Harper: Controversal Drug Will Do Little To Reduce Cervical Cancer Rates
By Susan Brinkmann, For The Bulletin
Sunday, October 25, 2009Dr. Diane Harper, lead
researcher in the development of two human papilloma virus vaccines, Gardasil
and Cervarix, said the controversial drugs will do little to reduce cervical
cancer rates and, even though they’re being recommended for girls as young as
nine, there have been no efficacy trials in children under the age of 15.
Dr. Harper, director of the Gynecologic Cancer Prevention Research Group at the
University of Missouri, made these remarks during an address at the 4th
International Public Conference on Vaccination which took place in Reston,
Virginia on Oct. 2-4. Although her talk was intended to promote the vaccine,
participants said they came away convinced the vaccine should not be received.
“I came away from the talk with the perception that the risk of adverse side
effects is so much greater than the risk of cervical cancer, I couldn’t help but
question why we need the vaccine at all,” said Joan Robinson, Assistant Editor
at the Population Research Institute.
Dr. Harper began her remarks by explaining that 70 percent of all HPV infections
resolve themselves without treatment within a year. Within two years, the number
climbs to 90 percent. Of the remaining 10 percent of HPV infections, only half
will develop into cervical cancer, which leaves little need for the vaccine.
She went on to surprise the audience by stating 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
US.”
There will be no decrease in cervical cancer until at least 70 percent of the
population is vaccinated, and even then, the decrease will be minimal.
Apparently, conventional treatment and preventative measures are already cutting
the cervical cancer rate by four percent a year. At this rate, in 60 years,
there will be a 91.4 percent decline just with current treatment. Even if 70
percent of women get the shot and required boosters over the same time period,
which is highly unlikely, Harper says Gardasil still could not claim to do as
much as traditional care is already doing.
Dr. Harper, who also serves as a consultant to the World Health Organization,
further undercut the case for mass vaccination by saying that “four out of five
women with cervical cancer are in developing countries.”
Ms. Robinson said she could not help but wonder, “If this is the case, then why
vaccinate at all? But from the murmurs of the doctors in the audience, it was
apparent that the same thought was occurring to them.”
However, at this point, Dr. Harper dropped an even bigger bombshell on the
audience when she announced that, “There have been no efficacy trials in girls
under 15 years.”
Merck, the manufacturer of Gardasil, studied only a small group of girls under
16 who had been vaccinated, but did not follow them long enough to conclude
sufficient presence of effective HPV antibodies.
This is not the first time Dr. Harper revealed the fact that Merck never tested
Gardasil for safety in young girls. During a 2007 interview with KPC
News.com, she said giving the vaccine to girls as
young as 11 years-old “is a great big public health experiment.”
At the time, which was at the height of Merck’s controversial drive to have the
vaccine mandated in schools, Dr. Harper remained steadfastly opposed to the idea
and said she had been trying for months to convince major television and print
media about her concerns, “but no one will print it.”
“It is silly to mandate vaccination of 11 to 12 year old girls,” she said at the
time. “There also is not enough evidence gathered on side effects to know that
safety is not an issue.”
When asked why she was speaking out, she said: “I want to be able to sleep with
myself when I go to bed at night.”
Since the drug’s introduction in 2006, the public has been learning many of
these facts the hard way. To date, 15,037 girls have officially reported adverse
side effects from Gardasil to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System
(VAERS). These adverse reactions include Guilliane Barre, lupus, seizures,
paralysis, blood clots, brain inflammation and many others. The CDC acknowledges
that there have been 44 reported deaths.
Dr. Harper also participated in the research on Glaxo-Smith-Kline’s version of
the drug, Cervarix, currently in use in the UK but not yet approved here. Since
the government began administering the vaccine to school-aged girls last year,
more than 2,000 patients reported some kind of adverse reaction including
nausea, dizziness, blurred vision, convulsions, seizures and hyperventilation.
Several reported multiple reactions, with 4,602 suspected side-effects recorded
in total. The most tragic case involved a 14 year-old girl who dropped dead in
the corridor of her school an hour after receiving the vaccination.
The outspoken researcher also weighed in last month on a report published in the
Journal of the American Medical Association that raised questions about the
safety of the vaccine, saying bluntly: "The rate of serious adverse events is
greater than the incidence rate of cervical cancer."
Ms. Robinson said she respects Dr. Harper’s candor. “I think she’s a scientist,
a researcher, and she’s genuine enough a scientist to be open about the risks. I
respect that in her.”
However, she failed to make the case for Gardasil. “For me, it was hard to
resist the conclusion that Gardasil does almost nothing for the health of
American women.”