of Columbia currently require girls to receive HPV shots, although parents also may opt out, according to the Minnesota-based Immunization Action Coalition.

Although the Food and Drug Administration has approved HPV shots for both girls and boys — both can develop genital warts from HPV — the CDC currently recommends the vaccines only for girls, Offit says. The shots are only effective in people who've never been exposed to HPV, Ault says. Because most people are exposed to the virus in the first year after becoming sexually active, doctors urge parents to vaccine kids when they're young.

"Last week, at Emory, we started giving out flu vaccines," Ault says. "We usually give out vaccines long before we think people will be exposed."

Shots against HPV have been more controversial than others because the disease's association with sex.

For the most part, however, religious conservatives have supported vaccination. Although Focus on the Family says parents should make the decision for themselves, the group notes that "these vaccines prevent many cases of cervical cancer, thus saving the lives of millions of women around the globe."

In the USA, about 12,200 women develop cervical cancer each year, and more than 4,200 die, according the American Cancer Society.

Suspicion of vaccines has helped to fuel outbreaks of a number of infectious diseases in recent years, including measles, mumps and whooping cough, according to the CDC. The CDC has tracked at least 193 cases of measles so far this year — three times more than all of last year combined.

http://yourlife.usatoday.com/health/sto ... 50390580/1

I think Bachman had more of an issue of people being FORCED to take a drug and that is what it is,"A DRUG". They seem to do a very good job in showering us with more drugs these days and making a fortune doing so.

I also think that Michelle was objecting to being FORCED to do this. I know at one time my grand daughters school was saying they had to have this vaccine before school, if not they would give them at the school. My daughter said she would home school the girls if they enforced this. At that time no one knew any thing about this vaccine and it's effect. The parents raised so much h@#l, the school had to back down.

Gov. Perry minimized HPV drug maker's financial donations, report shows

. . . The report by Texans for Public Justice shows that Merck, the manufacturer of the Gardasil vaccine, gave $28,500 to Perry from January 2006 until June 2011. Additionally, the pharmaceutical giant contributed $377,500 to the Republican Governors Association, which Perry chaired. That's $406,000 in all. . .

It's true that Merck had contributed $5,000 to Perry's campaign in 2006--on the same day his staff met for a briefing on HPV. Perry aides have said the timing was coincidental. . .

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-249885.html