What Is Gardasil?
First approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2006, Gardasil was heavily touted and aggressively marketed as a vaccine to end cervical cancer. It was designed to protect against human papilloma virus (HPV).HPV refers to a group of more than 200 related viruses. They are spread from human to human through anal, oral, and vaginal sex. Some HPV strains are “low-risk,” causing genital warts but are not associated with cancer.
Other strains are associated with several types of cancer, including throat cancer, penile cancer, cancers of the vagina, and cervical cancer. Gardasil was originally designed to protect against just four sexually transmitted HPV strains.
The Gardasil Girls
“Under the Skin” tells the story of several young women, in particular two in Denmark, who have suffered from debilitating health issues after getting the Gardasil vaccine.Kesia Lyng and Sesilje Petersen both took part in the manufacturer’s vaccine trials in Denmark. They initially thought participating in a vaccine trial “sounded really awesome,” as Lyng put it. They were randomly assigned to one of two groups, a test group and a control group that would receive a saline placebo.
The vaccine, they were told, had “already been carefully tested for safety.”
Yet, it wasn’t long before both young women began to have disturbing symptoms, including overwhelming fatigue, chronic pain, fainting, and heart rate disturbances.
In one particular affecting story, Paula Aldea was given the vaccine as a teenager. Shortly afterward she called her father and told him she was at the bus stop and couldn’t feel her legs. Her condition rapidly progressed: within three hours, she was unable to move her legs at all.
These severe and debilitating conditions are particularly concerning because they most commonly hit youngsters who are not only healthy to begin with but active as well. As Dr. Chris Exley, a professor at Keele University, put it in the film, “I don’t think it’s acceptable to have collateral damage in a vaccination program.”
A Danish Doctor Finds Evidence of Harm
A Danish physician, Dr. Jesper Mehlsen—who is one of the most likeable, articulate, and competent people in the film—uncovers irrefutable evidence of harm.He counters that the government mouthpieces who dismiss his patients’ symptoms are epidemiologists who study spreadsheets and have little, if any, clinical experience. In fact, Mehlsen says, none of those defending the safety record of Gardasil have ever seen a single patient.
Mehlsen specializes in disturbances in the autonomic nervous system, the part of your body that controls automatic functions like your heartbeat and your breathing. He noticed a surge in young people with debilitating and inexplicable illnesses following vaccination with Gardasil. Some had been to 50 or more doctor visits before they found their way to him.
By testing the autonomic nervous systems of his patients—something that is completely outside of our conscious power to control—Mehlsen confirmed that they were, indeed, extremely sick.
Mehlsen hypothesized that something in the vaccine had caused the production of autoantibodies capable of attacking the central nervous system.
He was later able to identify three particularly problematic antibodies that can attack the autonomic nervous system.
The Problem With HPV
At the time the vaccine was approved, virtually every sexually active adult was exposed to HPV at some point in their lifetime. However, more than 90 percent of women clear it from the body within two years without any intervention.The Problem With the HPV Vaccines
For any vaccine to be effective, the body must recognize the components in the vaccine as foreign and mount an immune response against them.For this reason, adjuvants are sometimes used in vaccines. These adjuvants are substances that stimulate a stronger response to the vaccine antigen.
Some research indicates that the aluminum can be engulfed by white blood cells called macrophages and carried to vulnerable areas of the body.
Immune Overstimulation Courtesy of Aluminum
Aluminum has no known purpose in the body and is known to be toxic to human cells.So when an aluminum-containing vaccine is injected into the body, the damaged cells send out a danger signal, calling inflammatory cells to the injection site.
As the film explores, “fierce battles take place.” This battle can result in immune recognition of the vaccine antigen and production of protective antibodies. This works well for many people, but no two people have an identical immune response.
And therein lies the rub. While a weak immune system may require exposure to aluminum to produce any sort of response, a robust immune system can be overstimulated by the addition of aluminum.
Aluminum in Gardasil
The company that makes Gardasil, Merck, is using a novel adjuvant in their HPV vaccine: amorphous aluminum hydroxyphosphate sulfate, or AAHS.This adjuvant has also never been tested for safety.
Enrica Alteri, who worked for the EMA for eight years, insisted it would only be “scientifically justified to investigate” individual components of vaccines, if the component were capable of causing harm.
But, as the film shows, there is excellent reason to suspect this novel aluminum adjuvant of causing harm.
When Merck’s safety testing was unblinded, Kesia Lyng was told she was part of the test group that received the Gardasil vaccine.
Petersen, however, was part of the control group.
How can that be? Further investigation revealed that this control group did not receive an inert saline placebo. Instead, Merck gave the control group injections of their aluminum compound without the antigen.
Lyng is exhausted all the time. She cannot work and she barely has enough energy to make it through the day. Ten years later, she told Ehgartner that participating in the vaccine trials was a mistake.
“I feel it’s the worst decision that I’ve ever done in my life,” she said.
Bert Ehgartner made this film to begin a conversation about vaccines and vaccine safety. “Vaccinations are the Holy Grail of science,” he told us, “and no one is allowed to discuss them.” He is on a mission to change that.
Safer HPV Vaccines, Remedies for Side Effects Are Possible
As Dr. Christopher Exley explained in the film, although aluminum has been used in medicine for decades, we don’t have a complete understanding about how it works. More research on aluminum could help scientists develop aluminum-containing vaccines that are both safer and more effective.Dr. Jesper Mehlsen, who discovered the problematic antibodies in Lyng and Petersen’s blood, is trying to find ways to neutralize these harmful antibodies. Although retired, Mehlsen remains committed to finding a way to reverse the adverse effects these patients have been suffering from for years.