From Paul Offit’s “Beyond the Noise:”
Human papillomavirus (HPV) causes cancer. Every year, HPV causes about 20,000 cancers in women and 14,000 in men. For women, HPV is the only known cause of cervical cancer, accounting for about 11,000 cases and 4,000 deaths every year. For men, HPV is a common cause of head, neck, anal, and genital cancers.
The first vaccine to prevent HPV (Gardasil) was licensed in 2006. With the licensure of an HPV vaccine that protected against additional strains in 2014, the incidence of cervical cancer has dropped 62 percent over the past decade.
Perhaps no vaccine has been subjected to greater scrutiny. Dozens of studies have now shown that the HPV vaccine does not cause autoimmune or neurological diseases.
Since 1986, with the creation of the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, claims of vaccine harm must first be filed through the Vaccine Injury Compensation (VICP). The claims are then reviewed by experts and lawyers. If the claims are supported by scientific studies, plaintiffs are compensated. For example, children who got polio from the oral polio vaccine, which was a rare but real consequence, are compensated. Or people who developed a neurological disease called Guillain-Barré Syndrome from the influenza vaccine are compensated. If claims aren’t supported by evidence, plaintiffs aren’t compensated. The VICP reviewed evidence on HPV vaccine safety and concluded that claims that it caused autoimmune or neurological diseases weren’t credible. They rejected the claims.
If the claims are taken to civil court, the rules are different. There, all lawyers need to do is find juries who are willing to ignore scientific evidence. Indeed, in the early 1980s, 18 companies made vaccines for American children. After a flood of lawsuits against the whooping cough vaccine that amounted to millions of dollars of settlements, vaccine makers left the business. This migration of vaccine makers occurred even though studies had clearly shown that the pertussis vaccine didn’t cause the harms claimed. By the end of the 1980s, only four vaccine makers remained, the rest driven out by lawsuits.