MEDIA RELEASE
15 March 2015
Parents Right to Question HPV Vaccine
Family First NZ says that contrary to claims that ‘well-off Pakeha girls’ are rejecting the HPV vaccine, parents of all racial groups in New Zealand are rightly
rejecting the pressure to have their children vaccinated for an infection which isn’t a communicable disease but a
consequence of behaviour.
“The suggestion that parents of ‘well-off Pakeha girls’ are naïve is insulting and patronising. The claims being made grossly overestimate the sexual activity of young people and their need for the HPV Vaccine, and underestimating the harm. Ultimately the decision to vaccinate or not should be
made by the parent after having received full and balanced information on its merits. At the moment, students are being
proselytized with unbalanced information through their schools or health organisations, and parents are being bullied
into an uninformed response,” says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First NZ.
Even those who worked on the development of the vaccine now say it may be unnecessary. Dr. Diane Harper of the
University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine, who worked on the tests to get Gardasil approved, says, “Ninety-five percent of women who are infected with HPV never, ever get cervical cancer… Pap smear screening is far and
away the biggest thing a woman can do to protect herself, to prevent cervical cancer.”
In the US, the CDC reports that its Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) “received approximately 25,000 adverse event reports” of side effects from the girls and young women who had the vaccination. 8% of girls experienced “serious” side
effects, ranging from infertility to death. Between June 2006 and March 2014, the CDC received 96 reports of deaths
related to the shot, 47 of which were verified. The British Medical Journal (BMJ) Case Reports journal has reported that a healthy 16-year-old Australian girl lost all ovarian function and went into menopause after being injected with
the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine Gardasil.
In 2013, Japan removed its recommendation that young people get the vaccine. Japan acted on areport by Japanese internist and cardiologist, Dr. Sataro Sato, who revealed that since the vaccine was introduced in 2010,
almost 2,000 adverse events were reported to the country’s Vaccine Adverse Reactions Review Committee, including 358
cases that were evaluated as serious.
“As a comparison, revelations that the free meningococcal vaccinations given to children in NZ, and which were marketed as the answer to that
horrific disease, actually provide only short term protection resulting in a false sense of security for parents, also
applies to the Gardasil vaccine,” says Mr McCoskrie.
“While we are naturally all supportive of any attempts to fight cancer, parental knowledge and consent are essential –
especially when the infection is not a communicable disease but a consequence of behaviour – and while the jury is out
on its long-term effectiveness and its potential harm.”
ENDS