Gardasil

HPV vaccine effectiveness – 14 year follow-up of women, all good news

Despite all that’s going on with the coronavirus pandemic, great studies about important subjects as HPV vaccine effectiveness continue to be published. And this study, which followed Nordic women for 14 years, continues to show us that the HPV vaccine is safe and effective.

So let’s take a moment to review this new article about HPV vaccine effectiveness, so that you have more evidence to support the value of the vaccine.Read More »HPV vaccine effectiveness – 14 year follow-up of women, all good news

Christopher Bunch – another tragedy blamed on the HPV vaccine

This article about the tragic story of Christopher Bunch was written by Dorit Rubinstein Reiss, Professor of Law at the University of California Hastings College of the Law (San Francisco, CA), who is a frequent contributor to this and many other blogs, providing in-depth, and intellectually stimulating, articles about vaccines, medical issues, social policy, and the law.

Professor Reiss writes extensively in law journals about the social and legal policies of vaccination. Additionally, Reiss is also a member of the Parent Advisory Board of Voices for Vaccines, a parent-led organization that supports and advocates for on-time vaccination and the reduction of vaccine-preventable disease.

On 14 August 2018, fourteen-year-old Christopher Bunch died from acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM), leaving his loving, devoted family reeling. The family blamed his death on the HPV vaccine that Christopher received, and they were quickly surrounded and courted by anti-vaccine activists.

My heart goes out to Christopher’s family. I followed the case since he was in the hospital, hoping and praying with them for a good outcome, and I feel their heartbreak. I was also deeply impressed by their initial reaction, which was to create a positive legacy for Christopher, making him visible and famous.

I would rather not write about this, which is why this post is so long after the fact. But Christopher’s death is since being used to try and scare people away from HPV vaccines or vaccines generally, putting others at risk of cancer and death. With very little basis: the timing and the epidemiological evidence do not support a link between Christopher’s death and HPV vaccines. Christopher Bunch deserves a better legacy than that.Read More »Christopher Bunch – another tragedy blamed on the HPV vaccine

HPV vaccine prevents genital warts – more evidence that Gardasil works

Recently, a new large meta-review has been published that shows the HPV vaccine prevents infection by HPV types that are linked to genital warts which probably means it can prevent the other HPV types that are linked to several cancers. So, if we can prevent these genital warts, we probably can prevent HPV-related cancers.

This article will take a look at why the HPV vaccine is so important and review this review on how the HPV vaccine can prevent genital warts.Read More »HPV vaccine prevents genital warts – more evidence that Gardasil works

Rand Paul is wrong about vaccines – there is no debate

by Michael Simpson
2020-09-09
16 Comments
COVID-19, HPV vaccine, Politics, Vaccines

Rand Paul thinks there’s a “debate” about vaccines. On one side, the ignorant, the uneducated, and the logical fallacy lovers, without any evidence whatsoever, invent some dubious and truly head-shaking nonsense about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines.

On the other side (as if there really are two sides), are the educated, the logic lovers, and the skeptics who value published scientific evidence as to the most important and fundamental guide to determining a scientific consensus. This scientific consensus has determined that the earth is 4.5 billion years old, that all organisms on this earth have evolved from a single organism 3 billion years or so ago, and that vaccines are safe and effective. A scientific consensus exists not because I say it, it exists because a vast majority (not 51-49, more like 99-1) of experts in the field agree to this consensus.

Some people believe that a scientific consensus is based on some vote, political maneuvering, without understanding that a consensus in the US Congress (as if that’ll ever happen) is almost the opposite of how science works, and eventually arrive at a scientific consensus.

If there were a debate about vaccines, the pro-science/pro-vaccine side would score about 1547 points to 1 pity point for the deniers. In other words, it would be a world record victory for the real science side.

But let’s get back to Rand Paul.
Read More »Rand Paul is wrong about vaccines – there is no debate

Dr. Diane Harper, lead Gardasil scientist’s actual HPV vaccine research

by Michael Simpson
2020-09-27
Cancer, GSK, HPV vaccine, Merck, Vaccines

Anti-vaxxers love their false authorities, such as the infamous Tetyana Obukhanych. They also love to invoke Dr. Diane Harper as the authority of choice with regard to HPV vaccines. Obukhanych is truly a false authority, but Dr. Harper is much more complicated.

Because vaccine deniers lack any scientific evidence supporting their unfounded beliefs about vaccines, they tend to rely upon unscientific information like anecdotes, logical fallacies, misinterpretation of data, or false authorities to support their case about the lack of safety of vaccines.

The so-called “lead Gardasil researcher,” Dr. Diane Harper, a former “consultant” to Merck and GSK, had some responsibilities in the clinical trials for their HPV vaccines. But the claims about whether Dr. Harper supports or dislikes those vaccines are substantially more complicated than what the anti-vaccine zealots would like to claim about her.

Amusingly, every few months the social media haunts of the anti-vaccine crowd explode with claims that Dr. Diane Harper, lead Gardasil researcher, hates HPV vaccines.

