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A few months ago, I covered a story about a French teenager who had filed a lawsuit against a French vaccine manufacturer, Sanofi Pasteur (but the patents and trademarks are owned by Merck), along with French health regulators. The lawsuit claimed that side-effects from the HPV quadrivalent vaccine, known as Gardasil (or Silgard), induced multiple sclerosis (MS), a neurological disease that results from inflammation of neurons, in a teenage girl.

As with most of these antivaccination stories and tropes, I analyze them, debunk them, and then move on. I didn’t even bother check up to see if there was a legal decision, mainly because my French reading skills barely go beyond reading a menu and ordering a croque-monsieur at a sidewalk café in Lyon (headquarters of Sanofi Pasteur). But mostly, I just assumed it was one of those silly stories where the antivaccination cult tries to make a mountain out of a tiny pebble on the beach.

Well, I misjudged the desperation of the antivaccination world. Around 8 months ago, the court actually did hand down a decision about this case, but recently the vaccine fear mongering, anti-science websites are starting to push the story. I have no clue why these vaccine refusers are pushing this story eight months later, but it’s probably because they are desperate for anything that makes them relevant, given how irrelevant most of their ideas can be.

The lawsuit involved a plaintiff, Marie-Océane Bourguignon, a 15 year old girl (at the time of Gardasil immunization), who claimed that the HPV vaccine induced multiple sclerosis (MS), a neurological disease that results from inflammation of neurons. The best available evidence states that MS is caused by a combination of genetics and viral infection, which someday may someday be prevented by a vaccine. Nevertheless, according to the translated court decision, the French judge placed 50% of the blame for the MS on Gardasil using a rather complex analysis. His decision was based on the testimonies of two independent medical professionals, the treating physician, Madame Bourguignon and her parents, and Sanofi Pasteur. Nowhere in the decision are there comments or documents that show that the court actually examined any actual scientific evidence that could possibly link Gardasil to multiple sclerosis, if there are any. Maybe because there is no evidence.

Before the vaccine deniers start spouting off about how some random court in France has proclaimed Gardasil to cause multiple sclerosis, let’s look at the decision more carefully. And thoroughly analyze any logic that might have supported this decision.

And of course, the fear-mongering websites that proclaim they care about lives, but are just money-making fronts for antivaccination deception, forget that Gardasil saves lives by preventing cancer. The HPV quadrivalent vaccine specifically targets subtypes 16 and 18, that cause not only approximately 70% of cervical cancers, but they also cause most HPV-induced anal (95% linked to HPV), vulvar (50% linked), vaginal (65% linked), oropharyngeal (60% linked) and penile (35% linked) cancers. It also targets HPV6 and HPV11, which account for approximately 90% of external genital warts. The viruses are generally passed through genital contact, almost always as a result of vaginal, oral and anal sex. I’m not sure how to be clearer, than to say Gardasil prevents cancers–serious, life threatening cancers.

The French Court did not provide us with any evidence that causes us to overturn the scientific consensus about Gardasil. None.

The consensus agrees, based on over 1 million doses in controlled studies, the HPV vaccine is incredibly safe. The scientific consensus agrees that the HPV vaccine prevents the virus that causes some serious, deadly cancers. There is no plausible physiological pathway or evidence that an HPV vaccine can cause multiple sclerosis. The current scientific understanding is that multiple sclerosis is probably caused by a virus that one day will be prevented by a vaccine developed by real scientists.

Gardasil saves lives. And that’s not a belief based on a legal ruling, it’s based on medical and scientific evidence provided to us by the best epidemiologists, immunologists, microbiologists, virologists, biomedical researchers, and public health specialists in the world. Not by a judge who has none of that knowledge.

Visit the Science-based Vaccine Search Engine.

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