At a press conference on Thursday December 8 in Fontaine-le-Comte (Vienne), the President of the Republic addressed the health aspect of the National Council for Refoundation (CNR). In order to improve sexual prevention among adolescents, Emmanuel Macron declared himself in favor of compulsory vaccination against human papillomavirus (HPV) infections. A controversial vaccine that experts say is ineffective and can cause serious adverse reactions. Eleven vaccines are currently imposed on children born after 2018 in France.
From the department of Vienne, Thursday, December 8, the President of the Republic warned of the low vaccination coverage of adolescents against human papillomavirus (HPV) infections: “We’re behind on that.” Only “a third of young girls” et “less than 10% of boys” get vaccinated, he said. These sexually transmitted infections (STIs) can cause cancer in both men and women. If cancer of the cervix is the most frequently developed, that of the upper aerodigestive tract (mouth and throat) comes second.
The Gardasil vaccine would reduce the risk of cancer
Vaccination against human papillomaviruses is currently recommended for young girls and young boys between the ages of 11 and 14 (with a possible catch-up until the age of 19) as well as for immunocompromised people. The same applies to men who have sex with other men, up to the age of 26.
Any vaccination against papillomaviruses is done exclusively using the GARDASIL 9 vaccine from the MSD France laboratory. The Vidal dictionary (the essential handbook for health professionals) bases its article dated November 16, 2021 on this subject on a Swedish survey from 2020. According to the latter, vaccination against HPV would considerably reduce the risk of cervical cancer. uterus.
The survey in question concerned the follow-up of a group of girls and women aged between 10 and 30 between the 1is January 2006 and December 31, 2017. The results would have shown a much lower number of cancer cases in the part of the vaccinated group, especially when vaccination took place before the age of 17.
A controversial vaccine in the medical community
Nevertheless, this conclusion is debated in the medical world. Oncologists Nicole and Gérard Delépine advance the hypothesis in their book published in 2018 “Vaccine Hysteria: Gardasil Vaccine and Cancer: The Paradox” that the Gardasil vaccine, which nevertheless has the stated objective of reducing the frequency of uterine cancers, not only would not prevent the disease but… could cause it. The two doctors claim that “contrary to hopes and statistical simulations, the number of cervical cancers increased in vaccinated populations”.
In 2018, the publication of the book “The HPV Vaccine On Trial : Seeking Justice For A Generation Betrayed”written by American jurists Mary Holland and Kim Mack Rosenberg and vaccine safety activist Eileen Iorio, wished to denounce the conditions for placing the anti-HPV vaccine on the market. This “pharmaceutical juggernaut“who reported”over $2.5 billion in annual sales” would have had serious side effects on the younger generations.
Prof. Luc Montagnier (co-Nobel Prize 2008 with Prof. Françoise Barré-Sinoussi for the discovery of the AIDS virus) prefaced this book: “The reader will see the truth: side effects are under-reported by medical personnel, while growing numbers of parents are suing manufacturers and governments for causing lifelong disabilities or even death to their loved ones. Dear. In fact, this is a tragic example of the various inclinations of our society, throughout the world, to place economic interests before the protection and health of the youngest. I congratulate the authors of this book, who reveal this scandal to the whole world”.
Gardasil vaccine challenged in court
In 2013, this questioning for the less severe of Professor Montagnier is illustrated in the regional daily West Francewhich reported that a young girl had filed a complaint against the Sanofi Pasteur MSD laboratory for side effects linked to the Gardasil vaccine.
At the time, the teenager had described an ordeal after taking the vaccine: powerful dizziness, typical symptoms of multiple sclerosis, up to an attack forcing her to the wheelchair. Seized by his parents, the Commission for Conciliation and Compensation for Medical Accidents (CCI) of Aquitaine had concluded in June 2013, according to the family lawyer Me Jean-Christophe Coubris, at the “link of imputability between the vaccine and the pathology”.
The complaint had however been dismissed in October 2015 by the Paris prosecutor’s office, on the grounds of a lack of direct link between taking the vaccine and the pathologies of the nervous system presented by the victim. However, in April 2014, twenty-five new complaints had been filed, reinforcing the suspicions of side effects for this same vaccine. “The common point between all these cases is the very short time between the injection of Gardasil and the first symptoms of the disease”, had indicated Me Jean-Christophe Coubris.
Among the pathologies most frequently mentioned by the alleged victims were multiple sclerosis, lupus, acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (inflammation of the central nervous system) and macrophagic myofasciitis (a disease that results in muscle pain and chronic fatigue ).
In April 2019, the magistrate responsible for investigating the various cases declared the abandonment of the criminal proceedings against the Sanofi Pasteur MSD laboratory.
“France is late”
These concerns and past procedures could partly explain the “level very far from the objectives” in HPV vaccination coverage. Figured by the National Academy of Medicine – through the National Sexual Health Strategy and the Cancer Plan -, they aim for 60% of adolescent girls aged 11 to 19 to be vaccinated in 2023 and 80% by 2030. Still according to the Academy, in 2020, in Europe, vaccination coverage against the papillomavirus exceeds 50% in 20 countries and 75% in 11 countries including Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom.
Public Health France noted at the end of November 2022 in an epidemiological bulletin a vaccination rate for adolescent girls aged 15 to 18 estimated at 43.6% in metropolitan France and around 19% on average in Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyana and Reunion Island.
The government has therefore set itself a goal of 60% anti-HPV vaccination coverage for teenage girls between 11 and 19 years old next year. “We must move quickly in the 12 to 24 months (to come) on this subject”said Emmanuel Macron. “For a young person, if their parents say not to get vaccinated, it may be too late”he also warned, pressing “a huge work of information to be done from school”and saying want “also go to families”.
Mistrust in the country of the 11 vaccines already compulsory?
In April 2022, the League Against Cancer published the result of a study conducted by OpinionWay which consisted in evaluating the opinion of the French on the anti-HPV vaccine. The findings of this survey indicate that parents seem “little or not convinced” by vaccination against HPV, or even “suspicious”. This feeling of distrust has proven to be exacerbated since the Covid-19 epidemic.
Adding a new vaccine to the list of 11 vaccinations already compulsory in France since 2018 without really reassuring parents in a scientific way as to the benefit-risk ratio of Gardasil, will be a challenge for the government.