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The HPV Vaccine On Trial: Seeking Justice for a Generation Betrayed
A Groundbreaking Exposé to the HPV Vaccine and the Science, Safety, and Business Behind It
Cancer strikes fear in people’s hearts around globe. So the appearance of a vaccine to prevent cancer–as we are assured the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine will–seemed like a game-changer. Since 2006, over eighty countries have approved the vaccine, with glowing endorsements from the world’s foremost medical authorities. Bringing in over $2.5 billion in annual sales, the HPV vaccine is a pharmaceutical juggernaut. Yet scandal now engulfs it worldwide.
The HPV Vaccine on Trial is a shocking tale, chronicling the global efforts to sell and compel this alleged miracle. The book opens with the vaccine’s invention, winds through its regulatory labyrinths, details the crushing denial and dismissal of reported harms and deaths, and uncovers the enormous profits pharma and inventors have reaped. Authors Holland, Mack Rosenberg, and Iorio drill down into the clinical trial data, government approvals, advertising, and personal accounts of egregious injuries that have followed in countries as far-flung as Japan, Australia, Colombia, India, Ireland, the U.K. and Denmark. The authors have written an unprecedented exposé about this vaunted vaccine.
Written in plain language, the book is for everyone concerned – parents, patients, doctors, nurses, scientists, healthcare organizations, government officials, and schools. Ultimately, this book is not just about the HPV vaccine, but about how industry, government, and medical authorities may be putting the world’s children in harm’s way.
Cancer strikes fear in people’s hearts around globe. So the appearance of a vaccine to prevent cancer–as we are assured the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine will–seemed like a game-changer. Since 2006, over eighty countries have approved the vaccine, with glowing endorsements from the world’s foremost medical authorities. Bringing in over $2.5 billion in annual sales, the HPV vaccine is a pharmaceutical juggernaut. Yet scandal now engulfs it worldwide.
The HPV Vaccine on Trial is a shocking tale, chronicling the global efforts to sell and compel this alleged miracle. The book opens with the vaccine’s invention, winds through its regulatory labyrinths, details the crushing denial and dismissal of reported harms and deaths, and uncovers the enormous profits pharma and inventors have reaped. Authors Holland, Mack Rosenberg, and Iorio drill down into the clinical trial data, government approvals, advertising, and personal accounts of egregious injuries that have followed in countries as far-flung as Japan, Australia, Colombia, India, Ireland, the U.K. and Denmark. The authors have written an unprecedented exposé about this vaunted vaccine.
Written in plain language, the book is for everyone concerned – parents, patients, doctors, nurses, scientists, healthcare organizations, government officials, and schools. Ultimately, this book is not just about the HPV vaccine, but about how industry, government, and medical authorities may be putting the world’s children in harm’s way.
512 pages, Paperback
First published September 25, 2018
70 people are currently reading
467 people want to read
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April 9, 2024
In 2006, the first HPV vaccine (Gardasil) was licensed for use. Since then, 120 countries including the U.S. have adopted it, with marked success reported in decreasing the prevalence of HPV (human papillomavirus), which is implicated in the development of numerous cancers, including those of the cervix, anus, mouth and throat. In the U.S., despite limited uptake of the vaccine, HPV prevalence has been more than cut in half, with a markedly greater reduction in the age group getting the vaccine. In Australia where most adolescent boys and girls have received the HPV vaccine, the reduction in HPV infection is even more profound - with the prevalence rate among 18 to 24-year old women declining from about 23% to 1% from 2005 to 2015. Since about 99.99% of cervical cancers are caused by HPV, it's anticipated that Australia could in coming years be the first nation to essentially eliminate this cancer entirely.
This is great news - but not for antivaccine advocates. In "The HPV Vaccine On Trial", longtime antivax campaigner Mary Holland and two coauthors who similarly lack a medical or scientific background attack the HPV vaccine as ineffective, unnecessary and dangerous - but fail miserably to make an effective case.
While you won't find this information in the book, lead author Mary Holland has long condemned vaccines as a whole. She co-authored "Vaccine Epidemic", a misinformation-filled screed against immunization which included a defense of Andrew Wakefield, the researcher who published an unethical and fraudulent study suggesting a link between MMR vaccine and autism. The paper was later retracted by The Lancet after knowledge of Wakefield's transgressions (including accepting hefty payments from a lawyer's group hoping to file lucrative lawsuits against vaccine makers) became known.
"The HPV Vaccine On Trial" depends heavily on the same discredited tropes that have been commonly used in other antivax books and articles.
