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  • 2018-03-01 (xsd:date)
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  • Did Pfizer's Vice President 'Blow the Whistle' on Gardasil? (en)
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  • In late February 2018, an article posted to alternative health blog HealthNutNews.com began circulating, leading readers to believe that the vice president of the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer had blown the whistle on Gardasil, a vaccine that protects against human papillomavirus, an umbrella term for several viruses spread by intimate contact which can lead to cervical cancer if left untreated. The headline on the story cautions that the vaccine is deadly. The article is a misleading and confusing hodgepodge of conflicting information, including quotes from medical professionals taken out of context and purposely mischaracterized. For example, the Pfizer vice president referenced in the headline is Dr. Peter Rost, who was not the vice president but a vice president of marketing for Pfizer, and who was fired in 2005 after a public skirmish with his employer in which he claimed to be a whistleblower over drug pricing. Of course, it's unclear how a an executive would blow the whistle on a product his company doesn't make anyway — Gardisil is manufactured by Merck, not Pfizer. The HealthNutNews.com story contradicts its own headline within the first two paragraphs: In the roughly two-minute video embedded in the story, Rost never mentions Gardasil or any vaccine at all. Instead, he appears to be talking in general terms about his views on the pharmaceutical industry's buying influence over academic institutions and building too-cozy relationships with researchers who should be unbiased in testing drugs — hardly an earth-shattering revelation about a specific vaccine or treatment. The article also contains two quotes from two medical publishing professionals, neither of whom was talking about vaccines or their efficacy: Both Angell and Horton edit two prominent medical journals, and both have written editorials that criticize scientific studies and concerns over conflicts of interest created by relationships between researchers and pharmaceutical companies. Neither mentioned vaccines, however. In an e-mail, Horton told us: Angell's quote was taken from a 2015 op-ed in the New York Review of Books, in which she wrote: This fear-mongering about alleged dangers of HPV vaccines is not based in any fact. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the vaccines are safe for most of the public, though (like any drug) they may have side effects, or in rare cases, may result in an allergic reaction. It's not the first time a vaccine has been falsely accused of causing ailments, when they in fact guard the general public from outbreaks — a previous HealthNutNews.com story falsely reported that vaccines were causing 2018's deadly influenza season. HPV vaccines have been controversial in part because they guard young girls against a sexually-transmitted virus that can lead to cervical cancer; thus, critics often blur the line between religious and anti-science hysteria when discouraging their use. As Joseph Uscinski, associate professor of political science at the University of Miami, pointed out, paranoia about this particular vaccine is enabled by parents who are afraid that providing girls with the vaccine will somehow promote promiscuity: He pointed to 2011, when former Minnesota representative and far-right Christian activist Michele Bachmann attacked then-presidential candidate and Texas Governor Rick Perry for an HPV vaccine mandate, falsely saying it causes mental retardation. Uscinski said: (en)
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