(Washington, DC) -- Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released documents obtained from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, detailing 1,637 reports of adverse reactions to the vaccination for human papillomavirus (HPV), Gardasil. Three deaths were related to the vaccine. One physician’s assistant reported that a female patient “died of a blood clot three hours after getting the Gardasil vaccine.” Two other reports, on girls 12 and 19, reported deaths relating to heart problems and/or blood clotting.
As of May 11, 2007, the 1,637 adverse vaccination reactions reported to the FDA via the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) included 371 serious reactions. Of the 42 women who received the vaccine while pregnant, 18 experienced side effects ranging from spontaneous abortion to fetal abnormities.
Side effects published by Merck & Co. warn the public about potential pain, fever, nausea, dizziness and itching after receiving the vaccine. Indeed, 77% of the adverse reactions reported are typical side effects to vaccinations. But other more serious side effects reported include paralysis, Bells Palsy, Guillain-Barre Syndrome, and seizures.
“The FDA adverse event reports on the HPV vaccine read like a catalog of horrors,” stated Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “Any state or local government now beset by Merck’s lobbying campaigns to mandate this HPV vaccine for young girls ought to take a look at these adverse health reports. It looks as if an unproven vaccine with dangerous side effects is being pushed as a miracle drug.”
Judicial Watch filed its request on May 9, 2007, and received the adverse event reports from the FDA on May 15, 2007. Judicial Watch has posted the adverse event reports below.
(A recent study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, also questioned the general effectiveness of Gardasil.)
Judicial Watch
Fourteen-year-old Jessica Vega went into the emergency room at Renown Regional Medical Center in Reno on Thursday night when she couldn't move her legs and her arms felt weak. "Her legs are paralyzed, her arms are affected. She is very weak in her arms," said Tondra Vees a family friend. "She has to use a walker. Even with that, she can't get to the bathroom. She can't stand up at all."
Vees said the girl has been determined by her doctor to have Guillain-Barre syndrome, an acute, autoimmune condition that can lead to paralysis. The girl, whose mother Rhonda Vega is a full-time teacher's aide at Carson Valley Middle School, received her first booster shot of the cervical cancer
prevention vaccine Gardasil on May 2. "According to her neurologist, that's what caused this," said Vees, Nevada State Health Officer Dr. Bradford Lee said the Web sites the Nevada State Health Department checks don't list the girl's symptoms as a side-effect. "We are aware of a report of an alleged side-effect," said Lee. "Based on the CDC's site and the manufacturer's site, this is not a side-effect of the vaccine."
Vees said the girl has been determined by her doctor to have Guillain-Barre syndrome, an acute, autoimmune condition that can lead to paralysis. Vees said the girl was being moved to a rehabilitation center on Tuesday. "Thankfully, since Thursday, it doesn't appear to be ending up in her respiratory system, although she's getting weaker," Vees said. "They were going to let her go home, but now she's not. I think they expect her to be in (rehabilitation) for a month or so."
Vees cites a Feb. 21 report on the National Vaccine Information Center Web site, nvic.org, in which NVIC president Barbara Loe Fisher states, "There are twice as many children collapsing and four times as many children experiencing tingling, numbness and loss of sensation after getting a Gardasil vaccination compared to those getting a TDAP (tetanus-diphtheria-acellular pertussis) vaccination. There have been reports of facial paralysis and Guillain-Barre syndrome."
Vees cites that according to nvic.org, the vaccine's manufacturer, Merck & Co., studied Gardasil in fewer than 1,200 girls younger than age 16 in "pre-licensure trials." According to Vees, the girl had not received any other vaccines at the same time, and prior to Thursday was "healthy as a horse."
Public information officer Martha Framsted and Lee, both of the Nevada State Health Department, said Monday they check for vaccine information only from government-approved Web sites. "We always try to go to the Web sites that have been scientifically proven," said Framsted. "I don't believe (the National Vaccine Information Center) is one of our federal partners."
The agencies the health department does check with before approving a vaccine are the Center for Disease Control and Prevention ([Link] the manufacturer's Web site (in this case gardasil.com and merckvaccines.com) and with the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, the only entity in the federal government which can make recommendations regarding routine administration of vaccines, according to the CDC.
The Web site gardasil.com states that the only side effects are "pain, swelling, itching and redness at the injection site, fever, nausea and dizziness."
Nevada Appeal - News
Three Girls Dead From HPV Vaccine, One Paralyzed 
Get regular pap smears and you'll be okay.
