I’m Not Anti-Vaccine, I Just Don’t Believe in the HPV Vaccine

Believe it or not, there are some parents who get their kids each and every vaccine, but skip the one that protects them from cancer.

I’m Not Anti-Vaccine, I Just Don’t Believe in the HPV Vaccine

Why?

HPV Vaccine is Cancer Prevention.

That’s a good question.

And although they won’t have a good answer, some of their reasons include that:

  • the HPV vaccine is too new – even though Gardasil was first approved in 2006 and the first phase 1 and phase 2 trials began in 1997!
  • they don’t think it is necessary – even though about 4,200 women die of cervical cancer each year (that’s just in the United States), even in this age of routine pap tests
  • it might lead their kids to have early sex or unprotected sex – even though studies show it won’t
  • Michele Bachmann once said it caused mental retardation – even though she had no evidence to support her claim
  • the HPV vaccine is too controversial – any “controversy” about Gardasil and Cervarix is made up by anti-vaccine folks
  • HPV vaccines can cause POTS, ASIA, primary ovarian failure, venous blood clots, behavior problems, or multiple sclerosis, etc. – even though over and over, studies have found HPV vaccines to be safe and to not cause any of the other serious side effects or vaccine induced diseases you read about on the Internet that scare you away from vaccinating and protecting your kids
  • it is banned in Utah – even though that isn’t true
  • it doesn’t provide life-long protection – even though the protection has been found to be long-lasting, as long as we have been giving the vaccine so far
  • it is banned in Japan and France – even though HPV vaccines aren’t banned anywhere and are actually on the immunization schedule in at least 64 countries
  • Katie Couric once did a scary segment on HPV vaccines – well, she did but later apologized… after being called out for pushing anti-vaccine misinformation
  • an HPV vaccine researcher says it’s dangerous – no, the HPV vaccine researcher, Diane Harper, actually says it is a safe vaccine
  • HPV vaccines are just for girls – even though there are around 11,000 cases of HPV induced cancer in men each year, including anal cancer and cancers of the mouth/throat and penis
  • their kids are too young and can get it later, when they are older – even though protection is likely better when they get the vaccine when they are younger, and you don’t want to wait too long, when you increase the chance that they will have had sex and will already be exposed to HPV

So why aren’t you getting your kids vaccinated and protected… against cancer?

Need to do more research? Read the links below and then schedule your kids for their HPV vaccine.

More on HPV Vaccine Safety

Sharyl Attkisson’s Full Measure Vaccine Debate Bombshell

A bombshell about vaccines from Sharyl Attkisson?

To be fair, even Sharyl Attkisson doesn't go so far as to talk about a CIA cover-up over vaccines or a banned video. That's just something extra that Natural News threw in to make her story sound even scarier.
To be fair, even Sharyl Attkisson doesn’t go so far as to talk about a CIA cover-up over vaccines or a banned video. That’s just something extra that the Health Ranger threw in to make her story sound even scarier.

The only bombshell that’s dropping about Sharyl Attkisson is that someone hasn’t gotten fired yet for putting her show on TV.

Sharyl Attkisson’s Full Measure Vaccine Debate Bombshell

To be fair, it’s a bit of a stretch to say that her show, Full Measure, is “on TV.”

“Full Measure is broadcast to 43 million households in 79 markets on 162 Sinclair Broadcast Group stations, including ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CW, MyTV, Univision and Telemundo affiliates.”

The show appears at various times on various channels, kind of like an infomercial. And these stations, owed by Sinclair Broadcasting Group, have to run the show.

The show isn’t really on ABC, NBC, or even FOX or CW… It is only on affiliate stations that Sinclair Broadcast Group owns.

And like an infomercial, it seems like Sharyl Attkisson has something to sell.

There is nothing new in Sharyl Attkisson's report or techniques.
There is nothing new in Sharyl Attkisson’s report or techniques.

Unfortunately, some folks are still buying it…

You shouldn’t. Vaccines are safe and necessary and certainly aren’t associated with autism.

