By Charo R. Walker
BlackFood News Reporter
SCORES of activists attended the Black is Back Rally and March on the White House on November 7th. They were there to say to the world that Obama’s presidency has yet to address the injustices in America and throughout the world and that it doesn’t seem poised to do so.
They also wanted to assure the world that their work and struggle against the destructive policies and actions of the most powerful country in the world, and its allies, continue.
Asantewaa Nkrumah-Ture, a long time Pan-Africanist, Community Organizer and Radical Feminist in Washington, DC, was present at the Rally and in an exclusive interview with BlackFood shared shocking information about the vaccine Gardasil and its manufacturer Merck & Co.
Gardasil, introduced to consumers in 2006, has been marketed to young girls and young women in the United States, in The Bahamas, and across the globe as the only cervical cancer vaccine that protects against four types of human papillomavirus (HPV); two types that cause 70% of cervical cancer cases, and two more types that cause 90% of genital wart cases.
However, Ture asserts that research carried out by the Parents and Citizens Committee to Stop Medical Experimentation in Washington, DC, of which she is a member, found Gardasil to be, “unsafe and unproven and quite dangerous”.
To date approximately 40 young girls and young women in the United States have died after haven taking Gardasil. Others have suffered seizures, chronic pain, and even paralysis.
Long before the injuries and deaths, however, the Parents and Citizens Committee to Stop Medical Experimentation in Washington, DC was opposed to Gardasil for several reasons.
First, according to Ture, Gardasil was one of the fastest drugs to come onto the market in the history of the United States even though it has not been properly tested.
In fact, Merck has now admitted that it does not know Gardasil’s effect on young girls’ cancer risk, on their immune system, on their reproductive system, or its genetic effects.
Second, Ture told us that the vaccine was only tested on young women in their late teens and early 20s. However, school age girls as young as nine are being pressured to take the vaccine.
Third, Merck has a very notorious history. “Back in the 1950s to the 1970s Merck and several other drug companies paid a doctor to perform dangerous medical experiments on black prisoners in a prison called Holmesburg prison in Pennsylvania … they did not know what they were being tested for, what [the tests] was about and they suffered some serious injuries, skin problems etc.,” shared Toure.
From the 1950s through the 1970s, Holmesburg Prison in Pennsylvania was the site of one of the largest medical research initiatives, using incarcerated men as test subjects, in the United States. Most of this research involved African American men, and it was not uncommon for them to be used for the worst, most dangerous experiments.
The majority of the experiments were dermatologic and the men were administered cosmetics, powders, and shampoos that caused many of them baldness, extensive scarring, and permanent skin and nail injury. Additional experiments also involved mind-control drugs.
Fourth, Merck also manufactured Vioxx; a drug that was eventually pulled off of the market because of its severe adverse effects. “Several thousands of people suffered serious injuries after taking Vioxx. Several hundred people died and Merck lost a lot of money; millions of dollars in law suits and settlements due to that drug Vioxx,” said Ture.
As a result of all of these, and other, research findings, the Parents and Citizens Committee to Stop Medical Experimentation in Washington, DC didn’t trust Merck or the drug Gardasil. And in February 2007 it began organizing a multiracial, multigenerational, grassroot campaign to prevent attempts to make the vaccine mandatory for girls entering school in Washington, DC.
According to Ture: “In the United States if you make a drug mandatory through a state government or city government then that drug company cannot be held liable in case of injury or death. So that’s how they protected themselves from liability.”
The Parents and Citizens Committee to Stop Medical Experimentation in Washington, DC held an on-air town hall meeting and carried out radio campaigns, public education efforts and collaborative work with other groups and organizations in an attempt to prevent Gardasil from becoming a mandatory vaccine for school age girls and to also get the message out about its dangers.
While they were unsuccessful in preventing the passage of legislation that made Gardasil a mandatory vaccine in Washington, DC, a jurisdiction that has no voting rights on Capitol Hill, the Parents and Citizens Committee to Stop Medical Experimentation in Washington, DC was pleased that they were able to push back the start of Gardasil’s mandatory status from school year 2007 to school year 2009. This allowed more parents to learn the truth about Gardasil and also be advised of an opt-out clause in the legislation.
“We feel very proud of our efforts because even though didn’t get all that we set out to do, we accomplished some great victories,” stated Ture.
The Committee’s efforts helped in reducing the adherence rate to the Gardasil vaccine. Toure told us that the Health Department in Washington, DC reported that the adherence to Gardasil was only 82% versus 90% – 95% for most vaccines.
Ture also spoke about the failure of the Health Department to follow the letter of the law with regard to the vaccine. “When you make a drug mandatory you give parents a form where they can opt-out. Most of the parents we talked to never saw an opt-out form. It is against the law to have a … opt-out form not in other languages. The opt-out form in DC is not in Spanish, not in Amharic, not in Vietnamese, not in any of the African languages because we have a lot of immigrants here in our city,” revealed Ture.
In addition, there should have been community educations forums in every ward in the city to educate the public about Gardasil. Unfortunately, only two forums were held.
Gardasil and Merck also gave $500 donations to two of Washington, DC’s city council members after they had won their elections; something that the Committee made public. The Committee saw it as “a down payment on influencing their future votes,” declared Ture.
For their efforts, the Parents and Citizens Committee to Stop Medical Experimentation in Washington, DC was recognized this month by SisterSong – an organization for women of colour who are concerned with reproductive justice.
As of February 2009, 40 million doses of Gardasil have been distributed worldwide even though some sources claim that a single occurrence of HPV does not result in cervical cancer but rather it is a persistent HPV infection that may lead to cervical cancer.
Moreover, it has been argued that the HPV, if allowed to will be taken care of by our own body’s natural processes and that most infections are short-lived and not associated with cervical cancer.
To follow this issue visit: www.nohpvshots4me.com/lobby.php/home♦bf