On any given day at any given pediatrician’s or family physician’s office, you’re likely to find several young adults—tweens and teens—popping in for a Gardasil vaccine, which is intended to prevent infections from four strains of the human papillomavirus (HPV). These visits take just a few minutes of a nurse’s time. Then, since fainting is a common side effect of the vaccine, the patient is supposed to sit or lie down for 15 minutes to avoid injuries. Whether a practice follows this U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) observation guideline or not is usually up to the provider.
But now, a dozen lawsuits that have been filed in federal court allege that Merck, the vaccine’s manufacturer, failed to warn patients of the risks of the Gardasil vaccine adequately. These risks, according to the lawsuits, include autoimmune problems and neurological injuries.
