Editor’s Note: Writing letters to politicians or organizations who take anti-life position has a real impact. Here is an excellent example of the genre by PRI supporter Roy Tinder, who wrote National Geographic Society after it aired a special about chimpanzees that unnecessarily demeaned and denigrated human beings.
Dear National Geographic Society,
My family watched your generally excellent television treatise about chimpanzee’s last evening. But we were all shocked that you would allow Professor Peter Singer of infanticide fame to disparage the value of human life relative to other species. You even permitted him to air the idea that it would be better to use “cognitively or physically deficient people, instead of healthy chimps, in experiments! To make matters worse, you presented no opposing view.
We owe all species of flora and fauna a certain amount of care and respect. But we owe human beings — including the sick, weak and disabled — much, much more. National Geographic should be ashamed — and embarrassed — for allowing the disabled to be attacked and threatened this way.
We concluded that this was more of the National Geographic Society’s anti-people propaganda: “Humans are the problem!” “Population-Control is essential to saving the planet!”
A change in philosophy is sorely needed at the Society. The solution to this planet’s problems does not and should not include the restriction of human population growth. Why not direct your efforts towards finding ways to solve problems on our planet that don’t involve attacks on people.
— Roy T.
Dear Steven and associates at PRI,
What a beautiful article on children. It is very convincing to anyone thinking about the common good.
Thank you for all you do for the cause of life in all its integrity.
— Rose T.
Dear PRI,
Most of your articles seem fair and balanced tome, but your analysis of the statistics of your article on the Gardasil vaccine was warped. “What this means is that l out of every 912 girls in the Gardasil clinical studies died” But you didn’t say how many girls died after the placebos.
The following quotation from the actual Merck study hardly paints a picture of a “dangerous” drug:
Deaths in the Entire Study Population:
Across the clinical studies, 24 deaths were reported in 25,274 (GARDASIL N = 13,686; AAHS Control N = 11,004, saline placebo N = 584) subjects (9- through 45-year-old girls and women; and 9- through 15-year-old boys). The events reported were consistent with events expected in healthy adolescent and adult populations. The most common cause of death was motor vehicle accident (4 subjects who received GARDASIL and 3 AAHS Control subjects), followed by overdose/suicide (2 subjects who received GARDASIL and 2 subjects who received AAHE Control), and pulmonary embolus/deep vein thrombosis (1 subject who received GARDASIL and l AAHE Control subject). In addition, there were 2 cases of sepsis, 1 case of pancreatic cancer, 1 case of arrhythmia, l case of pulmonary tuberculosis, l case of hyperthyroidism, l case of post-operative pulmonary embolism and acute renal failure, and 1 case of systemic lupus erythematosus in the group that received GARDASIL; l case of asphyxia, and 1 case of acute lymphocytic leukemia in the AAHS Control; and l case of medulloblastoma in the saline placebo group.
For those in the study who died of disease (not car accident or overdose/suicide), 8 were in the Gardasil group and 2 or 3 in the Aluminum and placebo groups. That’s mildly interesting, but not statistically significant given the fact that the Gardasil study group was larger.
You did a good job of pointing out the artificial, overly hyped up “need” for the vaccine given the declining numbers of deaths associated with cervical cancer and what little actual change in numbers the vaccine is actually projected to produce over the years.
Sincerely,
Gregory Grimm (received via e-mail)
Dr. Grimm,
Thank you for your comment on the Gardasil article. You are correct in your critique and I do apologize for not being specific. As I’m sure you were able to see in Merck’s report, 1 out of every 912 patients who received the Gardasil vaccine in the clinical studies died. The proportion is reduced to 1 in every 1053 patients when we include the aluminum shot and the saline placebo groups. (Thank you for identifying this; I have made the correction within the article.)
Only one subject died in the saline placebo group. If I understand correctly, the AAHS control, though it did not contain the four HPV virus strains, did contain Amorphous Aluminum Hydroxyphosphate Sulfate adjuvant, which as an adjuvant present in Gardasil vaccine needs to be evaluated in its own right for its safety.
With regard to the automobile accidents, another speaker at the conference claimed — but I was not able to find documented proof — that some of the car accidents occurred when girls fainted or collapsed driving home from receiving their shots.
I really appreciate your bringing this to my attention.
Best,
Joan
