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This morning, as reported earlier, Michele Bachmann went even further, lending credence to a notion that Gardasil -- used in vaccines to prevent HPV, which can cause cervical cancer -- can cause mental retardation.
“I had a mother last night come up to me here in Tampa, Florida, after the debate,” Bachmann said. “She told me that her little daughter took that vaccine, that injection, and she suffered from mental retardation thereafter.”
Bachmann was using this in an attack on Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who had signed an executive order mandating that girls get the vaccine. And there are certainly questions over why Perry signed the order. His former chief of staff Mike Toomey, as the Washington Post points out, "was working at the time as an Austin-based lobbyist for Merck, which was in the midst of a multimillion-dollar campaign to persuade states to make the vaccine mandatory."
But there’s no evidence to suggest the vaccine causes mental retardation.
The CDC directed First Read to the side effects page for Gardasil. They include pain, redness, or swelling in the arm where the shot was given, mild-to-moderate fever, headache, or fainting.
Not surprisingly, there was nothing on mental retardation.
CDC spokeswoman Rita Chappelle said in an email, “The Institute of Medicine released a report on August 25 looking at adverse events from vaccines, including HPV. Rare cases of anaphylaxis was the only type of adverse event seen with HPV vaccine.”
That's a severe allergic reaction.
And the Food and Drug Administration and CDC also reported: “Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS) has also been reported in individuals following vaccination with Gardasil. GBS is a rare neurological disorder that causes muscle weakness. It occurs spontaneously in unvaccinated individuals after a variety of specific infections. FDA and CDC have reviewed the reports of GBS that have been submitted to VAERS. To date, there is no evidence that Gardasil has increased the rate of GBS above that expected in the population. While we continue to carefully analyze all reports of GBS submitted to VAERS, the data do not currently suggest an association between Gardasil and GBS.”
The left and right have taken shots at Bachmann for her comments.
That's quite the accusation, one that Ben Smith has already gotten a rebuttal to from the Global and Regional Asperger Syndrome Partnership. The CDC has recommended Gardisil, warning that the only verified side-effect has been rare cases of blood clots and an immune system disorder. I'm not doubting that a woman came up to Bachmann and said this. News flash: Vaccine luddism is rather widespread (especially so in some affluent areas where moms listen to Oprah, according to research I've seen from Seth Mnookin), and just because a mother might say something like this does not mean it reflects what actually happened. The fact that it's Bachmann embracing this -- Bachmann, who has a habit of endorsing or "just asking questions" about dark theories that she's overheard -- is totally unsurprising.
Even conservative blog Free Republic:
Huh? “Mental retardation” typically takes place in a pre- or neo-natal event. Autism becomes apparent in the first couple of years of life — and primarily affects boys. Gardasil vaccinations take place among girls between 9-12 years of age. Even assuming that this anecdote is arguably true, it wouldn’t be either “mental retardation” or autism, but brain damage. …
The “mental retardation” argument is a rehash of the thoroughly discredited notion that vaccines containing thimerasol caused a rapid increase in diagnosed autism cases. That started with a badly-botched report in Lancet that allowed one researcher to manipulate a ridiculously small sample of twelve cases in order to reach far-sweeping conclusions about thimerasol. That preservative hasn’t been included in vaccines for years, at least not in the US, and the rate of autism diagnoses remain unchanged.
The most charitable analysis that can be offered in this case for Bachmann is that she got duped into repeating a vaccine-scare urban legend on national television. It looks more like Bachmann sensed that she had won a point and wanted to go in for the kill, didn’t bother to check the facts, and didn’t care that she was stoking an anti-vaccination paranoid conspiracy theory, either. Neither shines a particularly favorable light on Bachmann.
Ironically, Rick Perry, who had been accused by Jon Huntsman of being “anti science” said this to NBC’s Carrie Dann today:
"You heard the same arguments about giving our children protections from some of the childhood diseases, and they were autism was part of that. Now we've subsequently found out that was generated and not true.” He added: “I would suggest to you that this issue about Gardasil and making it available was about saving people's lives.”
