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Nova Scotia Offers Free Human Papilloma Virus Vaccine to Grade 7 Schoolgirls

Former Conservative senior policy advisor turned drug company lobbyist said responsible for federal program

By John Jalsevac

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, June 21, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Province of Nova Scotia will become the first Canadian province to initiate a federally funded program for vaccinating grade 7 schoolgirls against the sexually transmitted Human Papilloma Virus (HPV).

Females in Grade 7 will be offered three doses of the HPV vaccine over a six-month period in the 2007-2008 school year as part of Nova Scotia's school-based vaccination program. The HPV vaccine program will not, at least initially, be mandatory and requires consent.

Gwen Landolt of REAL Women of Canada expressed concern to LifeSiteNews.com that although the program "is not mandatory at this point, once they get it in on a voluntary basis what security is there that they're [the government] not going to force their hand on it." She also noted that the very feminist, pro-abortion Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada thinks the HPV vaccine program is wonderful.

Dr. Guylaine Lefebvre, incoming president of (SOGC) said the vaccine program "makes sense because it's a captive audience. We recommend all provinces do it the same way". "I work with a population that most needs this, but can't afford it," she said. "I can hardly wait for it to become available."

Landolt emphasized that the vaccine deals with only four out of one hundred STDs and a relatively small number of Canadian women are dying from cervical cancer compared to the vastly higher breast cancer rate which should be a greater concern.

Nova Scotia's HPV vaccination program is part of the $300 million program initiated by the federal Conservative government. REAL Women's Landolt revealed that the insertion of this massive funding into the Conservative budget is due to lobbying of the Conservatives by Ken Boessenkool, a senior policy advisor to the Harper Conservatives until he left in 2006 to join the Calgary office of the lobbying firm Hill and Knowlton. She says he then registered to lobby the government on the immunization policy on behalf of Merck", the drug conglomerate makers of the HPV vaccine, Gardasil.

Landolt continued, "he (Boessenkool) became a lobbyist and then suddenly the $300 million program came in the budget. He had an edge, I guess, with the Prime Minister."

Merck has recommended the vaccine for all females between the ages of 9 and 26 and initially launched the product with a major lobbying effort to have it legally mandated for all girls attending 6th grade. 

However, despite media efforts to portray the vaccination as 100% backed by the entire medical community, Merck has since had to cease its massive lobbying campaign.

While supporting the effort to combat cancer, critics of Gardasil have a laundry list of concerns about the vaccine and the effort to have it required for 6th grade attendance - not the least of which is that Gardasil is a vaccination for a sexually transmitted disease associated with promiscuity and the intended age group for the mandatory vaccination is pre-teen girls.

Critics of Merck, including the US National Vaccination Information Center, have accused the company and the FDA of "fast-tracking" the vaccination without being totally up front about its possible side-effects, especially in young girls. 

NVIC president, Barbara Loe Fisher said, "Nobody at Merck, the CDC or FDA know if the injection of Gardasil into all pre-teen girls -- especially simultaneously with hepatitis B vaccine -- will make some of them more likely to develop arthritis or other inflammatory autoimmune and brain disorders as teenagers and adults."

Side effects published by Merck & Co. warn the public about potential pain, fever, nausea, dizziness and itching after receiving the vaccine. 77% of the adverse reactions reported are typical side effects to vaccinations, but other more serious side effects reported include paralysis, Bells Palsy, Guillain-Barre Syndrome, and seizures.

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Judicial Watch Uncovers Three Deaths Relating to HPV Vaccine
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/may/07052501.html

Drug Conglomerate funds campaign to impose Mandatory HPV Vaccine on Young Girls
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/feb/07020204.html

Merck Drug Company Drops Campaign for Mandatory HPV Vaccine
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/feb/07022109.html

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