Oh, I know. You’ll say these things are rare, that cervical cancer is a bad thing and that immunization programs are worth the risks. Certainly that’s what the experts always seem to say. But this 14-year-old girl was alive and now she’s dead.
Dr Caron Grainger, Joint Director of Public Health for NHS Coventry and the city’s council, said: “A 14-year-old girl took ill at a school in Coventry and was taken to University Hospital in the city where she later sadly died. Our sympathies are with the girl’s family and friends at this difficult time.”
She added that the incident happened shortly after the girl received the vaccine, but “no link can be made between the death and the vaccine until all the facts are known and a post-mortem takes place.”
[…]
Earlier this month, the drug safety watchdog MHRA said that thousands of schoolgirls were suffering suspected adverse reactions to the vaccine. Doctors’ reports found that girls of 12 and 13 were experiencing convulsions, fever and paralysis. The analysis drawn up by MHRA found that 2,107 patients reported suspected adverse reactions, with several reporting multiple reactions.
At the risk of sounding like a worse quack than I am (I’m not opposed to all vaccines; just the flu shot and this one, really): Why the rush to vaccinate girls given those kinds of side effects?
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UPDATE: Health officials say it’s “most unlikely” the vaccine caused her death.
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SECOND UPDATE, THURSDAY MORNING: “A girl who was vaccinated against cervical cancer died from a malignant tumour of the chest and not from a reaction to the jab, it was revealed.”
by 
I quote from your quote,
“She added that the incident happened shortly after the girl received the vaccine, but “no link can be made between the death and the vaccine until all the facts are known and a post-mortem takes place.””
Stop jumping to conclusions. If you vaccinate a few tens or hundreds of thousands of girls (I expect it’s into the millions now) it’s inevitable a few will die shortly after vaccination. That doesn’t mean the vaccine caused it, and even if it did, that doesn’t mean it’s killing more than it will eventually save.
When programs such as this are pushed everywhere, I can’t help but wonder if the root cause is good old greed. Drug companies stand to make a lot of money from this.
Update for you:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/british-girl-dies-after-getting-vaccine/article1305176/
There’s still no proof of a connection – that’ll have to wait until the autopsy – but the batch of vaccine used has been quarantined just as a precaution.
It also mentions ‘more than 1.4 million doses of the vaccine have been given out so far under the program.’ One death in 1.4 million doses doesn’t sound too bad, even if it is connected. Even aspirin will kill a few people.
Most public vaccination programs involve diseases that are highly contagious and meant to protect both the recipient and the general public – measles/mumps/rubella, varicella, polio, to name a few. HPV is the only STI (I for “infection”, no longer D for “disease”) for which there is a vaccination, and the public health departments admit that the vaccine does not protect against all the forms of HPV.
My daughter came home from school last week with the permission form, and we have had several long conversations about why she is not receiving the vaccine. When her classmates found out that she is not receiving the vaccine, they asked her if she wanted to die from cancer. She replied that she has a greater chance of dying from the vaccine than from HPV at this point in her life. (That was her reply…something she came to on her own.)
In my mind, the public health departments have done a great disservice to young girls in this situation. It is much easier for parents to sign a permission form for a vaccine that costs nothing to them if done in the school, while the girls are in the eighth grade, an age at which peer pressure is quite high. As well, the documentation from Ottawa Public Health is rather misleading – “We (Ottawa Public Health) offer(s) the Human Papillomavirus Vaccine (HPV) free to all fematle students in Grade 8 in order to prevent the development of cervical cancer.” Reading that sentence, one would wonder who wouldn’t want to vaccinate their daughter to prevent a potentiallly deadly disease.
The first step in prevention is education. If you are going to choose anything other than abstinence, then you’d better be willing to suffer the consequences of your actions. This is one of those perfect opportunities for parents to have a sit-down with their daughters and talk about prevention, not just vaccinating them and sending them on their way with the false sense of security that they are protected from HPV and cervical cancer, without a thought to the consequences of risky behaviour.
The permission form itself states that when someone gets HPV “the body’s immune systerm usually gets rid of the virus on it’s (sic) own.” Can someone please tell me why the government is spending millions on a controversial vaccine for a disease that “usually” goes away on its own? $400/girl results in a huge profit for Merck and Co., Inc., the pharmaceutical company supplying Gardasil. In my community alone, that totals pretty close to half a million dollars.
My heart goes out to the family of this young girl. How many more young girls are going to die, or suffer serious consequences before a careful review of this practice is undertaken?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8284517.stm
“A girl who was vaccinated against cervical cancer died from a malignant tumour and not from a reaction to the jab, it has been revealed.”
“The pathologist who carried out the post-mortem examination on the girl said the tumour was so severe that death could have arisen at any point.”
Brigitte, or anyone else who can post on this blog, I wish to request that you post the above link and brief description of the article as a seperate entry. Having been responsible for much speculation and rumor, it could be considered your duty as a blogger to inform your readers of this new information before the untrue ‘vaccine killed a girl’ story you fed spreads any further.
Suzanne: The total death toll for the HPV vaccine, both of them in total, now stands at a nice round zero. There is no serious medical ground to refuse vaccination. If you wish for your daughter not to be vaccinated, then at least be honest about it. Don’t try to hide behind these false claims of danger, and just admit your real reason: You refuse to admit that your little angel could ever be capable of premarital sex.
Actually, Suricou, there are many documented cases of serious side effects from Gardasil. I don’t have the time to dig them out, but they’re there. I am not”try(ing) to hide behind these false claims of danger”. My decision was based on my own personal beliefs as well as weighing the information which I have read at length. As my child’s parent and guardian, I can make choices for her at this point in her life – that is my right and my duty. If she wants to decide for herself otherwise when she is older, she can. And yes, she might want to have premarital sex, and that is her choice. I’m just saying that if she makes that choice, then she can take responsibility for her actions – and the consequences.
Brigitte: Your update has been noted. Thank you.