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I do not believe that vaccines cause autism, mental retardation, or any other neurological disorder. If that were the case there would be a lot more people out there with neurological disorders. In most cases of autism, mental retardation, or any other neurological disorder, though, it could be that doctors are trying to find a cause but can't so they jump to conclusions and change the definition to fit the problem.
You should read actual medical studies and take a look around. My neighbors kid was the smartest in his class, then got one of his childhood vaccines and now he eats dog poop, doesn't know his name, and shouts and ghosts or whatever else. The amish don't vaccinate and they don't have autism, autoimmune, or neurological disease. Don't count on hearing this from pharma controlled media, medical schools, or doctors though. You have to do your own research and get the actual facts.
It could be that some people have very sensitive autoimmune systems and the vaccines act as a catalyst for medical issues that they may have - may have gotten anyway. We don't know. As far as the Amish go, they live and eat very cleanly. We live in a world of pesticides and chemicals and junk food with preservatives.
For people not to vaccinate their kids because of the possibility of a medical problem is foolish and harmful especially with diseases we thought were gone but are now making a comeback. I wrestled with the decision to have my 12-year-old daughter get the HPV vaccine. In the end, I opted for her to get it. I want her to be as protected as possible.
Headline:
Bachman goes Palin during Debate
This good "christian" "lady" will LIE even when the truth is better.
This is exactly why the "Hypocrite twit" isn't fit to serve as President. She uses hearsay by people as evidence. This is not the first time she has done this. The last time, she used a story in a foreign country(India) saying the President's trip over seas cost American taxpayers $200 million dollars a day. Did she retract her statements after saying it at a campaign stop? Nope! Did she apologize to the President? Nope! Now you see why Ed Rollins left her campaign as Manager? He said health reasons. God knows anything coming out of Bachmann's mouth is liable to make anyone ill!
They should make a Michele Bachmann vaccine to cure stupidity, in all forms!
Michele, if someone in THAT audience tells you something. Be wary. You're not dealing with the best and the brightest.
The GOP candidates all know... When one's sworn enemy is "Science", facts are not really needed.
Watched one of her speeches and suffered from mental retardation immediately.
Michele Bachmann is the darling of the TeaParty. She is a crazy liar. 2 + 2 =
Where does the gop T-Nuts get all their idiots from ????????????????
Given that we in this country have basically a scientifically illiterate population, thanks to our public school system. one shouldn't be too surpriised at Bachman's comment.
here, here......to busy upgrading our high school sports facilities so our youth can give themselves concussions. Meanwhile our science classrooms are filled with equipment from 1974. This is not the case in China, India, and Japan.
Is this the Bachmann who offers her Sin Du Jour clinic for the "gay" cure when the American Psychological Association disputes its effectiveness, its necessity since it's not a crime or a mental disorder, and warns of the harm that the Bachmann "cure" can cause to our beloved children? But, she creates jobs for her clinic and takes Medicare and Visa. She's a job creator. Perry now gets money from Merck to force vaccines and gets money from the insurance companies to force sonograms. Scott in Florida forces his poorest citizens to into drug testing that his clinics provide. Got to love "forced" healthcare, it creates jobs and profits for businesses.
The T-Nuts are destroying the GOP.
Mental retardation?!! I haven't even HEARD that term used in years! Not only is it politically incorrect, but it's also completely unverified hearsay being repeated as fact by a politician who SHOULD know better, but threw the concept of fact-checking out the window in her desperate attempt to discredit the vaccination program. Regardless of how one may feel, pro or con, regarding the vaccination, she went about it completely wrong and made herself look foolish (really?) in doing do. What comes next, Ms. Bachmann, a case of the cooties?
Should know better? Evidence is of little value to a republican. The mere existence of Michelle Bachmann's presidential campaign is proof that the right has wholly rejected intellectualism at all levels. The more ignorant and under-educated the electorate the better for the republicans. That's why they prop up as their representatives some of the most egregious stupid individuals on god's earth.