Most prominently there are anecdotes about young people who developed ailments somewhere around the time they were vaccinated - in some instances, much later (one case describes a young woman who started getting panic attacks months after HPV vaccination). Another case is that of Colton Berrett, a young man who reportedly had no problems with the first two doses of a three-dose HPV vaccine series, then developed a paralytic syndrome with onset two weeks after his final HPV shot. This ailment (transverse myelitis) has many potential causes, but vaccination has never been shown to be one of them (a study involving 64 million vaccine doses found no association). This hasn't stopped antivaxers from seizing on the sad outcome to Berrett's illness (he took his own life) as a vehicle to attack vaccines.
At least the book left out one of the more bizarre attempts to link the HPV vaccine to a death; an antivaccine website contains an account of a young woman who fell down a well and died, one month after being vaccinated.
In reality, HPV vaccines have been found to be very safe, with potential side effects mostly limited to minor problems like temporary injection site pain, swelling and redness. Holland et al list a whopping number of ailments alleged to be caused by the vaccine, but there is neither a logical mechanism nor convincing evidence for linking such a multitude of disparate conditions to the vaccine.
There isn't space in a single review to cover all the errors and distortions in this book, but examples include the laughable suggestion that HPV infection can be prevented by improved sanitation and clean water (since there are approximately 43,000 new cases of HPV-linked cancer in the U.S. annually, one wonders if Holland et al think the U.S. is a Third World country without access to clean water or sewers). In the case of cervical cancer, close to 100% of cases occur in HPV-infected women, but the book tries to play up the tiny minority of cases where HPV has not been demonstrated, in an attempt to show the vaccine isn't necessary. To that end, the book also claims that the infection "clears almost all the time". Consider that there are currently an estimated 80 million Americans with HPV, and about 90% of them will have their infections resolve within two years. That still leaves 7.2 million with persistent infection and the potential for precancerous and cancerous changes. We have no way to predict which infections will spontaneously resolve and which will dangerously persist. The book attempts to present Pap screening as a viable alternative to HPV vaccination. However, Pap tests do not prevent HPV infection - they can only monitor it; and while highly useful they are not perfect, occasionally missing serious abnormalities. Meantime, in addition to 43,000 Americans developing HPV-linked cancers each year, hundreds of thousands of people experience precancerous changes due to HPV, and must undergo costly, invasive and sometimes painful testing and procedures to check for and eliminate dysplasias (precancers.) The morbidity of these conditions is something the book glosses over or ignores entirely. This is a common antivax tactic - focus only on deaths due to disease (rather ghoulishly, antivaxers seem to think these numbers are low enough to be "manageable") while refusing to acknowledge complications and suffering due to vaccine-preventable diseases.
The book also makes liberal use of the "toxin gambit" - claiming that minute amounts of Scary-Sounding Chemicals are responsible for vaccine injuries (there is no viable evidence for such claims; for an excellent takedown of this ploy, search for the Science-Based Medicine article "Toxic Myths About Vaccines"). One such pseudo-toxin is blamed for fertility problems alleged to be caused by the vaccine. However, a recent large-scale study debunked the major claim in this area, refuting the idea that premature ovarian failure is linked to HPV vaccination.
Ironically, HPV infection itself may damage fertility, i.e. when cervical conization procedures or hysterectomy made necessary by high grade precancers or cancers compromise or eliminate potential for pregnancy. You won't find attention to this problem in the book.
Other commonplace antivax tactics that the book employs include references to low quality publications by poorly regarded researchers such as Sin Hang Lee and Yehuda Shoenfeld (whose mouse paper attempting to find fault with a vaccine adjuvant was retracted due to methodologic flaws). A much, much greater amount of quality research in support of immunization is either ignored or attacked as tainted by conflicts of interest. Actually citing good evidence to counter this huge body of positive research (much of it by independent researchers) is apparently too hard for the book's authors - much easier for them to dismiss it via innuendo.
Speaking of "conflicts of interest": one wonders why, if money rules in the Medical Mafia (as antivaxers like to regard the great majority of physicians), the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists promotes HPV vaccination. Consider that for a long time, routine Pap tests have been an income generator for gynecologists, assuring frequent patient visits for health assessments and other reasons. Routine HPV testing (also endorsed by ACOG) and HPV vaccination will greatly cut down on the need for Pap tests, reduce patient visits and deprive gynecologists of significant income. Yet the members of ACOG, because they care deeply about the health of their patients, strongly support HPV vaccination. As the ACOG website notes:
"It is crucial that obstetrician–gynecologists and other health care providers educate parents and patients on the benefits and safety of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination and offer HPV vaccines in their offices. A health care provider’s recommendation to vaccinate is a strong influence in parents’ decision making."
