Flawed HPV vaccine fizzles

A great source of excitement for me has been blogging on the pharma industry's lucrative idea earlier this year, which foolish legislators - almost all liberal - ran with, to mandate the HPV vaccine for all 11- and 12-year-old girls. The New York Times even disparaged one of my HPV posts, which is always a badge of honor.

When the red flags raised became too numerous to count, MSM quietly quit hyping the vaccine, as did those legislators, who it turns out were admitted tools of big pharma.

But here are we, conservative bloggers, continuing to drive nails in the HPV vaccine mandate's coffin by relaying news you'll only find in 9 pt. font in MSM newspapers:

First, a story about the guy who started all the flak back in February. Reported Kaiser News on May 9:

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) on Tuesday announced that he will not veto a bill (HB 1098) that will prevent mandatory human papillomavirus vaccination for middle school girls in the state until 2011, allowing the measure to become law without his signature....

Perry on Feb. 2 issued an executive order mandating that all girls entering the sixth grade beginning in September 2008 receive an HPV vaccine.

Perry really had no choice. The House and Senate both passed the slapdown measure by a veto-proof majority.

More importantly comes this news, from the Los Angeles Times, May 10:

New data on the controversial HPV vaccine designed to prevent cervical cancer have raised questions about its efficacy, researchers are reporting Thursday, undercutting efforts in many states to make vaccination mandatory.

Although the Merck vaccine, called Gardasil, blocked nearly 100 percent of infections by the two HPV strains it targets, it reduced the incidence of cancer precursors by only 17 percent overall.

Part of the reason was that many of the teenage girls and young women in the three-year study already had been exposed to the virus, according to the report in the New England Journal of Medicine.

But the data also hinted that blocking the targeted strains may have opened an ecological niche that allows the flourishing of HPV strains previously considered to be minor players, partially offsetting the vaccine's protection....

Overall, the new results indicate that the vaccine is not living up to its initial prospects. The findings show that 129 women would have to be vaccinated to prevent one precancerous lesion....