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YOUNG WOMEN, THE HP
VIRUS,
AND A
VACCINE CALLED GARDASIL
The magazine ad proclaims: “The power
to help prevent cervical cancer is in your hands… and on your daughter’s arm.”
The television commercial shows elementary or middle school-aged girls happy
that they’ll be “one less” girl who has to risk the threat of cervical cancer.
How does a Biblical woman respond to these messages?
First, we need to know the basic
facts.
1.
What is Gardasil? Gardasil is a vaccine (injection/shot) that helps
protect against some diseases caused by Human Papillomavirus (HPV). One of
those diseases is cervical cancer.
2.
Who makes Gardasil? Gardasil is
a drug manufactured by Merck and Company, Inc.
3.
How is the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) contracted?
The only way to get HPV is by sexual activity.
The following “talking points” will
help older and younger women learn more about the realities of the HPV vaccine
called Gardasil –
·
Gardasil is not a vaccine against cervical cancer; rather, it is a vaccine
against HPV which is contracted through sexual relations.
·
Texas Governor Rick Perry has mandated the HPV vaccine. The cost of each
vaccination was estimated at $360 (a series of three is required). Perry’s
mandate will generate over one hundred million dollars every year for Merck in
Texas and, if adopted nationwide, would generate billions of dollars for Merck
every year. (Merck is the maker of VIOXX, the anti-arthritic drug, which was
pulled off the market.) No public emergency existed for Governor Perry to have
assumed “dictatorial” power and mandated this vaccine. Has a dangerous
precedent been set?
·
The
Texas Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Catholic
Medical Association oppose mandatory HPV vaccination.
·
Merck admits in its own literature that it did not prove that the vaccine would
prevent cancer. The HPV vaccine only protects against 4 of the 127 strains of
HPV.
·
According to the British medical journal, The Lancet, the vaccine is only
effective for 4-1/2 years. A booster injection will be needed every five
years. This has not even been discussed. Can we count on Merck to lobby to
have this booster shot mandated and paid for with tax dollars?
·
It
takes between 8.1 and 12.6 years to develop cervical cancer. Merck testing of
Gardasil was only 4 years among 25,000 subjects, far less than the average time
lapse needed to develop the cancer.
·
Gardasil is recommended for girls and young women ages 9 to 26. Why would Merck
and state legislators target pre-teenage and teenage girls for a sexually
transmitted disease?
·
The
common Pap Smear is highly effective in detecting abnormalities that lead to
cervical cancer. Gardasil vaccination does not eliminate the need for regular
pap smears.
·
Cervical cancer causes approximately one percent (0.77%) of all cancer deaths in
America.
·
The
average age of a woman who develops cervical cancer is 48 years of age. Will a
vaccine administered at the age of 11 be effective 37 years into the future?
·
Of
the more than 25,000 total individuals tested, less than 2,000 girls aged 9 to
15 were included in clinical trials.
·
Reports show that actual costs for the HPV vaccine are running above the
estimated $360 per injection (three shot series). In addition, girls and women
must have a pregnancy test before each vaccine per Merck recommendations against
vaccinating pregnant women. Is this vaccine harmful to preborn children?
·
Since boys are the “donors” of the HP virus to the girls, how long will it be
until a forced vaccination of boys will be enacted?
Titus 2 women – please share these
“talking points” with others. Know the facts. Then ask: What does God want for
me? For my daughter? For my granddaughter?
Do
you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom
you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price.
Therefore, honor God with your body.
(1 Corinthians
6:19-20)
It is God’s will that
you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of
you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable . .
. For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.
(1 Thessalonians
4:3, 7)
Don’t
let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the
believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity.
(1 Timothy 4:12)
[Older
women] can train the younger women to . . . be self-controlled and pure . . .
(Titus 2:4, 5)
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