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Opinion | Leading HPV vaccines are not entirely effective, consumers should remain aware

Nicole Theodore, Editorial Editor

For months, my mom pleaded with me to go to the doctor to receive a shot that would "protect me against cervical cancer." Even though the last part seemed like a convincing enough reason to go, I despise shots and doctors' offices.

I reluctantly set up an appointment and eventually went. I received the Gardasil shot in three separate treatments in my upper right arm, leaving a slight bruise and a little swelling. I thought to my self, "well at least this will protect me from cancer."

A year later, I have found out I am just another fool, blindly led on by a magical cure-all vaccine, concocted by yours truly, the American pharmaceutical companies.

According to lead researcher Dr. Diane Harper, the lead expert for safety and effectiveness studies of the human papilloma virus (HPV) shots Gardasil and Cervarix, the shots have always been "irrelevant and deadly."

"The benefit to public health is nothing, there is no reduction in cervical cancers, they are just postponed, unless the protection lasts for 15 years, and over 70 percent of all sexually active females of all ages are vaccinated," Harper said in a CBS interview.

This was after she initially shocked the audience at the fourth International Conference on Vaccination in Reston, Virginia, where her speech was intended to promote all the wonderful benefits of both the Gardasil and Cervarix vaccines. Harper instead came out with the truth "so she could sleep at night."

Reporter Sarah Cain was at Harper's presentation in Virginia and documented her 180-degree turn, revealing facts that would make the entire room, and America, very uncomfortable.

"Dr. Harper explained in her presentation that the cervical cancer risk in the U.S. is already extremely low, and that vaccinations are unlikely to have any effect upon the rate of cervical cancer in the United States. In fact, 70 percent of all HPV infections resolve themselves without treatment in a year, and the number rises to well over 90 percent in two years," said Cain.

Harper went on to discuss that even though the vaccine is marketed to 9-year-olds, all the trials of the vaccines were done on children 15 and up and that 15,037 girls have reported adverse side effects.

Of these 15,037 girls, 44 of them have died. And the side effects weren't just your average swelling of the injection site type of issues - some experienced Gullian Barre Syndrome, which is paralysis lasting for hours or even permanently. Other girls were faced with lupus, seizures, blood clots and brain inflammation.

I found this interview by CBS by pure accident, and once I started to read it I couldn't stop. I realized I had put a vaccine into my body before even trying to understand what it was, what the life-threatening side effects were or if it would even prevent HPV or cervical cancer.

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I just sat there complacently and listened to the other female in the room, my doctor, tell me this was a "good decision" because it will protect me from cancer. Again, a "magic vaccine," pure evil-genius marketing campaign if you ask me by the makers of the product.

Am I wrong to believe in my doctor? No, not at all, and most Americans should trust their doctor. According to a Pew research study, 70 percent of U.S. adults still get their information from their doctor or other health care professional.

But am I an idiot for not researching the vaccine on my own and asking preemptive questions about it? Hell yes. I am really in the wrong for that.

Even though I haven't experienced any negative side effects like some of these girls sadly have, it's still unsettling that I was injected with a vaccine that in no way is doing what it was marketed to do. And I can't help but wonder what did it do in my body?

What's scary is the sheer fact that cervical cancer can really develop from HPV, which is one of the most common sexually transmitted infections in the United States. What's even scarier is that the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) own website states that to avoid HPV and the health problems that may develop from it, that getting HPV vaccines are key. The CDC says the vaccines are "safe and effective."

Dear CDC web editor, you might want to update that text before the thousands of people who click on your link are misled that this is a miracle cure to cervical cancer.

These findings revealed by Harper should be posted in every doctor's office, anywhere that offers the vaccines to patients, especially for children who these vaccines are target marketed to.

The Gardasil website states the side effects as "pain, swelling, itching, bruising and redness at the injection site, headache, fever, nausea, dizziness, vomiting and fainting."

On Cervarix's home page of their website, they state that "side effects and allergic reaction may occur."

But they don't have anything about 44 kids dying from the vaccine; maybe the makers of Gardasil and Cervarix just forgot?