Plenty of science concerns about vaccine

Imagine my surprise to read John Morgan's letter titled, "Pregnancy should not be Punishment." Permit me to address his comments as succinctly as I can.

Regarding the Gardasil issue, Dr. Diane Harper, director of the Gynecological Cancer Prevention Research Group at the University of Missouri and lead researcher in the development of the Gardasil vaccine, has warned that the vaccine was over-marketed and the research on its potential side-effects not properly carried out. She has urged that "young girls and their parents should receive more complete warnings before receiving the vaccine" and that a girl is more likely to die from an adverse reaction to Gardasil than from cervical cancer.

Dr. Harper explained that 70 percent of HPV infections resolve themselves without treatment within one year. After two years, this rate climbs to 90 percent. Of the remaining 10 percent of HPV infections, only half coincide with the development. Of even greater concern is the probability that the numbers of deaths and adverse reactions associated with the vaccine are underestimated. If Mr. Morgan thinks the Christian right is culpable, how does he answer the question of why Japan completely pulled Gardasil off their market?

Pregnancy, in or outside of marriage, is not always the "wonderful experience" that Morgan describes, and still carries with it a plethora of discomforts and risks - including death. So there is nothing wrong with Peter Gennuso's statement regarding a woman's "body sovereignty."

Morgan is looking at the sexual experience purely from a man's perspective of pleasure with no consequences. Which begs the question, is it really the consequences to women that he is concerned about - or that these consequences are merely a pesky interference to continuing the objectification of women for a man's pleasure?

Bonnie Quirke

Libertyville