The drug companies that make Gardasil and Cervarix (another HPV vaccine) are potentially sacrificing $$$ that could be made supplying cancer drugs and other pharma products to the many people afflicted by HPV-associated diseases. That doesn't seem to occur to the authors of this book.
Meantime, on the horizon are new and improved HPV vaccines targeting even more virus subtypes (the current version of Gardasil targets 92% of the high-risk HPV strains), and vaccines to treat HPV-induced cancers. Antivaxers dread the idea of widespread use of anticancer vaccines, perhaps because they know it'll be a lot tougher to get the public to avoid an effective means of preventing or treating widespread deadly malignancies, as opposed to vaccine-preventable diseases like polio and measles which don't seem as important to modern parents who've never had to experience children made miserable or deathly ill by them.
Whether you choose to buy Holland's book or (like me) save money by reading a library copy, know that there are much better, fair-minded and accurate sources of information on the Internet. Particularly recommended are Science-Based Medicine, immunize.org, pkids.org, and the website on immunization sponsored by Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. For a book that answers virtually any question you might have on vaccines, using facts and good evidence while not taking sides on "the controversy", read Kristen Feemster's "Vaccines: What Everyone Needs To Know".
This is great news - but not for antivaccine advocates. In "The HPV Vaccine On Trial", longtime antivax campaigner Mary Holland and two coauthors who similarly lack a medical or scientific background attack the HPV vaccine as ineffective, unnecessary and dangerous - but fail miserably to make an effective case.
While you won't find this information in the book, lead author Mary Holland has long condemned vaccines as a whole. She co-authored "Vaccine Epidemic", a misinformation-filled screed against immunization which included a defense of Andrew Wakefield, the researcher who published an unethical and fraudulent study suggesting a link between MMR vaccine and autism. The paper was later retracted by The Lancet after knowledge of Wakefield's transgressions (including accepting hefty payments from a lawyer's group hoping to file lucrative lawsuits against vaccine makers) became known.
"The HPV Vaccine On Trial" depends heavily on the same discredited tropes that have been commonly used in other antivax books and articles.
Most prominently there are anecdotes about young people who developed ailments somewhere around the time they were vaccinated - in some instances, much later (one case describes a young woman who started getting panic attacks months after HPV vaccination). Another case is that of Colton Berrett, a young man who reportedly had no problems with the first two doses of a three-dose HPV vaccine series, then developed a paralytic syndrome with onset two weeks after his final HPV shot. This ailment (transverse myelitis) has many potential causes, but vaccination has never been shown to be one of them (a study involving 64 million vaccine doses found no association). This hasn't stopped antivaxers from seizing on the sad outcome to Berrett's illness (he took his own life) as a vehicle to attack vaccines.
At least the book left out one of the more bizarre attempts to link the HPV vaccine to a death; an antivaccine website contains an account of a young woman who fell down a well and died, one month after being vaccinated.
In reality, HPV vaccines have been found to be very safe, with potential side effects mostly limited to minor problems like temporary injection site pain, swelling and redness. Holland et al list a whopping number of ailments alleged to be caused by the vaccine, but there is neither a logical mechanism nor convincing evidence for linking such a multitude of disparate conditions to the vaccine.
There isn't space in a single review to cover all the errors and distortions in this book, but examples include the laughable suggestion that HPV infection can be prevented by improved sanitation and clean water (since there are approximately 43,000 new cases of HPV-linked cancer in the U.S. annually, one wonders if Holland et al think the U.S. is a Third World country without access to clean water or sewers). In the case of cervical cancer, close to 100% of cases occur in HPV-infected women, but the book tries to play up the tiny minority of cases where HPV has not been demonstrated, in an attempt to show the vaccine isn't necessary. To that end, the book also claims that the infection "clears almost all the time". Consider that there are currently an estimated 80 million Americans with HPV, and about 90% of them will have their infections resolve within two years. That still leaves 7.2 million with persistent infection and the potential for precancerous and cancerous changes. We have no way to predict which infections will spontaneously resolve and which will dangerously persist. The book attempts to present Pap screening as a viable alternative to HPV vaccination. However, Pap tests do not prevent HPV infection - they can only monitor it; and while highly useful they are not perfect, occasionally missing serious abnormalities. Meantime, in addition to 43,000 Americans developing HPV-linked cancers each year, hundreds of thousands of people experience precancerous changes due to HPV, and must undergo costly, invasive and sometimes painful testing and procedures to check for and eliminate dysplasias (precancers.) The morbidity of these conditions is something the book glosses over or ignores entirely. This is a common antivax tactic - focus only on deaths due to disease (rather ghoulishly, antivaxers seem to think these numbers are low enough to be "manageable") while refusing to acknowledge complications and suffering due to vaccine-preventable diseases.