Bachmann's brain reduction surgery has fail to help stop her mouth.
Trailer Park Science, taught by a new breed meth professors...what a sight
ahahahhhaaaaa, well played.
Romney is O.K. in my book, But Bachmann, Perry, Palin & the T-Nuts are "Scarry.
I noticed she runs to FOX to make her statements. A Republican primary (Demacracy in general)has to be very confusing for the poor old knuckle-dragging FOX viewers, since most of them look religiously to FOX to tell them how to think.
Thanks to Bachman Jenny McCarthy will now have a new dangrous soapbox to fill peoples minds with more of her damaging voodoo science. BACHMAN SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF HERSELF FOR THE DAMAGE SHE HAS DONE.
She may be on to something. Look what campaign contributions from Gardasil's maker did to Rick Perry's intellect.
Ok, you folks that are wholy consumed with the government forcing us to immunize are children against HPV are absolutely correct. You shouldn't be made to immunize. You should have the choice to decline the vaccine. Should you decline, take that risk, then you are aware that if your child should make a poor decision one night in their 20s and happen to run into the 1 in 6 people who carry that virus and become infected and subsequently die of cervical cancer, or pass it to someone that dies of cervical cancer, you should be prepared to shoulder that guilt. You people remind me of people in the 1950's that thought their children did no wrong, then they come home pregnant and you ship off to the city to have the baby in a home, and give it up for adoption so the girls at bridge club don't find out. You don't want it, don't use, just keep you mouth shut when your kid gets genital warts and dies from cancer which was entirely preventable had you just removed your head from your rectum.
Of course Bachmann is wrong about this. First, she called the vaccination a government injection. What the f*&k is a "government" injection? I've never heard of this. A vaccine is a vaccine is a vaccine, regardless of its origins. Second, she implies in her attack on the vaccine that because it is mandated by the government, it causes mental retardation. The only thing retarded here is her logic, or rather lack thereof.
It is much like what we did not hear during the tea party debate. There has been much public discussion of Ron Paul's response to the question regarding who pays for the medical costs of the young person without health insurance. In reality, he did not answer the question at all. He made reference to what was done in the 1960s prior to medicare (reference is not relevant, this person would not be a medicare or medicaid patient), by saying that the churches would often (but not always) help this person. Well, this is not the 1960s, we cannot rely on the churches or any other charity organization to pay for the cost of the example treatment, the cost curve has changed tremendously since the 1960s, and for so many other reasons his answer is irrelevant. What Paul and all the other Republicans fail to acknowledge is that one way to keep cost down is to have a larger pool of people covered by insurance so that more of the charges are actually paid. As it is, the people WITH insurance are actually penalized as they have to absorb the cost of the uninsured. This is no less fair than requiring people to purchase health insurance. Of course, health care reform does nothing more than build a larger pool from which to collect premiums. It does nothing to drive down the cost of care, really; it just means that more people will be required to pay less to the vendor who gives the treatment. In doing so, it is a boon for the health insurers, who are in the PRIVATE SECTOR, you fools.
I've seen hockey pucks that are more intelligent than Bachmann. Why do people even bother listening to these GOP empty shirts, in Bachmanns case empty head.
Has this fact checker ever actually looked at VAERS (vaccine adverse reaction database) or been to any of the court hearing in vaccine court where the court admits the vaccine killed and injured girls? VAERS lists the vaccine that caused the death or injury and what the injury was CLEARLY. So this was not even looked at. Over 89 girls are listed as fatalities as of now. Does the media just not do any research anymore or are they just completely in pharmas pockets.
I think we all have to do our own research and I know I would not have my daughters get this vaccine, i found this article intreasting on the subject.
RON PAUL 2012
I think we all have to do our own research and I know I would not have my daughters get this vaccine, i found this article intreasting on the subject.