“The benefit of mass HPV vaccination for cervical cancer does not outweigh its risk,” 
according to testimony Dr. Sing Hang Lee will deliver to the D.C. Council’s Committee on Health Thursday, May 5 at 9:00 a.m. at the John A. Wilson Building, located at 1350 Pennsylvania Ave, NW.
Dr. Lee, a pathologist with more than 50 years experience, studied in the lab created by Dr. George Papanicolaou in the 1960s. Unlike the HPV vaccine, the Pap test – which Dr. Papanicolaou created – has proven to reduce deaths from cervical cancer.
Dr. Lee provided TheFightBack with an advance copy of his testimony. “My residency included training in the 1960s in the laboratory created by Dr. George Papanicolaou in New York Hospital. Using Pap smear to detect precancerous changes for early treatment in the U.S. has reduced the incidence of cervical cancer from 44 in 100,000 women in 1947 to about 5 in 100,000.”
Also testifying Thursday, as she did last year, is Emily Tarsell, who provided an advance copy of her testimony to TheFightBack. “I am here again this year as a mother, consumer and concerned citizen to oppose mandatory vaccination of children with the HPV vaccine Gardasil. In fact, I would argue that all sales of Gardasil should be suspended… My 21 year old daughter, Christina, my only child, died in June 2008, 18 days after her third injection with Gardasil.”
I will be joining Dr. Lee, Ms. Tarsell and others. Here is the conclusion of my testimony:
Four years ago, the District of Columbia passed its [HPV vaccine] mandate [for sixth grade girls] and since that time not a single state has followed suit. What’s more, even Virginia, which preceded us, is getting cold feet. In January, Virginia’s House of Delegates voted 61-33 to repeal the mandate.
The Washington Post noted, “The House [of Delegates’] strong rejection of the mandated vaccine, just four years after it was approved overwhelmingly in the same chamber, is a sign of public uneasiness with the HPV vaccination.”
When it comes to the HPV vaccine mandate this country is divided into two: on one side, opposed to the mandate, is almost the entire country; on the other side, standing in splendid isolation, is the District of Columbia and the Virginia State Senate.
What is the rest of the country seeing that we’re not? Maybe they’ve come across the words of Dr. Diane Harper, one of the leading researchers of the HPV vaccine, who has called its use in girls under the age of 16 “a great big public health experiment.” When asked why she made the remark, despite knowing that it would be damaging to her career, she said, “I want to be able to sleep with myself when I go to bed at night.”
We must end our splendid isolation and join with the rest of the country by stopping this “great big public health experiment” which has been neither just nor fair to the young girls of the District of Columbia.
Related Links:
http://www.gardasilandunexplaineddeaths.com/
http://www.nvic.org/
Related Stories:
Is D.C.’s HPV Vaccine Mandate a Mistake?