The book also makes liberal use of the "toxin gambit" - claiming that minute amounts of Scary-Sounding Chemicals are responsible for vaccine injuries (there is no viable evidence for such claims; for an excellent takedown of this ploy, search for the Science-Based Medicine article "Toxic Myths About Vaccines"). One such pseudo-toxin is blamed for fertility problems alleged to be caused by the vaccine. However, a recent large-scale study debunked the major claim in this area, refuting the idea that premature ovarian failure is linked to HPV vaccination.
Ironically, HPV infection itself may damage fertility, i.e. when cervical conization procedures or hysterectomy made necessary by high grade precancers or cancers compromise or eliminate potential for pregnancy. You won't find attention to this problem in the book.
Other commonplace antivax tactics that the book employs include references to low quality publications by poorly regarded researchers such as Sin Hang Lee and Yehuda Shoenfeld (whose mouse paper attempting to find fault with a vaccine adjuvant was retracted due to methodologic flaws). A much, much greater amount of quality research in support of immunization is either ignored or attacked as tainted by conflicts of interest. Actually citing good evidence to counter this huge body of positive research (much of it by independent researchers) is apparently too hard for the book's authors - much easier for them to dismiss it via innuendo.
Speaking of "conflicts of interest": one wonders why, if money rules in the Medical Mafia (as antivaxers like to regard the great majority of physicians), the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists promotes HPV vaccination. Consider that for a long time, routine Pap tests have been an income generator for gynecologists, assuring frequent patient visits for health assessments and other reasons. Routine HPV testing (also endorsed by ACOG) and HPV vaccination will greatly cut down on the need for Pap tests, reduce patient visits and deprive gynecologists of significant income. Yet the members of ACOG, because they care deeply about the health of their patients, strongly support HPV vaccination. As the ACOG website notes:
"It is crucial that obstetrician–gynecologists and other health care providers educate parents and patients on the benefits and safety of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination and offer HPV vaccines in their offices. A health care provider’s recommendation to vaccinate is a strong influence in parents’ decision making."
The drug companies that make Gardasil and Cervarix (another HPV vaccine) are potentially sacrificing $$$ that could be made supplying cancer drugs and other pharma products to the many people afflicted by HPV-associated diseases. That doesn't seem to occur to the authors of this book.
Meantime, on the horizon are new and improved HPV vaccines targeting even more virus subtypes (the current version of Gardasil targets 92% of the high-risk HPV strains), and vaccines to treat HPV-induced cancers. Antivaxers dread the idea of widespread use of anticancer vaccines, perhaps because they know it'll be a lot tougher to get the public to avoid an effective means of preventing or treating widespread deadly malignancies, as opposed to vaccine-preventable diseases like polio and measles which don't seem as important to modern parents who've never had to experience children made miserable or deathly ill by them.
Whether you choose to buy Holland's book or (like me) save money by reading a library copy, know that there are much better, fair-minded and accurate sources of information on the Internet. Particularly recommended are Science-Based Medicine, immunize.org, pkids.org, and the website on immunization sponsored by Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. For a book that answers virtually any question you might have on vaccines, using facts and good evidence while not taking sides on "the controversy", read Kristen Feemster's "Vaccines: What Everyone Needs To Know".
January 7, 2020
2.5 stars
Like many other topics in the modern day this one has become completely toxic and political. And like almost every conspiracy book there's some truth laced in here and there and some interesting points raised every now again. However, it's not a book I would feel comfortable recommending to anyone without a highly calibrated BS detector. Most of this book sent me googling and thinking, "Is that really true?" And sometimes it was and sometimes it wasn't, but it was almost never the full story and often spin. But that's not to say the book's not useful. I'm glad I read it. I learned some stuff I probably wouldn't have got anywhere else. But this ain't pleasure reading, folks. This is work. This is sorting through a dunghill for diamonds. And I found a few.
Like many other topics in the modern day this one has become completely toxic and political. And like almost every conspiracy book there's some truth laced in here and there and some interesting points raised every now again. However, it's not a book I would feel comfortable recommending to anyone without a highly calibrated BS detector. Most of this book sent me googling and thinking, "Is that really true?" And sometimes it was and sometimes it wasn't, but it was almost never the full story and often spin. But that's not to say the book's not useful. I'm glad I read it. I learned some stuff I probably wouldn't have got anywhere else. But this ain't pleasure reading, folks. This is work. This is sorting through a dunghill for diamonds. And I found a few.