Let’s take a look at the story and see what we find.

HPV vaccine uptake doubles over 5 years in USA – anti-vaxxers show sad faces

A new study has shown that, despite the false information of the anti-vaccine fanatics, HPV vaccine uptake doubled between 2013 and 2018 in US adults between the ages of 18 and 26.

The HPV vaccine is one of the few actual methods to prevent cancer, more important than drinking kale-blueberry shakes every day. Thus, this increase in the HPV vaccine uptake in both girls and boys will lead to a long-term decrease in the rate of many cancers.

Let’s take a detailed look at the results of this report.Read More »HPV vaccine uptake doubles over 5 years in USA – anti-vaxxers show sad faces

Gardasil facts – debunking myths about HPV vaccine safety and efficacy

by Michael Simpson
2020-09-27
500 Comments
Cancer, HPV vaccine, Merck, Robert F Kennedy Jr, Vaccines

The HPV cancer-preventing vaccine, especially Gardasil (or Silgard, depending on market), has been targeted by the anti-vaccine religion more than just about any other vaccine being used these days. So many people tell me that they give their children all the vaccines, but refuse to give them the HPV vaccine based on rumor and innuendo on the internet. This article provides all the posts I’ve written about Gardasil’s safety and efficacy.

As many regular readers know, I focus on just a few topics in medicine, with my two favorites being vaccines and cancer – of course, the Gardasil cancer-preventing vaccine combines my two favorite topics. Here’s one thing that has become clear to me – there are no magical cancer prevention schemes. You are not going to prevent any of the 200 different cancers by drinking a banana-kale-quinoa smoothie every day. The best ways to prevent cancer are to quit smoking, stay out of the sun, keep active and thin, get your cancer-preventing vaccines, and following just a few more recommendations.

The benefits of the vaccine are often overlooked as a result of two possible factors – first, there’s a disconnect between personal activities today and cancer that could be diagnosed 20-30 years from now; and second, people think that there are significant dangers from the vaccine which are promulgated by the anti-vaccine religion.

It’s frustrating and difficult to explain Gardasil’s safety and efficacy as a result of the myths about the safety and long-term efficacy of the vaccine. That’s why I have written nearly 200 articles about Gardasil safety and efficacy, along with debunking some ridiculous myths about the cancer-preventing vaccine. This article serves to be a quick source with links to most of those 200 articles.

And if you read nothing else in this review of Gardasil, read the section entitled “Gardasil safety and effectiveness – a quick primer” – that will link you to two quick to read articles that summarize the best evidence in support of the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness.

Anal cancer rates have skyrocketed in the USA – get the HPV vaccine

Diagnoses and deaths from anal cancer, which is related to the human papillomavirus (HPV), have risen dramatically over the last 15 years according to a new peer-reviewed article. This study was the first to compare and categorize HPV-related anal cancer by stage at diagnosis, year of birth, and mortality.

One of the myths about the HPV vaccine is that its only purpose is to prevent cervical cancer in women. Although that is important, this study shows that preventing anal cancer should be one of the goals of getting the HPV vaccine.

Like I usually do with anything related to the HPV vaccine, let’s take a look at the disease and the study.Read More »Anal cancer rates have skyrocketed in the USA – get the HPV vaccine

Gardasil 9 safety – more published evidence supporting the HPV vaccine

Two new articles (plus an editorial) published in Pediatrics reinforce the evidence supporting Gardasil 9 safety. I have been writing about the safety of the cancer-preventing HPV vaccines for years, and it’s clear that it’s settled science.

Of course, I’m here to review any new articles about Gardasil 9 safety, because the evidence supporting it has become overwhelming. Nevertheless, HPV vaccine uptake has remained stubbornly low, around 49% in the USA as of 2017.

Let’s start with a quick review of HPV and HPV vaccines.Read More »Gardasil 9 safety – more published evidence supporting the HPV vaccine

Gardasil safety facts – debunking myths about the HPV vaccine

by Michael Simpson
2019-10-23
Cancer, Christopher Shaw, HPV vaccine, Vaccines

I’ve written nearly a metric tonne of articles about Gardasil safety facts over the past eight years. Most of my posts covered peer-reviewed studies and meta-reviews that support the overall HPV vaccine safety and effectiveness profiles. It is settled science.

There are so many myths, memes, and tropes about HPV vaccine safety, all of them based on anecdotes, false claims, and stories – all of them lack the support of robust scientific evidence.

For example, there have been several recent stories about the claimed dangers of the HPV vaccine, like Colton Berrett’s tragic suicide after contracting transverse myelitis. The parents blamed Gardasil for Colton’s disease, despite the fact that there is simply no evidence of such a link. Of all of the vaccines on the market, the anti-vaccine world appears to reserve their most unscientific hatred for Gardasil.

There is one common point about my boatload of articles about Gardasil safety facts – they are backed by literally dozens of powerful, unbiased, statistically significant, repeated clinical and epidemiological studies.

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