Arguments against HPV vaccines

[Hilarity_N.Suze]

@Really_Not_All_That_Bright

@Hilarity_N.Suze

“It hurts” and “you have to go back 3x and get 3 of them” have been valid arguments against so far.

All vaccinations hurt, but even Jenny McCarthy never trotted out that excuse.

Jenny McCarthy, whoever the hell she is, has her reasons, and I have mine. Mainly that the kid is now bigger than me and if he doesn’t want a series of three painful shots, it’s going to be hard to convince him to get them unless he (and his parents) see a certain benefit.

[Jackmannii]

Hmm…big strong adolescent football players who pride themselves on “playing through pain”, blanching and even fainting over the idea of getting a shot. :rolleyes:

There are variable reports that HPV vaccination may result in a few seconds of stinging making it more uncomfortable than other shots. Others report no difference between HPV vaccination and, say, a flu shot. This hasn’t stopped goofy stories from being spread around, like this classic from an Internet forum:

“They said when the actual shot was going in and circulating through their veins it was excruciating, and their arms hurt for days after.”

Uh, girls? It’s an intramuscular injection, like other vaccines. It isn’t given intravenously. But if you’ve convinced yourself it’s going to be excruciating, it may well be.

A lot of the fear that some have surrounding the vaccine is a basic fear of needles*. This can be hard to shake, but fear of having to have repeatedly colposcopic exams, biopsies and LEEP procedures due to cervical dysplasia resulting from HPV infection is a lot more rational.

*Fear of needles (belonephobia) is one of the forces driving antivaxers, though phobiacs are loath to admit it.

[Guinastasia]

Better a painful shot and even fainting than the effects of cancer.

[LavenderBlue]

Some of the arguments that came out against it initially stemmed from alleged reports of girls being harmed by it. Vaccines reactions are supposed to be reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System or VAERS.

The problem with the VAERS data is that anyone can report a reaction. It’s only afterwards that officials verify the data to see if there’s a problem.

Here’s an example by a respected journalist of bad reporting on the Gardasil vaccine and alleged bad reactions:

The HPV Vaccine Debate | HuffPost Life

For example, the guardians of an 18-year-old girl reported to VAERS that she had suffered a psychotic episode a week after getting Gardasil. Among other symptoms, the girl went around telling people that the vaccine was “poison coursing through my body.” This doesn’t sound like an actual vaccine reaction, or at least not one you can blame on the vaccine.

More to the point, the three deaths reported to VAERS after HPV were heart attacks that followed administration of the vaccine by three hours, a week and two weeks, respectively. It’s a good thing that they were reported to VAERS. We need to know if people are dying after vaccination. But when people die following a vaccination, it isn’t necessarily the vaccination that caused it, a fact that generations of vaccine critics have failed to clearly see as they bungle their interpretations of VAERS data.

When the CDC, responding to the three death reports, interviewed doctors and examined the charts, they found that one, a case of myocarditis, was caused by influenza virus. The other two were blood clots in adolescents taking birth control pills. Birth control pills are known to raise the risk of blood clots. “These deaths are tragic but appear to have causes unrelated to vaccination,” says Dr. John Iskander, co-director of the Immunization Safety Office at the CDC.

Oh and the worst Australian anti-vax nut isn’t the health minister.

That “honor” belongs to Meryl Dorey:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/07/12/2951629.htm

Dana McCaffery died of whooping cough in March last year.

She was 32 days old - too young to be vaccinated against the disease also known as pertussis.

What her parents Toni and Dave did not realise was that they lived in an area with one of the lowest rates of childhood vaccination in the nation, and one of the highest rates of whooping cough.

The McCaffery’s live just a few kilometres from the headquarters of the AVN.

They say they have been harassed by the AVN since their daughter died and that the AVN has made repeated claims that Dana did not die of pertussis.

“Our daughter wasn’t even buried and it began,” Ms McCaffery said.

“It began the day before her funeral, it began with phone calls to the health department to get her medical records, contending she didn’t die of pertussis.”

An email from Paul Corben, the director of Public Health at the North Coast Area Health Service, backs up Ms McCaffery’s claims.

In the email, Mr Corben says Ms Dorey called him on March 12 seeking details of Dana’s death and accusing him of misleading the public by attributing the cause to pertussis.