Shattered Dreams

Subtitled 'The HPV Vaccine Exposed', this book is a massive collaborative effort on behalf of parents and children who have suffered serious 'side' effects from the HPV vaccine, which is being given to 3 million young women in the UK since its introduction in 2006. It contains extensive contributions from 13 professionals covering over 400 pages. The book quotes WHO figures documenting nearly 85,000 reports of adverse reactions, mainly nervous system disorders, but also circulatory problems, seizures, syncope and even 400 deaths. Using the book's own statistics, it seems that these adverse reactions affect around 1 in 1000 young women (however, the FDA estimates that only 5% of vaccine reactions are actually reported), but this is part of a larger commercial story within the pharmaceutical industry where vaccines are worth $60 billion a year. In this respect, there is a revealing foreword by a former Merck sales executive with the familiar story of the drive for profit and the huge social pressure to vaccinate.

One of the most interesting general points that applies to all vaccines the role of toxic adjuvants like aluminium (Gardasil 9, the new version, contains more aluminium than any other vaccine). Aluminium boosts the immune response due to its toxicity at the injection site, but it seems that this may also switch on allergic reactions (p. 558) and is very likely to be implicated in adverse reactions to other vaccines. Moreover, most vaccinations are administered by injections, 'which bypass the body's natural defences and allow virus and bacteria access to otherwise protected tissues' including the immune system and the brain. One contribution puts the matter very directly by stating that 'healthy people are not vaccinated against a disease, they are injected with a disease.' (p. 623) Throughout the book, questions of safety and effectiveness are raised, as they have been for vaccines more generally in this very contested field. The book does a very good job of putting the issues on the table and will be a great support and resource for parents whose children have been adversely affected by vaccinations.