47 O’Connell Street,
Limerick.

 8^TH September, 2010.

Mrs. Mary Harney,
Minister for Health,
Department of Health and Children,
Hawkins House,
Hawkins Street,
DUBLIN 2.

Dear Minister,

Mothers Alliance Ireland is notifying you that we have uncovered disturbing facts in relation to the Gardasil Vaccine which we believe warrants the immediate withdrawal of the vaccination programme from Irish schools.  It appears that these facts have not been brought to the attention of the parents, schools’ authorities and recipients of the vaccine.

The Gardasil vaccination programme in our schools commenced in May/June 2010 and is due to be resumed this month, September.    Mothers Alliance Ireland has discovered:

• The HSE slogan “I’m protected NOW for the FUTURE”, is dangerous, and could even be criminal, because it gives the false impression that recipients of the vaccine are protected for LIFE.  The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) Report and others make it quite plain that this is not true.  “The longest duration of follow-up in relation to vaccine efficacy, reported in published clinical trials, is approximately five years.  Consequently, the protective effect of the vaccine against invasive cervical cancer has not yet been demonstrated.”  (See HIQA Report  HPV Vaccines p.10, 1.2).  Parents have not been made aware by the HSE of the fact that Dr. Diane Harper, Principle Investigator for clinical vaccine trials for Merck (Gardasil), has said that if duration of efficacy is less than 15 years, then no cancers are prevented.  (See Huff Post Social News Interview with Dr. Diane Harper 28/12/09)
  
• HSE clearly states that the vaccine will protect recipients from both high risk strains of the HPV, strain 16 and 18, inferring that ALL recipients will be protected from both high risk strains.   The HIQA Report makes it quite plain that this is not true.  “Gardasil induced anti-body titres peak seven months following initiation of the vaccine series…….At 24 months follow-up…..only 68% were seropositive for HPV type 18.  (HIQA Report – Immune response in women aged 16 to 26. p. 30).   Therefore 32% of participants did not have immunity to HPV type 18.  The HSE has not informed parents or the general public about this.  HPV type 18 is one of the two high-risk strains for cervical cancer.

·         While the HSE says that “vaccination is less effective in females who have already been infected with one or more of the HPV vaccine types” they fail to inform parents and the general public that, in its report to the Food and Drugs Authority, a federal body in the U.S.A., Merck expressed ‘concern’ regarding the administration of its own vaccine to girls who are already infected with 2 strains of the human papilloma virus, namely strains 16 and 18. In that report, it is indicated that if the cervical cancer vaccine was administered to such girls, it could increase their risk of developing cervical cancer by 44.6 percent. See page 13 of Merck’s Gardasil clinical trials report:VRBPAC Background Document Gardasil™ HPV Quadrivalent Vaccine May 18, 2006 VRBPAC Meeting.   Media reports, for many years now, have been informing us that 12 year olds in Ireland are sexually active and infected with STDs.   Parents of these children have a right to be informed about this increased cancer risk to their daughters, before they give their consent to have these girls vaccinated.

·         Another truth that the HSE should put more emphasis on is the fact that while many people are infected with HPV at least once during their lifetime, 95% of all HPV infections are cleared spontaneously by the body’s immune system.  There is ample time to treat the remaining 5% with pap screening, and effect 100% cure.  (See Dr. Diane Harper interview HuffPost Social News December 28^th 2009.) 

·         The HSE also claims Gardasil is very safe. This is also dangerous and untrue.  Serious adverse events, including deaths, are associated with Gardasil use.   Parents have not been told this by the HSE, and nowhere as far as we can determine, does the HSE’s campaign literature state that deaths are associated with the vaccine.  77 deaths and over 19,000 adverse reactions have been reported to VAERS, the official US Government agency responsible for tracking vaccine adverse reactions.    

·         HSE states that there may be some mild side effects.  This is very misleading language as the HIQA report says “Mild-to-moderate local reactions in up to 90% of recipients have been reported.”   The HSE states that “rarer side effects include an itchy rash or hives”.   Yet, the  HIQA Report says that headache, fatique, gastrointestinal upset and rash occurred in 69% to 86% of recipients.  How can the HSE say that 69% to 86% is a rare occurrence?   HIQA also refers to a possible association between Gardasil and Guillian-Barre Syndrome and DEATHS.  (HIQA Report p.32 3.8 Vaccine Safety.) The direct association has not yet been proven but neither has it been ‘not proven’.  The jury is still out.  Yet the HSE has failed to alert parents to these facts.  

• The HSE has also failed to inform parents and the general public that condoms offer no protection whatsoever against HPV, and that promiscuous lifestyles and use of the contraceptive pill – which lowers the natural immunity - predisposes girls to contracting HPV putting them at risk of many forms of cancers. 
  
• The HSE has also failed to highlight – thought this is clearly stated in the HIQA Report, that behaviour change in favour of monogamous relationships for life is the primary preventative measure for avoiding contracting HPV and other STDs.  

We feel it is also important to point out that Table 14 of the HIQA Report, which estimates the number of cases of CIN1, CIN2/3 and cervical cancers that would averted due to vaccination, is based on false and redundant assumptions.  It is redundant and must be discounted as it is based on 2004 figures.  With the roll out of the national cervical cancer screening programme on 28^th September, 2008 – seven months after the HIQA Report was completed and four years later than 2004 – future cervical cancer mortality estimates will be reduced drastically by 75-80%.  [Screening has a 95% pre-cancer detection rate].  It is patently clear that Table 14 is outdated and can no longer be relied on.

Critical information has been withheld from parents and the public and the lives of our children are being put at risk. 

We in Mothers Alliance Ireland are now, as a matter of urgency, calling on you, the Minister for Health, to IMMEDIATELY withdraw this schools’ vaccination campaign and to initiate an information campaign about the benefits and risks, the certainties and uncertainties surrounding this vaccine, as well as the available alternatives of pap-screening and lifelong monogamous relationships between man and woman.    Mothers Alliance Ireland would be happy to front this information campaign.

Because we in Mothers Alliance Ireland take the protection of children seriously, and because we want to ensure that this letter reaches you personally, Minister, we are sending it by registered mail.  We are also registering a copy to the Minister for Education and to the IMB and forwarding it to interested groups and individuals who are concerned for the health and well-being of Irish children.

MAI looks forward to hearing from you with the news that the schools vaccination programme has been withdrawn.

Yours sincerely,

____________________

Nora Bennis

mothersallianceireland@gmail.com  Tel:  061-326599/087-6486679

cc.  Minister for Education
cc.  Irish Medicines Board.
cc.  Pro-Family/pro-child groups.


Related Articles
   Mothers Alliance Responds to Letter from Minister