In my last column entitled Reconciled I hinted that I had some serious reservations about the campaign by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation to offer the HPV vaccine to all 11-year-old girls in our secondary schools early in 2014.
First of all I wish to highly commend the Ministry of Health in Barbados for having contained the incidence of cervical cancer deaths to 21 per year. While it may be argued that a single death is one too many, I believe our system of monitoring and the use of pap smears have worked well and as such the justification for mass vaccination of our 11-year-old girls is very weak. I strongly contend that public education along with our proven and tested system of monitoring should continue to be our approach in this matter.
According to the Greater Good Vaccine documentary found on YouTube, the requisite four-year trial of this vaccine was aborted and its use was fast-tracked after only 18 months. Approval was granted by the United States Food and Drug Administration within six months. The stopping of the trial meant that the long-term effects of the vaccine are largely unknown. While the companies behind the manufacturing of the vaccine claim causality is difficult to prove in reports of debilitating side effects that have been reported in Britain, the United States, Australia and other jurisdictions, there are still too many questions that remain unanswered and many concerns remain unaddressed.
Reports from any jurisdiction that the HPV vaccine is linked to serious side effects including brain damage, seizures, paralysis and even death should not be dismissed. According to Dr Sato, the manufacturers of Gardasil, the vaccine which is already being administered to our future mothers, admit in their own documentation that it may cause seizure and/or brain damage.
Any vaccine whose contents include mercury, aluminum, sodium borate, polysorbate 80, histidine and yeast protein should not simply be pumped into our young girls without considering all the potential adverse effects. I am not myself convinced that the benefits outweigh the adverse effects since it is only a potential prevention against cervical cancer.
According to www.offtheradar.com.nz/
vaccines/52-gardasil-ingredients.html, animal and human studies have shown aluminum can cause nerve cell death and vaccine adjutants can allow the aluminum to enter the brain as well as cause inflammation at the injection site leading to chronic joint and muscle pain. It also identifies sodium borate as a dangerous poison with symptoms of borate poisoning seen as being similar to the side effects being reported with the Gardasil vaccine.
While Polysorbate 80 is a food additive that enables solubility of flavouring oils with water, when injected into pubescent rats it caused rapid abnormal growth of the reproductive organs which rendered the rats sterile.
Like former Senator Frances Chandler, writing in For What It’s Worth on December 1, 2013, I call for all the facts to be given to parents before we jump on the developed countries’ bandwagon.
Is it true that the strain of the virus present among our women is type 45 which is not one of those being targeted by the HPV vaccine being administered to our girls? I noted as well that the consent form distributed by the Ministry of Health is flawed in that it only makes provision for parents to say “yes” but not to exercise their option to say “no”. It is a genuine mistake that must be corrected.
I cannot in all conscience remain mum on this issue of serious national import. It is for this reason that I shared these and other concerns with Prime Minister Freundel Stuart while discussing our invitation to address the Graydon Sealy Secondary School’s annual speech day and prize-giving ceremony this Friday. I am hopeful that he would accede to my suggestion to halt the campaign and revisit the wide range of concerns which are linked to the lack of full disclosure of all the facts.
• Matthew Farley is a secondary school principal, chairman of the National Forum on Education and a social commentator. Email principal208@gmail.com
