CDC details side effects reported on Gardasil

This is one of those situations where a true breakthrough that will prevent potentially hundreds or thousands of cases of cervical cancer every year, not to mention many deaths, as well, is being 'vilified' unjustly. I see on this web newsletter, the lawyers are already gearing-up for an attempt at a class action suit. There's an old saying that "no good deed should go unpunished", usually applied to the stock market. But this is a perfect example. As an Infectious Disease specialist, I can tell you that this vaccine is truly a remarkable breakthrough. I certainly hope that the misplaced legal threats die out soon before women shy away from using a vaccine where the benefit greatly outweighs the risk.

When you take into account the actual number of cases of cervical cancer being caused by HPV is very small, you realize that Merck is making millions from scaring young women into thinking they're fully protected from cervical cancer by taking this vaccine. While they do provide a disclaimer to the effect of saying it doesn't prevent all cervical cancers or herpes viruses, they still project the image that this vaccine will 'do it all' and prevent cervical cancer through their aggressive advertising campaigns. It needs to be stressed that this vaccine is for certain strains of HPV ONLY and cervical cancer needs to be left completely out of their advertising. It's misleading. While it may be exactly what a very few young women need in order to prevent those few cases of HPV caused cervical cancer, it's a vaccine that is virtually useless to anyone but Merck's investors.

Nobody talks about the costs of abnormal pap smears. It is a stressful and inconvenient process to treat them. In the west we have been successful in preventing cervical cancer via pap smears. Since the vaccine prevents pre-cancerous cells, isn't that worth quantifying? Nobody is mentioning that.