Diane M. Harper A researcher who worked on a vaccine for the
human papillomavirus is warning that it hasn’t been tested on
young girls, is “silly” for states to mandate the vaccination,
and in a worst-case scenario could even increase cervical cancer
rates. In a report published by the Indiana-based Daily News,
researcher Diane M. Harper said giving such a vaccine to
11-year-olds “is a great big public health experiment.” Further,
she said, requiring vaccinations now “is simply to Merck’s
benefit.” Harper is a professor and director at the Gynecologic
Cancer Prevention Research Group at Dartmouth, and told the
publication that there “is not enough evidence gathered on side
effects to know that safety is not an issue.” Harper, who has
spent much of the last 20 years studying dozens of strains of
HPV, said all of her trials have been with subjects ages 15 to
25, and personally she believes the new vaccine could offer help
to women ages 18 and up. The new vaccine, Gardasil, made by
Merck and Co., has been an iss