October 19, 2018
If you are a vaccine enthusiast as I am, this is a must-read. If you are new to learning about the horrors of vaccination, I'd recommend that you first watch "Suzanne Humphries on Gardasil" on YouTube. If you watch that and are inspired to learn more, read this book. This book goes deep, deep, deep into the malfeasance of the approval process of bringing this dangerous vaccine to market. There is science, law, personal stories from around the world....you will learn much and want to share your knowledge with the world.
October 29, 2018
An informative, well-referenced book about the HPV vaccine and the multitude of adverse events/horrendous side effects, and even death, that so many young people suffer from, following this vaccine. While this particular vaccine may be safe for many, for many others it is not. This book details the ways in which pharmaceutical companies are sneaky and often ‘skirt’ the truth. The CDC & FDA are charged with protecting the citizens of the United States and sadly, in this instance, they are not doing their job. If Merck would roll out a safe, effective HPV vaccine, I would be all for it. Unfortunately, my own daughter suffers from a vaccine injury from this vaccine so, I know all too well, the truth of this vaccine’s safety, or lack thereof. To say these reactions are not causal, is akin to saying that lung cancer following years of smoking is not causal. Just like with Vioxx, the truth will come out.
August 12, 2022
As a public health attorney, I feel uniquely qualified to review this book.
A few months ago, I met a colleague who had written a casebook (which is a law school text book) on vaccine law--one of the first on this subject area, if not the first. Vaccines are one of the most important tools public health practitioners have to combat infectious diseases (many of them incredibly deadly, like smallpox) and are, overall, effective and efficacious (I feel the need to use both terms here because the authors got hung up on them at one point in the book). And, until very recently, vaccines have been largely non-controversial, minus a few "fringe" individuals and groups who oppose them (e.g., Jacobson of Jacobson v. Massachusetts). ANYWAY, the casebook inspired me to do some research on vaccine law and policy, which is quickly becoming one of my own sub-specialties. I came across this book on a list of book recommendations by a favorite feminist podcaster of mine, and decided to give it a read.
Look at the blurbs on the book's cover. These are anti-vaxx groups (why do they always have names like "Institute for Children's Safety from Big Pharma"? lol). This book, at its core, is an anti-vaxx book. I highly doubt that pro-vaccine people will be motivated to pick up this book. BUT. I'm glad I did. (And yes, I'm sticking to my four-star rating. EDIT: I'm revising to three stars as to not inflate the book's rating.)
So, going back to my own personal experience: as a child of the 90s, I remember Merck's Guardasil ads ("One less!"), and I remember the controversy around the HPV vaccine. My pediatrician jabbed me with all kinds of vaccines, but I don't remember her ever asking my mother for explicit consent for any of them besides Guardasil ("You don't have to get it," she told my mother, almost apologetically. "It's up to you."). The controversy around Guardasil never died down, and now, post-COVID, select state legislatures have introduced bills banning schools from requiring the COVID-19 vaccine and HPV vaccines from school attendance. There is no other vaccine that is as controversial as these two, and I wanted to understand why. Now I do.
This book is incredibly well-researched--at least at first glance. The authors begin with the conception for an HPV vaccine, Pharma "pre-marketing" strategies (e.g., creating a market for the vaccine/illness prior to market release), and why a HPV vaccine is a perfect money-maker. I was surprised to learn how few women actually are diagnosed with cervical cancer every year in developed countries, and how tenuous the connection between HPV and cervical cancer is. I agree with many of their points--vaccines should not and can not replace routine cervical cancer screenings (pap smear) and other forms of routine reproductive health care. I also (tentatively) agree with their notion that boys should not be given the HPV vaccine, if only for the paucity of research.
