Gardasil Researcher Voices Concerns Over HPV Vaccines
Dr. Diane Harper, a medical researcher who played a major role in the development of the two HPV vaccines, Gardasil and Cervarix, recently questioned the safety and effectiveness of both.
According to a report on chattahbox.com, Dr. Harper, director of the Gynecologic Cancer Prevention Research Group at the University of Missouri, raised questioned about Gadasil and Cervarix at the 4th International Public Conference on Vaccination which took place in Reston, Virginia on Oct. 2-4. She was there, supposedly, to promote the vaccines.
Instead, Dr. Harper warned that Merck & Co., the maker of Gardasil, had not tested Gardasil on girls younger than 15, chattahbox.com said. “It is silly to mandate vaccination of 11 to 12 year old girls. There also is not enough evidence gathered on side effects to know that safety is not an issue,” warned Harper.
According to chattahbox.com, Dr. Harper also asserted that the evidence shows that the vaccine does little to reduce cervical cancer, beyond current preventative measures. She argued that the incidence of cervical cancer in the U.S. is already so low that “even if we get the vaccine and continue PAP screening, we will not lower the rate of cervical cancer in the U.S.”
Gardasil prevents four strains of HPV, two of which cause 70 percent of all cervical cancers. The other two HPV strains are responsible for about 90 percent of genital warts. Cervarix, approved by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) just this month, protects against two strains of HPV that cause more than 70% of cases of cervical cancer in women.
