Thursday, May 03, 2012

Alberta's Chief Medical Officer Wants to Make Vaccines More Available to Teens

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Paula Simons published an article in the Edmonton Journal today and it was dated May 2, 2012, so I believe that to be the date.


In this article, Ms. Simons interviews the Chief Medical Officer of Alberta, Andre Corriveau, who believes that there needs to be found "better ways to make the (HPV) vaccine available" to "young people". Apparently, Edmonton's 66% in-school inoculation rate for girls is in some way unsatisfactory to him.

Well today I learned through the Twitter, from CBC reporter Andrea Huncar, that apparently "the committee advising Dr. Corriveau met yesterday and recommended extending coverage to immunize boys against hpv" and as you can see, she explains later, there was no press release. I guess that's why we have Paula Simons.

https://twitter.com/#!/andreahuncar/status/197783501175668736


Andre Corriveau is hoping that the debate about providing the HPV vaccine to boys will provide a chance to have a new conversation about Gardasil, and whether school vaccination clinics are the best strategy to fight HPV.
“It challenges us to rethink our approach, to find better ways to make the vaccine available, in other places young people congregate,”

It's a shame there's no clarification on what Alberta "Top Doc" Andre Corriveau exactly meant by this. Should we be offering HPV vaccinations at the mall? Maybe the local Macs or 7-11? I believe what Mr. Corriveau is hinting at is that our provincial medical overlords would like to make the vaccine available with out pesky parents getting in the way.

California already cleared the way last autumn for girls as young as12 year old to get the HPV vaccine:
And New York's political class is following suit:

Anyways, back to the propaganda that is Paula Simons piece from the Edmonton Journal, where Chief Andre shares his thoughts on why children aren't getting the HPV vaccine at comparible rates to that of booster shots of the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine.
"There was a lot of social marketing, telling people that this was an unsafe vaccine, that girls were being used as guinea pigs. It was quite strident and virulent, and it made a lot of people think, ‘I’m not sure I want my daughter to get this vaccine.’"

How does the Chief compare activists concerned with the danger of Gardasil, who's main avenue of spreading their message is through social media, with the money that Merck, the makers of Gardasil, has to throw behind an "advertising" campaign? What do activists on the internet have to gain by helping individuals make informed consent? Not nearly as much as Merck stands to gain by having governments offer the $400 Gardasil shot series for "free" to as many people as possible.

In 2007, eight months after Gardasil was approved for use in Canada, the federal governement approved $300 million to fund an HPV vaccination program. But here's where it get's more ineresting:
"Merck Frosst Canada Ltd., the maker of Gardasil, hired public relations giant Hill & Knowlton to push the immunization strategies using some well-connected lobbyists: Ken Boessenkool, a former senior policy adviser to Prime Minister Stephen Harper; Bob Lopinski, formerly with Premier Dalton McGuinty's office; and Jason Grier, former chief of staff to Health Minister George Smitherman.
According to Ontario consultant registration documents, Lopinski and Grier's lobbying activities include: 'Proposed policy decision to support a childhood immunization program for HPV and funding related thereto.'"
So Chief Medical Officer Andre Corriveau, would you really have us believe that "social marketing" can compare to a pharmaceutical giant hiring lobbyists who are former insiders to a provincial & federal (dear) LEADER?

But according to Paula Simons, I'm probably part of an "insidious...vocal lobby" myself:
"But there is a larger, more insidious international anti-vaccination movement out there, a vocal lobby that sees vaccines of all sorts as a Big Pharma plot.

The hysteria goes viral, with frightening anecdotes that blame all kinds of inoculations for all kinds of disasters, spreading globally."
So to do Paula proud, here are some frightening anecdotes:
Those escaping death still risk other severe side effects including seizures, paralysis, blindness, pancreatitis, speech problems, short-term memory loss and Guillain-Barré Syndrome.

Needless to say, after catching wind that Alberta taxpayers may soon be paying to inject boys with an HPV vaccine, I needed to find a way to clear my head from trying to understand the insanity, thus, my battle to shape my garden into something usable continued on this evening with, satisfactory results.

Many weeds still wait
For those of you looking to feed the garden that is your mind, here's a good interview on Gardasil with a doctor who still looks out for the public's interest, and not that of Big Pharma.

No comments:

Post a Comment