While this book is engaging (and definitely a page-turner for me, but maybe I'm biased), it's VERY one-sided. The authors don't aim to be objective: they have pre-conceived ideas about vaccines that they are not willing or able to reconsider. There is an underlying feeling of hysteria and conspiracy beneath the text. Additionally, the authors are not well-informed about how regulatory agencies work (or even what to call them... I cringed every time they wrote "the FDA." We all just say "FDA" in the field). They are not scientifically trained, or even trained in public health or scientific method, and it shows. Thus, many of their criticisms of various studies just miss the mark. Most of their evidence, in fact, is anecdotal. Just look at the pictures in the center insert! They have curated story after story of "vaccine injured" child, who is humiliated and mocked in the media. And while these children and their families are sympathetic, there is absolutely no evidence that the HPV vaccine caused their horrific injuries. The authors know this. That's why they spend so much time lamenting that "today's scientific community" doesn't value case studies. No shit--case studies may be helpful in abnormal psychology and other fields, but when dealing with pharmaceuticals, it just doesn't cut it. They also tote the "vaccine injury" cases and "wins" as proof of their claims, and spend a great deal of time discussing the "vaccine injury" compensation system, but miss the mark. The vast majority of "vaccine injuries" are associated with the injector. That's right--the nurse sticking the needle in your arm is more likely to injure you by mistakenly hitting the muscle wrong, or mis-aiming. Other claims generally "win" a pay-out because that's how the system is set up to operate.
So. Why did I give this book four (EDIT: three!) stars? I found it wonderfully informative about how the anti-vaxx mind works. Aside from the COVID-19 vaccine objectors, the classic anti-vaxx parent is a highly educated, white women. Like these three. This book allows you to get inside their heads and see how they think. They're smart--they've done plenty of research, even if they aren't scientifically trained enough to fully appreciate the studies they've found. And they love their children. When their kids get sick, they're smart enough to make connections, and question the context of the sickness. The vaccine is a black box and a source of blame for many.
Overall, I'm uncertain if I would recommend this book. It was profoundly helpful for my own research and work, and I honestly couldn't put it down. I can't believe this was my vacation read, lol. The "story" of Guardasil is truly fascinating. If I did recommend the book, I would offer these disclaimers. Still, it's profoundly interesting, but should be read critically.
EDIT: I highly recommend you read the review written by Lorenzo St. DuBois on Amazon. I wish I could link directly to the review here.
---
I read most of this book on a plane and then in a cabin without WiFi, so this is my first opportunity to examine the authors. Please join me.
Mary Holland is General Counsel of Children's Health Defense, an anti-vax nonprofit. Look them up on Wikipedia. Lawsuits they file are routinely dismissed as frivolous and unsubstantiated. Her (brief) bio as stated in the book makes it sound like she's a law professor at NYU, but she's not. Holland is faculty at NYU's Graduate Legal Skills Program. She is not a law professor but her bio is stated in such a way as to imply that she is, for added credibility.
Kim Mack Rosenberg is the president of the National Autism Association's New York Metro Chapter. She is also not a law professor. She is a personal injury/products liability attorney (what we jokingly call "ambulance chasers").
Eileen Iorio is... the mother of a "vaccine injured" child? I can't find any other credentials.
I'm definitely biased here, but these three are not qualified vaccine experts. They've also built a business model off of their anti-vaxx beliefs, so keep that in mind.
A few months ago, I met a colleague who had written a casebook (which is a law school text book) on vaccine law--one of the first on this subject area, if not the first. Vaccines are one of the most important tools public health practitioners have to combat infectious diseases (many of them incredibly deadly, like smallpox) and are, overall, effective and efficacious (I feel the need to use both terms here because the authors got hung up on them at one point in the book). And, until very recently, vaccines have been largely non-controversial, minus a few "fringe" individuals and groups who oppose them (e.g., Jacobson of Jacobson v. Massachusetts). ANYWAY, the casebook inspired me to do some research on vaccine law and policy, which is quickly becoming one of my own sub-specialties. I came across this book on a list of book recommendations by a favorite feminist podcaster of mine, and decided to give it a read.
Look at the blurbs on the book's cover. These are anti-vaxx groups (why do they always have names like "Institute for Children's Safety from Big Pharma"? lol). This book, at its core, is an anti-vaxx book. I highly doubt that pro-vaccine people will be motivated to pick up this book. BUT. I'm glad I did. (And yes, I'm sticking to my four-star rating. EDIT: I'm revising to three stars as to not inflate the book's rating.)
So, going back to my own personal experience: as a child of the 90s, I remember Merck's Guardasil ads ("One less!"), and I remember the controversy around the HPV vaccine. My pediatrician jabbed me with all kinds of vaccines, but I don't remember her ever asking my mother for explicit consent for any of them besides Guardasil ("You don't have to get it," she told my mother, almost apologetically. "It's up to you."). The controversy around Guardasil never died down, and now, post-COVID, select state legislatures have introduced bills banning schools from requiring the COVID-19 vaccine and HPV vaccines from school attendance. There is no other vaccine that is as controversial as these two, and I wanted to understand why. Now I do.