More on Sharyl Attkisson’s Full Measure Vaccine Debate Bombshell

Did a Top Cancer Scientist Suddenly Die After Getting a Yellow Fever Vaccination?

We are seeing many reports that Professor Martin Gore, an oncologist at London’s Royal Marsden Hospital for more than 35 years, died suddenly after getting a yellow fever vaccine.

Could that be true?

Could someone really die after getting a routine vaccination?

Did a Top Cancer Scientist Suddenly Die After Getting a Yellow Fever Vaccination?

Of course, it could be true.

Although vaccines are very safe, they are not 100% risk free. And tragically, they do very rarely have life-threatening side effects.

To be fair, we don’t know the full story about what happened to Prof Gore, but the media reports do say that he suffered total organ failure shortly after getting his yellow fever vaccine.

What we don’t know is how shortly after getting the vaccine or if there is any evidence for another cause for his having organ failure.

Still, although most side effects are mild, it is reported that the yellow fever vaccine, which has been available for more than 80 years, can rarely cause:

How rarely?

About 1 in 55,000 for severe allergic reactions, 1 in 125,000 for severe nervous system reactions, and 1 in 250,000 for life-threatening severe illness with organ failure.

And the risks are likely higher if you are older than age 60 years, although YEL-AND and YEL-AVD are not reported to happen with booster doses of the yellow fever vaccine.

“People aged ≥60 years may be at increased risk for serious adverse events (serious disease or, very rarely, death) following vaccination, compared with younger persons. This is particularly true if they are receiving their first yellow fever vaccination. Travelers aged ≥60 years should discuss with their healthcare provider the risks and benefits of the vaccine given their travel plans.”

Yellow Fever Frequently Asked Questions

Why would you get the yellow fever vaccine if you were older than aged 60 years and you knew there was a higher risk of severe side effects?

Yellow fever itself is a life threatening disease without a cure and a case fatality rate of up to 50%, and again, YEL-AVD is not common, occurring in about 0.4/100,000 doses.

So you would typically want to get vaccinated if you were traveling to an area where yellow fever was a risk.

“Since January 2018, 10 travel-related cases of yellow fever, including four deaths, have been reported in international travelers returning from Brazil. None of the 10 travelers had received yellow fever vaccination.”

Fatal Yellow Fever in Travelers to Brazil, 2018

In addition to outbreaks, yellow fever is still endemic in forty-seven countries in Africa and Central and South America, leading to 170,000 severe cases and 60,000 deaths in recent years, including some deaths in unvaccinated travelers returning from these areas. Did you read about these deaths in the paper?

Although it is not on the routine immunization schedule, if you are traveling somewhere and yellow fever is a risk, you should get a yellow fever vaccine.

Professor Gore’s death, at age 67, is a tragedy, no matter the cause.

That we are having to talk about it because anti-vaccine folks are using his death to push their idea that vaccines aren’t safe is unconscionable.

More on Yellow Fever Vaccine Deaths

Can I Get a Second Flu Shot for Extra Protection?

If one flu shot is good, wouldn’t two be better?

Can I Get a Second Flu Shot for Extra Protection?

Some people do get a second flu shot.

In fact, all kids eight years and younger, if it is their first time getting a flu vaccine, get two doses of flu vaccine.

How many doses of flu vaccine will your kids need this year?
How many doses of flu vaccine will your kids need this year?

The first dose is a priming dose and the second, at least 28 days later, is a booster dose.

Why do we do it that way?

Because studies have shown that is the best way to do it.

We don’t need to use this same priming/booster strategy in older children and adults though.

But with recent talk that protection against the flu after a flu vaccine might wane before the end of a flu season, some folks are likely wondering if they should just get another flu shot later in the season.

“Revaccination later in the season of persons who have already been fully vaccinated is not recommended.”

Prevention and Control of Seasonal Influenza with Vaccines: Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices—United States, 2018–19 Influenza Season

And the official answer is no, except for younger children getting vaccinated for the first time, you should just get one dose per season.

