Utah Health Official Bans Gardasil Vaccine

The Salt Lake Tribune is reporting today that the physician who directs Utah's Southwest Public Department of Health has decided to exclude the Gardasil HPV vaccine in public health clinics. Given the fact that national talk show host Katie Couric just aired a program this week calling Gradasil "controversial," for which she was widely criticized and attacked by mainstream media who were claiming there was "no controversy" regarding Gardasil, this story breaking in Utah today suggests that even in the U.S., physician support for Gardasil is not as unanimous as the mainstream media would like you to believe. And this is not even "new" news in Utah, as "The decision to exclude the vaccine from its public health clinics in Beaver, Iron, Garfield, Kane and Washington counties was made years ago...." Dr. David Blodgett, the director of the Department of Health gave the reasons why they are not stocking the controversial Gardasil vaccine in the Salt Lake Tribune: "The backlash and sentiment against it was strong enough that there’s no reason to go there. No one wants it and it’s too expensive when we’re not funded to provide it." Blodgett cites other problems with Gardasil, namely that it was fast-tracked through the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and a belief that its benefits were oversold by drug maker Merck. "The science wasn’t good... We had physicians in our community arguing that we not make it available," said Blodgett. So this is not a lone doctor crusader expressing doubts about Gardasil, but a reflection of many physicians in the community.