Zeroing in on zero | Blogotariat

The current US Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK Jr) was involved in litigation against Merck over its Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, Gardasil, alleging marketing fraud and undisclosed side effects, and stood to earn significant referral fees from the lawsuit, which raised ethics concerns as he was considered for his current government role. He initially planned to keep these potential earnings but, after scrutiny, reversed course and pledged to divest his stake, even directing future earnings to his son, though the lawsuit remains ongoing and a point of contention. Details of the Gardasil litigation show how Kennedy took action beyond sowing doubt about the safety and efficacy of vaccines in the court of public opinion and helped build a case against the pharmaceutical industry before judges and juries.Kennedy, a long-time plaintiffs’ lawyer, became involved in the Gardasil litigation in 2018 in collaboration with Robert Krakow, an attorney specialising in vaccine injury cases1.

Gardasil is recommended as a routine immunization for 11 and 12-year-olds by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to prevent cervical and other cancers caused by the virus. Nearly 160 million doses were distributed in the U.S. through to the end of 2022.”An overwhelming body of scientific evidence, including more than 20 years of research and development, continues to support the safety and efficacy profiles of our HPV vaccines,” Merck said in a statement to Reuters. “We remain committed to vigorously defending against these claims in the upcoming trial”1.

Human papillomavirus (HPV) infections result in a substantial burden of disease globally, particularly because they can cause cervical cancer. In Australia, cancers of the cervix and uterus were once leading causes of cancer-related deaths for women. NHMRC-funded researchers at The University of Queensland (UQ) made an important contribution to preventing cervical cancer through their development of the technology that underpins the world’s first HPV vaccines, which are used worldwide today2.

Australia was one of the first countries to roll out a national cervical cancer immunisation campaign using Gardasil. Gardasil is a vaccine that protects young women from the strains of human papillomavirus (HPV) that cause 70% of cervical cancers. Vaccination with Gardasil is most effective when given to females before they are likely to be exposed to HPV. Four out of five people will be exposed to HPV during their lifetime and exposure to HPV from a single lifetime partner can still be enough to result in an infection that can lead to cervical cancer. Over 700 new cases of cervical cancer are reported each year in Australia, and in 2005 cervical cancer led to the deaths of 216 women3.

Australia is on course to eliminate cervical cancer by 2035, which, if achieved, will make it the first country to do so. The latest report from the Centre for Research Excellence in Cervical Cancer Control reveals rates of the cancer among Australian women continue to fall, and progress is being made towards elimination ‘across most indicators’. The national cervical cancer rate decreased to 6.3 per 100,000 in 2021, compared to 6.6 per 100,000 in 2020, but the report highlights that continuous monitoring is needed to confirm this is the beginning of a downward trend4.

In 2021, there were no cervical cancer cases diagnosed in women under 25 for the first time since records began in 1982 – with the report stating ‘this remarkable achievement is almost certainly due to the impact of HPV vaccination’. The Gardasil-9 vaccine to protect against human papillomavirus (HPV) is offered for free to people aged 9–25 years under Australia’s National Immunisation Program4.

In an old video interview, Kennedy said that “Gardasil is probably the single worst mass vaccine that we’ve ever seen”5. In the US, about 13,300 new cases of cervical cancer will be diagnosed annually, while 4,300 women will die every year from it6. Kennedy is either an idiot in denying the efficacy of Gardasil-9, or he is prepared to let women die from a preventable cancer, so he can make a bit of cash from litigation referrals.

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