Sunday, January 27, 2008

Gardasil, is it safe, is it needed?

The death of two young women who received the cervical cancer vaccination is causing some in the U.K. to question a strategy that calls for hundreds of thousands of schoolgirls to receive the shot next fall,

full story here

what do you think?

13 comments:

Bobkat said...

Anything thta fights cancer of any kind is a good thing. Such drugs undergo rigorous testing before being approved but having said that it would seem there is a case for further investigation before blanket vaccinbations are offered to school girls. If I had a daughter I know there would be doubts in my mind. If nothing else the general populace need to be reassured it is safe, otherwise a potentially life saving vaccination may be bypassed by many it could save.

kenju said...

I agree with Bob-kat; I think it should be offered on a optional choice basis. There will awlways be some people who will die from a new medication. The telling of the tale is in the percentage of deaths as contrasted to how many are saved from having cervical cancer. That said, I would not automatically give it to a young girl. Michele says hi!

Andi said...

I am finding this scary....and would find it terrifying if I were a young girl who was in the habit of reading the news. Michele sent me.

Jean-Luc Picard said...

Sometines, the long term effects are not obvious.

Michele sent me here.

Sara said...

Hello, Michele sent me to say - You really don't want to know what I think! Let me say this and this is about as polite as I can say it...I think we have too many immunizations that are being forced on our children that result in many, many bad things. I think the FDA, CDC, and other agencies like them are the spawn of the devil! They DO NOT care about anything - especially the lives of our citizens...all they really care about is the billions of dollars that they can steal from the citizens of the United States and the kick backs they get from drug manufacturers!

The govenment demanded immunizations are a violation of our freedom as US Citizens!

Anonymous said...

wow. I think that there should be more testing before giving it to school girls, but I'd like to believe a lot of them aren't out there haven't sex, too. I think with any type of vaccination there are going to be those who die from them. If I had a daughter, I may think differently. and it absolutely should be offered as an option.
michele sent me

jel said...

the first i heard about this , that there was something wrong with it! I just don't feel good about it !

Anonymous said...

I've always been hesitant to jump on the medication band wagon. it seems that there's a new medication coming out everyday with crazy side affects. I like to know that these things have stood the test of time.

Michele sent me

Leslie

Snaggle Tooth said...

Scary! My opinion is no shots should be mandatory, n especially not without the test of time-
This definately points to an unknown issue for some patients.

I'm a person who reacts strangely to medications others tolerate, with many allergies. I'm cautious of all drugs, n make certain someone keeps an eye on me each time anything new is taken.

Assuming any drug is safe for everyone is never wise. These death cases didn't stop Viiox for decades, either.

Russ said...

I wonder how many womens lives are saved by this drug vs. how many have complications due to it's use.
Fighting Cancer seems to be like fighting a war... we send out best troops and weapons but sometimes people die.
I hate anything that causes the death of a young person. Will our society accept a trade-off in a situation like this as we accept sending young men to war?

Ladybug Crossing said...

This is the first cancer vaccine available. My LLB got the vaccines. It is a series of 3 given a specific intervals. The doctor recommended it and told me had researched himself. He has daughters and they got it, too.
I firmly believe that if this can help her not get one type of cancer - that is a fast and nasty killer... it's worth the risk.

Rain Trueax said...

I have read other doubts about its safety and do not like it being required. For one thing it is assuming that all young women (or most) will end up having many sexual partners and that's still not true. I think it should be an option (if it's been well tested); but it'd be like requiring flu shots for everyone and I'm allergic to them. Some of this is to make money for drug companies.

David Edward said...

The Minnesota Department of Health is recommending not making the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine a requirement for teen girls. According to the state health commissioner, Dr. Sanne Magnan, “Mandating the vaccine as a requirement for school attendance is premature.”