Why not?

Mostly because a lot of studies haven’t been done to see what effect that second dose will have. And since some studies have even suggested that regular annual flu vaccines could actually lower vaccine effectiveness, you would want to know if getting an extra flu vaccine was safe and effective before we started to do it.

Not surprisingly, someone has looked into this already. One small study, Influenza revaccination of elderly travelers: antibody response to single influenza vaccination and revaccination at 12 weeks, actually showed that a second dose in the same season “did not enhance the immune response.”

So just one flu vaccine per season.

“Prior-season vaccination history was not associated with reduced vaccine effectiveness in children, supporting current recommendations for annual influenza vaccination of children.”

McLean et al on Association of Prior Vaccination With Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness in Children Receiving Live Attenuated or Inactivated Vaccine

But do get a flu vaccine every season.

Again, while there were some reports that an annual flu vaccine could lower vaccine effectiveness, other studies have disproven this.

More on Getting a Second Flu Shot

Is This Year’s Flu Vaccine Working?

Flu season is just getting started, but I’m sure that you have already heard folks rating how well this year’s flu shots are working.

Are flu vaccines working well?
Are flu vaccines working well?

Of course, if you had a flu shot and have already gotten the flu, then you’re gonna think the flu shot isn’t working very well at all.

And if you are vaccinated and protected and have avoided the flu, then it is working so far, right?

Is This Year’s Flu Vaccine Working?

While we won’t know how well this year’s flu vaccine is working until the CDC releases the preliminary estimates on flu vaccine effectiveness, there are some good signs already.

  1. The majority of the influenza viruses collected from the United States so far have been “characterized antigenically and genetically as being similar to the cell-grown reference viruses representing the 2018–2019 Northern Hemisphere influenza vaccine viruses.”
  2. The most frequently identified influenza virus type reported by public health laboratories was influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 virus.

Remember, to be effective, you want the flu vaccine to match the strains of flu virus that are circulating in the community. A mismatch in flu virus strain or antigenic drifting leads to lower flu vaccine effectiveness (VE).

Remember the 2004-05 flu season? That was the year that because of a drifted A(H3N2) virus, “only 5% of viruses from study participants were well matched to vaccine strains.” And the flu vaccine wasn’t very effective at all.

Still, even when the flu vaccine matches circulating strains, in general, as we have certainly seen, “flu vaccines provide better protection against influenza B or influenza A (H1N1) viruses than against influenza A (H3N2) viruses.”

YearFlu Virus StrainVE
2004-05A(H3N2)10
2005-06A(H3N2)21
2006-07A(H1N1)52
2007-08A(H3N2)37
2008-09A(H1N1)41
2009-10A(H1N1)pdm0956
2010-11A(H3N2)60
2011-12A(H3N2)47
2012-13A(H3N2)49
2013-14A(H1N1)pdm0952
2014-15A(H3N2)19
2015-16A(H1N1)pdm0948
2016-17A(H3N2)40
2017-18A(H3N2)40
2018-19A(H1N1)pdm09?

So if you had to guess, you could probably say that this year’s flu vaccine is going to be at least 50% effective.

So just as good as flipping a coin? Not exactly.

There are a lot of benefits to getting a flu shot besides avoiding the flu, like avoiding severe flu, hospitalization, and death.

And since flu vaccines are safe and flu can be a life-threatening disease, even in those without any medical problems, wouldn’t you take any chance you could to reduce your child’s chances of getting sick?

When will we know how well this year’s flu vaccine is really working?

The CDC typically releases the first preliminary flu vaccine effectiveness report of the season in February.

Not that you should wait! Flu season is well underway and this is a great time to get a flu vaccine and get protected for the rest of flu season.

More on the Effectiveness of This Year’s Flu Vaccine

Why Do We Still Vaccinate If Polio Has Been Eliminated?

It’s true, polio has been eliminated in the United States.

Are these folks serious with this anti-vaccine nonsense?
Are these folks serious with this anti-vaccine nonsense?