This book is incredibly well-researched--at least at first glance. The authors begin with the conception for an HPV vaccine, Pharma "pre-marketing" strategies (e.g., creating a market for the vaccine/illness prior to market release), and why a HPV vaccine is a perfect money-maker. I was surprised to learn how few women actually are diagnosed with cervical cancer every year in developed countries, and how tenuous the connection between HPV and cervical cancer is. I agree with many of their points--vaccines should not and can not replace routine cervical cancer screenings (pap smear) and other forms of routine reproductive health care. I also (tentatively) agree with their notion that boys should not be given the HPV vaccine, if only for the paucity of research.
While this book is engaging (and definitely a page-turner for me, but maybe I'm biased), it's VERY one-sided. The authors don't aim to be objective: they have pre-conceived ideas about vaccines that they are not willing or able to reconsider. There is an underlying feeling of hysteria and conspiracy beneath the text. Additionally, the authors are not well-informed about how regulatory agencies work (or even what to call them... I cringed every time they wrote "the FDA." We all just say "FDA" in the field). They are not scientifically trained, or even trained in public health or scientific method, and it shows. Thus, many of their criticisms of various studies just miss the mark. Most of their evidence, in fact, is anecdotal. Just look at the pictures in the center insert! They have curated story after story of "vaccine injured" child, who is humiliated and mocked in the media. And while these children and their families are sympathetic, there is absolutely no evidence that the HPV vaccine caused their horrific injuries. The authors know this. That's why they spend so much time lamenting that "today's scientific community" doesn't value case studies. No shit--case studies may be helpful in abnormal psychology and other fields, but when dealing with pharmaceuticals, it just doesn't cut it. They also tote the "vaccine injury" cases and "wins" as proof of their claims, and spend a great deal of time discussing the "vaccine injury" compensation system, but miss the mark. The vast majority of "vaccine injuries" are associated with the injector. That's right--the nurse sticking the needle in your arm is more likely to injure you by mistakenly hitting the muscle wrong, or mis-aiming. Other claims generally "win" a pay-out because that's how the system is set up to operate.
So. Why did I give this book four (EDIT: three!) stars? I found it wonderfully informative about how the anti-vaxx mind works. Aside from the COVID-19 vaccine objectors, the classic anti-vaxx parent is a highly educated, white women. Like these three. This book allows you to get inside their heads and see how they think. They're smart--they've done plenty of research, even if they aren't scientifically trained enough to fully appreciate the studies they've found. And they love their children. When their kids get sick, they're smart enough to make connections, and question the context of the sickness. The vaccine is a black box and a source of blame for many.
Overall, I'm uncertain if I would recommend this book. It was profoundly helpful for my own research and work, and I honestly couldn't put it down. I can't believe this was my vacation read, lol. The "story" of Guardasil is truly fascinating. If I did recommend the book, I would offer these disclaimers. Still, it's profoundly interesting, but should be read critically.
EDIT: I highly recommend you read the review written by Lorenzo St. DuBois on Amazon. I wish I could link directly to the review here.
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I read most of this book on a plane and then in a cabin without WiFi, so this is my first opportunity to examine the authors. Please join me.
Mary Holland is General Counsel of Children's Health Defense, an anti-vax nonprofit. Look them up on Wikipedia. Lawsuits they file are routinely dismissed as frivolous and unsubstantiated. Her (brief) bio as stated in the book makes it sound like she's a law professor at NYU, but she's not. Holland is faculty at NYU's Graduate Legal Skills Program. She is not a law professor but her bio is stated in such a way as to imply that she is, for added credibility.
Kim Mack Rosenberg is the president of the National Autism Association's New York Metro Chapter. She is also not a law professor. She is a personal injury/products liability attorney (what we jokingly call "ambulance chasers").
Eileen Iorio is... the mother of a "vaccine injured" child? I can't find any other credentials.
I'm definitely biased here, but these three are not qualified vaccine experts. They've also built a business model off of their anti-vaxx beliefs, so keep that in mind.
August 5, 2019
This book kept me engaged (mostly! some science is hard to digest!) as I learned about issues with clinical trials and why there are more reported adverse events with this vaccine than others. If you have a child that's getting close to the age they recommend this vaccine, definitely read this first!
August 12, 2019
This is the medical version of what happened on Wall Street and I am absolutely sick about it. If the public only knew.....if doctors only knew.....if the media didn't get their paychecks from pharmaceutical advertising, then perhaps we all would have known. If you have an opinion on this topic without reading this book, then you are grossly misinformed.
