28 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • JANUARY 2020
PRESS HEALTH
CRITICS BALK AT PROPOSED FLU, HPV MANDATES
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC), the
flu vaccine can reduce flu illness in up
to 60 percent of the general population,
depending on how well the current,
circulating flu virus is matched to the
current flu vaccine virus. Influenza
vaccine effectiveness for all vaccine
types against influenza A or B for 2019
to 2020 was 48 percent for children
ages 6 months to 8 years and 7 percent
for children ages 9 to 17, says the CDC.
“Children at that age are at high risk
for complications and more likely
to transmit influenza,” says Dr. Jana
Shaw, chair of public education for
the New York State HPV Coalition
and an associate professor of Pediatrics
at SUNY Upstate Medical
University. “The flu vaccine is not
perfect but it’s better than nothing.”
The benefits outweigh the risks, she
says. But concerns remain. Some people
note that the flu shot has the most complaints
filed with the Vaccine Adverse
Event Reporting System (VAERS), a
federal program for vaccine safety,
co-managed by the CDC and the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
"Flu vaccines, like all other federally
recommended vaccines, are inadequately
tested," says Mary Holland,
general counsel of Children’s Health
Defense and co-author of The HPV
Vaccine on Trial: Seeking Justice for
a Generation Betrayed. "They’re not
tested against true inert placebos
and not tested over a long period of
time. We know that many flu vaccines
contain mercury and aluminum —
known neurotoxins.”
Sen. Hoylman is also sponsoring the
HPV bill.
“Human papillomavirus is an incredibly
common sexually transmitted
infection that can be passed on even
when an infected person is asymptomatic,
and can cause genital warts
or cancer,” he says in his sponsor
memo for the HPV bill.
According to the CDC, the numbers of
cases and the number of deaths from
cervical cancer have decreased significantly
in the past 40 years, due mostly
to women getting regular Pap tests,
which can identify cervical precancer.
Dr. Shaw says the HPV vaccine can
prevent that precancer — HPV infection
— and cancer in the future.
“Most of the infections happen early
in life,” she says. “You can be infected
with HPV. You will have no symptoms
and no idea you are infected and then
you will go on developing cancer.”
An annual Pap smear and consistent
medical care — not the HPV vaccine,
Gardasil 9 — are the safest and most
effective means of preventing cancer,
opponents say. According to VAERS,
more than 60,000 serious injuries and
more than 500 deaths were reported
from the HPV vaccine as of October
14, 2019.
“The HPV vaccine has never been proven
to prevent a single case of cancer
ever,” Holland says. “The clinical trials
to license Gardasil 9 were grossly inadequate
and fraudulent. The injuries and
deaths from the HPV vaccine are real.
No parent knowing the real risks would
choose to give it to their child.”
Bills that would permit minors to
receive this vaccine without parental
knowledge or consent “are unethical
and violate the principle of informed
consent,” she adds.
New York State Assemblyman David
DiPietro (R-Erie County) says the
proposed mandates are an example of
government overreach and the pharmaceutical
industry flexing its muscle,
as he suggests was the case in 2019, with
the controversial repeal of religious
exemptions for vaccines for students
in the wake of the measles outbreak.
“It’s not a coincidence that on June
13 — our last day in session — we
passed this bill and then on June 14
when we were not in Albany, the
pharmaceutical company Merck
drops 48 million in New York State,”
DiPietro says.
continued from page 27
MID-ISLAND Y JCC
THE SOLUTION TO YOUR 2020 RESOLUTION
Receive One Month FREE - AND - We’ll “Wave” Your Enrollment Fee!
Plus... 25% O a 6 or 12 Session Personal Training Package.*
TAKE A TOUR OF OUR STATE-OF-THE-ART FITNESS CENTER — NOW OPEN 5:30AM ON WEEKDAYS.
Contact Membership Director, Joanne Ethe: (516) 822-3535, x306 or email jethe@miyjcc.org
*One package per person. New members only. Cannot be combined with any other oer. Exp. 1/31/20.
Mid-Island Y JCC | 45 Manetto Hill Road, Plainview, NY 11803 | www.miyjcc.org
/LONGISLANDPRESS.COM
/www.miyjcc.org
link
/www.miyjcc.org
link