But that doesn’t mean that we can stop vaccinating kids against polio yet.

Why Do We Still Vaccinate If Polio Has Been Eliminated?

For one thing, the last polio case in the United States was a lot more recent than 40 years ago.

What happened 40 years ago?

That was when we had the last endemic case of polio in the United States, in 1979. After that, in addition to cases of VAPP, there were at least 6 cases of imported paralytic poliomyelitis. In fact, the last case of wild polio in the United States was in 1993, just 26 years ago.

And just ten years ago, in 2009, was the very last case of VAPP, a patient with a long-standing combined immunodeficiency who was probably infected in the late 1990s, even though she didn’t develop paralysis until years later.

But still, why couldn’t we stop vaccinating against polio in the United States, even though polio isn’t eradicated yet? After all, we stopped using the smallpox vaccine in 1972, before smallpox was declared eradicated (1980).

While that is true, smallpox isn’t as contagious as polio and there hadn’t been a case of smallpox in the United States for over 30 years when we stopped using the vaccine.

Until wild polio is eradicated and the oral polio vaccine isn’t used anymore (OPV switch), we must continue to vaccinate against polio to prevent new outbreaks.

That is the polio eradication and endgame strategic plan.

Over the next few years, the world will hopefully switch to using just the injectable form of the polio vaccines, which eliminates the risk of VAPP.

But if we are so close, why not just stop vaccinating in those parts of the world that don’t have polio?

Because we are so close to eradicating polio.

Why take the risk of polio spreading from one of the remaining endemic countries, paralyzing kids, and putting eradication efforts further behind?

Should we stop vaccinating kids because anti-vaccine folks are pushing misinformation about DDT, renamed diseases, or vaccine induced diseases?

Of course not!

Vaccines are safe, effective, and necessary.

Let’s continue the work and eradicate polio, once and for all!

And for the record – we don’t pump “kids full of polio” when we give them a polio vaccine. The polio shot is an inactivated vaccine, so doesn’t contain live polio virus.

More on Why Do We Still Vaccinate If Polio Has Been Eliminated?

Can Your Kids Get a Vaccine While They Are Taking Antibiotics?

In general, simply taking an antibiotic would not usually be a reason to not get vaccinated.

“Contraindications and precautions to vaccination generally dictate circumstances when vaccines will not be given. Many contraindications and precautions are temporary, and the vaccine can be given at a later time.”

General Recommendations on Immunization

The reason your child is taking the antibiotic could make you want to think about delaying the vaccine though.

Can Your Kids Get a Vaccine While They Are Taking Antibiotics?

Kids are prescribed antibiotics for a lot of different reasons, from treating ear infections and acne to pneumonia and meningitis.

Since a mild acute illness with or without fever isn’t considered a contraindication or precaution to getting vaccinated, in most cases, being on an antibiotic would not cause you to want to skip or delay your child’s vaccines.

The vaccine information sheet that you get with each vaccine will list contraindications and precautions on who should not get the vaccine.
The vaccine information sheet that you get with each vaccine will list contraindications and precautions on who should not get the vaccine.

In fact, current antimicrobial therapy is listed by the CDC as one of the conditions commonly misperceived as a contraindication or precaution!

There are some exceptions though, including:

  • taking the antibiotic for a moderate or severe acute illness with or without fever (a general precaution to getting a vaccine)
  • antimalarial agents and antibiotics might interfere with the Ty21a oral typhoid vaccine
  • antiviral drugs (acyclovir, famciclovir, or valacyclovir) might interfere with varicella-containing vaccines (Varivax)
  • antiviral drugs (Tamiflu, Relenza) might interfere with LAIV4 (FluMist, the nasal spray flu vaccine)

Is your child taking the antibiotic for a mild illness or a more moderate or severe illness for which they are now recovering? Then the fact that they are still taking an antibiotic likely isn’t a contraindication or a precaution to getting vaccinated.

More on Vaccine Contraindications