May 14, 2024
Ok I loved this and hated it at the same time. So so so so thankful for the information but still just a liiiittttttlllleee dry. This was extremely eye opening and horrifying. It was important for me to see the actual data, not simply hear story after story of peoples’ experiences regarding the HPV vaccine, which is why I persevered in reading this all the way through even after being convinced VERY early on that I will never ever vaccinate my children with this poison. If you need both data and stories to see that the vaccine industry and HPV vaccine more specifically do not actually have your children’s health at heart, please read this. I did skim the second half and that felt quite sufficient to get the info I needed.
Drug companies, DO BETTER. Parents, don’t be passive consumers of what “everyone” (even pediatricians - who are paid to sell this and other vaccines) says is safe.
Thanks, Brittni, for letting me borrow this for forever. I will now return it to you 😂.
Drug companies, DO BETTER. Parents, don’t be passive consumers of what “everyone” (even pediatricians - who are paid to sell this and other vaccines) says is safe.
Thanks, Brittni, for letting me borrow this for forever. I will now return it to you 😂.
January 23, 2019
Excellent reporting on the rollout of the HPV vaccine in the mid 2000s — also known as Gardasil or Cervarix —and its aftermath. The authors are very careful to be objective and the book is, if anything, so research heavy that the average reader (me!) may occasionally get lost among all the scientific studies and references. Since this vaccine is recommended for children and young adults of all genders — and will soon be recommended for all adults — this book is a must-read for anyone.
January 6, 2020
Skimmed, seems to mostly contain alarmist nonsense (which you can probably guess by the title anyway) and standard anti-vaxx rhetoric that's not specific to the HPV vaccine, combined with a bunch of unverifiable anecdotes. The author is one of those parents with an autistic kid and no relevant credentials, that seems to incorrectly think vaccines cause autism even though we know it doesn't.
If you're looking for a book that will inform you about the HPV vaccine, this isn't it.
If you're looking for a book that will inform you about the HPV vaccine, this isn't it.
May 14, 2019
Every parent should read this before having their precious child vaccinated. How can a placebo said to be "just saline" contain adjuvants to throw off results of course if the "control group" had problems it can't be the vaccine. Legalized serial killers the truth is hard, hopefully it sets some free.
January 17, 2019
The authors clearly describe the history and repercussions of the use of the HPV vaccines worldwide. It is a great book for anyone wanting to know how the vaccines were approved and how different countries have dealt with the autoimmune and neurological damage that can occur to some of those vaccinated.
May 25, 2019
If your kid is around the age for this vaccine, read this book FIRST.
September 23, 2021
A hugely important book questioning the disconnect between over 100,000 adverse events and deaths related to the vaccine and the near total global governmental and media blackout of those events for many years. Also points out anomalous scientific and statistical practices related to the shot.
March 19, 2019
Eye opening!
October 3, 2024
For anyone who has questions, has an injured child, or even if you’ve grown up believing all these products are incredibly safe, you should read this book. I used to be someone who believed these things were safe. Over the years through research, personal experience, and personal stories I have learned otherwise. I wish people would question the “science” they’ve been taught and learn to dig deeper because you’ll be shocked at what you’ll find!
October 26, 2024
This book was incredible, and revealed the process of drug and vaccine approval in the United States, and all the fraud, lies, and deception committed against people along the way by Big Pharma, which the FDA and CDC not only allowed, but assisted in. This book shows us all the information which Big Pharma, Big Government, and Big Tech would like to hide from the American people. It is a must read for those who wish to know the truth about vaccines and drugs in the United States.
January 20, 2024
Certainly a must-read book before deciding what is best for your daughter (and sons). Clinical trials with a minimum record of all adverse effects of the volunteers. I think almost the same story as with many medicines / vaccines: a race to vaccinate individuals, a race to profit and fame.
February 11, 2019
Every person considering any of
the HPV vaccines for themselves or their children MUST read this book first. #knowthetruth #firstdonoharm #stopblamingthevictim
the HPV vaccines for themselves or their children MUST read this book first. #knowthetruth #firstdonoharm #stopblamingthevictim
September 17, 2019
A must read
A must read for everyone. Young adults, parents, grandparents this book is for you. Well written and informative.
Thank you for writing this book.
A must read for everyone. Young adults, parents, grandparents this book is for you. Well written and informative.
Thank you for writing this book.
May 24, 2021
Tedious.
March 31, 2022
I'm 61 years old. I contracted hpv in 2011
February 17, 2025
Horrific
March 1, 2025
This is a MUST READ. I am not anti-vax, but this book illustrates why we must be wary. I implore anyone who sees my book list to read this.
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