October 24-29 is Red Ribbon Week. The purpose is to increase awareness of the dangers of the illegal use of illegal drugs and of legal drugs. What about the legal use of drugs that should be illegal?

Big Pharma spends billions to convince doctors and the public that they would never produce a drug that was harmful to children. One of those drugs is Gardiasil, which the Curry County Health Department is offering free (a savings of $450) for a limited time to women 19 to 26. Is it worth it? Before you take them up on their offer, do some research on your own.

It has been reported that a "Gardiasil (HPV) injection helps to protect against two types of HPV that causes about 75 percent of cervical cancer and two types that cause 90 percent of genital wart cases. It also helps to protect against 70 percent of vaginal cancer cases and up to 50 percent of vulvar cancer cases."

Merck's vaccine Gardiasil (http://bit.ly/e0J0KT) has been shown to be detrimental to girls and women's health. As early as 2007, a review of the National Vaccine Information Center revealed that over twenty-two hundred adverse reactions to Gardiasil had been reported. Among them: 5 girls died, 31 were considered life-threatening, 1,385 required a visit to the emergency room, 51 of the girls were disabled, and 451 of the girls had not recovered as of the end of the study. And now Merck not only wants to start girls as young as 11 on this drug, they are trying to push this cervical cancer vaccine on boys! http://bit.ly/lmqHF

It is essential to do your homework before letting any family member get vaccinated for HPV or any other disease. Go to TheCitizensWhoCare.org/hpv.html and start your own investigation.

Gordon Clay
TheCitizensWhoCare.org
Brookings, Or