Among the hundreds of TV commercials I see repeated every week, a number of them grate on my nerves. The Bleecker car commercial here in Raleigh is one of those, but by far the most agitating is for a prescription drug. It’s not the bouncing Zoloft dot or the people doing Taichi in the park – it’s the ‘One Less’ campaign for the human papillomavirus vaccine, Gardasil.
According to the drug’s informational Web site, Gardasil is approved as an Federal Drug Administration-approved cervical cancer vaccine for girls as young as nine, although its primary focus group is between the ages of 18-25. The vaccine is touted to protect against four strains of the HPV linked to 70 percent of cervical cancer cases and 90 percent of genital warts diagnoses.
It seems the drug lobbyists have become so powerful that people forgo common sense when presented with an aggressive ad campaign. Too bad it doesn’t work for smokers because I’m sure we can all sing that truth commercial song in our sleep. The numbers alone should raise at least an eyebrow, if not concern. From 2006 to June 30, 2008, the FDA has reported 9,749 adverse reactions to the vaccine, ranging in severity from prolonged pain and swelling at the injection site to fainting, grand mal seizures and even anaphylactic shock.
Although I have no personal experience, aside from being given vaccine brochures after expressing no interest in the drug at the Student Health Center, I have two friends who have had the Gardasil shots. Both have said that it is the most painful of all of the childhood shots, and one fainted following a vaccination.
The cost of the three-shot vaccination series is another issue. At the Student Health Center, the current price is $444, but in many cases private insurance will cover little or none of the cost. The reasoning behind this is because the vaccine is not cost-effective. Unlike inoculations for polio or smallpox, the amount of money saved by not treating a disease does not merit the cost.
This vaccine does not cure cancer. It doesn’t treat cancer. And it doesn’t even necessarily prevent cancer, which is the whole point of the thing to begin with.
While prevention is the key to most medical problems, I feel that my risk would be no lower with Gardasil than it is by getting yearly Pap exams. Viruses mutate, grow and become ever more virulent. We are a culture of drug addicts, and most of the drugs are legal. Don’t put yourself at risk for scary side effects for basically no reason simply because Merck’s ad campaign or even your doctor tells you to. I do encourage you, however, to become one less – one less uninformed consumer.
E-mail Catie your vaccination thoughts and concerns to [email protected].
