Could the HPV Vaccine Do More Harm Than Good?
This year marks the 10-year anniversary of the release of the Human Papillomaviruses Vaccine (HPV). This means that the vaccine is hardly new. In fact, over the last decade this vaccine has been administered to thousands of young women, and now more and more health and government officials are encouraging young men to receive the vaccine as well. The vaccine is meant to lower the risk of contracting or developing cervical cancer, anal cancer, throat cancers, and other related cancers. It can also help to lower the risk of developing genital warts. The vaccine is especially recommended for girls between the ages of 11–12. However, some schools, such as those in Rhode Island, Virginia, and Washington D.C. are now requiring it for their students. But is the vaccine safe? Should parents be concerned?
The safety of the HPV Vaccine has been debated quite a bit over the past 10 years since it was first introduced. America is not the only country who has debated the safety, either. In fact, Japan no longer endorses or recommends the vaccine after having thousands of residents experience negative side effects after receiving the vaccine. Some of these side effects have even been fatal.
America seems to have a different method for dealing with negative reactions to the vaccine. Rather than withdraw their support of the vaccine, America has instead chosen to quietly pay out millions of dollars to those who have suffered severe adverse effects after receiving the vaccine. This action has some individuals including Dr. Sin Hang Lee, the director of the Milford Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory of Milford, Connecticut, up in arms.
After coming across information from the World Health Organization, (WHO), Lee believes that the public, namely Japan, has been grossly misled regarding the safety of the HPV vaccine. Furthermore, Lee claims that the WHO was aware of the fact that the vaccine contained questionable chemicals that contributed to severe adverse reactions which were not limited to the release of cytokines which are known to cause cell death which can cause tumor regressions, septic shock, and/or cachexia, all of which can ultimately result in death. Lee has expressed his concerns in an open letter addressed to the WHO in which he describes their actions as being a major “crime against humanity” and he urges the WHO to immediately pull the vaccine off of the market.
What can we learn from Lee’s discoveries and his open letter to the government? While it may be easy to assume that the answer is to put an end to all vaccines, especially the HPV vaccine, that is not necessarily the right answer. Rather than putting a cease to all vaccinations what we really need and what Lee, like many other vaccine research advocates including Clare Dwoskin, is arguing for is better research. The HPV vaccine should not be in wide use if there are concerns over the chemicals and ingredients being used. The best solution would be to temporarily pull the vaccine off the market until better research on its safety can be conducted and the vaccine perfected to the point where safety is no longer a major concern.
