Gardasil is a human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine developed by Merck & Co. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted fast-tracked approval for Gardasil to prevent a handful of HPV strains, including two strains considered high-risk for cervical cancer. But since it was approved in 2006, Gardasil has been linked to serious side effects, including death and paralysis, among many others.
Gardasil Makes Good Vaccines Look Bad
There is currently a great deal of controversy surrounding vaccines. Our firm wishes to stress that we are not against vaccines. They have the potential to eradicate disease and save millions of lives. We are, however, against intentional efforts to mislead consumers about the safety and effectiveness of a drug or vaccine. We have always fought—and will continue to fight—for the rights of consumers to be fully and honestly informed about risks associated with any drug, vaccine, or medical device. We will work tirelessly to ensure those rights are defended and that victims of injustice are compensated for their injuries.
The attorneys at Wisner Baum represent individuals from across the nation who were harmed by Gardasil. If you or a member of your family suffered an adverse reaction after a Gardasil injection, we can help.
Our Gardasil lawyers are evaluating cases against Merck for individuals who experienced the following side effects after receiving a Gardasil shot (or shots):
Wisner Baum has decades of experience litigating against many of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. We have won more than $4 billion in settlements and verdicts on behalf of our clients.
Call us today at (310) 207-3233 or fill out our contact form for a free and confidential Gardasil lawsuit review.
The current Gardasil 9 HPV vaccine protects against the same four types of HPV that the original Gardasil 4 protected against, plus five additional high-risk types (31, 33, 45, 52, and 58).
According to the Gardasil 9 package insert, the most common Gardasil 9 side effects are:
The Gardasil package insert mentions several other serious conditions that were reported during the controversial clinical trials. However, because the clinical trials compared Gardasil to the adjuvant used in the vaccine—with no mention of the toxic effects of adjuvants—rather than a placebo, the package insert reader is left with the impression that these conditions are unrelated to the vaccine. These conditions are listed below.
In particular, many clinical trial participants developed autoimmune conditions.
There are more than 64,000 case reports of HPV vaccine adverse reactions in the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System database. It is estimated that only 1% of serious adverse events are actually reported to VAERS.
It is noteworthy that many of these serious side effects of Gardasil have been reported to the VAERS database in concerning numbers. As of Jan. 14, 2020, the VAERS database contains over 64,000 case reports of adverse reactions tied to HPV vaccines worldwide (over 50,000 in the U.S.).
| Disease Condition | VAERS Case Reports Linking Gardasil to the Condition |
|---|---|
| Arthralgia | 1813 |
| Multiple sclerosis | 217 |
| Systemic lupus erythematosus | 153 |
| Rheumatoid arthritis | 75 |
| Stevens-Johnson syndrome | 9 |
| Scleroderma | 8 |
Another section of the package insert titled “Postmarketing Experience” lists a number of other Gardasil 9 side effects, while cautioning that “[b]ecause these events were reported voluntarily from a population of uncertain size, it is not possible to reliably estimate their frequency or to establish a causal relationship to vaccine exposure.” Those side effects include autoimmune diseases, such as Guillain-Barre syndrome (167 case reports in VAERS), hypersensitivity reactions including anaphylactic shock (368 VAERS case reports), and seizures (483 VAERS case reports).
“All patients had symptoms consistent with pronounced autonomic dysfunction including different degrees of orthostatic intolerance, severe non-migraine-like headache, excessive fatigue, cognitive dysfunction, gastrointestinal discomfort and widespread pain of a neuropathic character.” — Louise Brinth, et al., “Suspected side effects to the quadrivalent human papilloma vaccine,” Danish Medical Journal, 62 (4), April 2015
Have more questions about Gardasil? Check out our Gardasil FAQ page.
HPV vaccines, including Gardasil, have been linked in case studies to a cluster of symptoms that are shared by several disorders not mentioned on the Gardasil package insert. These include postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), and fibromyalgia. The WHO database and the VAERS database contain hundreds of case reports of POTS and CRPS.
Fibromyalgia, an autoimmune disorder characterized by musculoskeletal pain, fatigue, sleep, and memory issues, was tied to Gardasil in 125 VAERS database case reports, per the 2018 study linked above.
Reports from other nations confirm continuing issues with serious Gardasil side effects. In 2013, the Japanese government suspended its recommendation of Gardasil following nearly 2,000 reports of adverse reactions, including walking disturbances, body tics, and seizures. Japan later established special clinics for treating illnesses linked to Gardasil. In March 2015, Denmark opened five “HPV Clinics” to gather information on people injured by the Gardasil HPV vaccine.
Several nations have filed criminal charges against Merck, including France, India, and Spain. In Spain, the allegations include fraudulent marketing and/or administration of an inadequately tested vaccine, failure to inform the public about the potential risks of using Gardasil, and clear infringement of the right to informed consent.
A 2017 study published in the journal Clinical Rheumatology analyzing 16 HPV vaccine clinical trials (including the Gardasil clinical trials) and 12 post-marketing case series (medical research in which individual patients are followed for a period of time) reported that only 2 of the 16 clinical trials for HPV vaccines purported to use an inert placebo.
Two of the most extensive HPV vaccine trials found significantly more serious adverse events in patients who received the vaccine compared to those who did not.
Several related findings by the Clinical Rheumatology study authors are key. Gardasil 9 was associated with much more local swelling (at the injection site) than the quadrivalent Gardasil. Gardasil 9 was also associated with more “vaccine-related systemic events,” such as headaches, dizziness, muscle and joint pain, nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain (all symptoms of autoimmune disease), compared to the quadrivalent Gardasil vaccine.
Dysautonomia describes a group of disorders affecting the autonomic nervous system (ANS). A person’s ANS controls involuntary body functions like breathing, blood pressure, and heart rate, among many others. Dysautonomia conditions, like postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) and orthostatic intolerance, occur when the ANS fails to send or receive messages correctly.
Here is an example:
When a person is lying down, approximately one-quarter of their blood volume resides in the chest area. When the person stands up, a significant amount of that blood shifts to the lower extremities. This causes impaired return of blood flow to the heart, which also reduces blood pressure.
In healthy individuals, the autonomic nervous system adjusts the heart rate to counteract this effect, and the blood flow changes are negligible. However, in individuals suffering from dysautonomia, the body’s ability to adjust the heart rate and compensate for the blood flow is corrupted, resulting in a host of wide-ranging symptoms, including dizziness, lightheadedness, vertigo, woozy sensation, chronic headaches, and many other issues.
Scientists have found that Gardasil is capable of causing dysautonomia because of the vaccine’s strong immune-stimulating ingredients. Lawsuits against Gardasil’s manufacturer, Merck, allege the mixture of adjuvants in Gardasil is responsible for post-vaccination induced autoimmune diseases, including dysautonomia.
Adjuvants like aluminum are inflammatory substances that hyperactivate the immune system. Merck adds adjuvants to Gardasil with the intent of increasing the immune response to the virus-like particles in the vaccine. Adjuvants can cause the immune system to lose the ability to differentiate human proteins from foreign proteins, which leads to the immune system attacking the body’s own proteins and organs. Because of the massive peptide commonality between HPV and human proteins, the indiscriminate attack triggered by the Gardasil adjuvants can cause massive cross-reactions and dangerous attacks against human proteins, which can lead to dysautonomia.
Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) is a disorder that affects blood flow. People diagnosed with POTS often experience (among other things):
Numerous published medical journal articles have discussed the association between Gardasil and POTS:
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In May of 2019, the jury in the case of Pilliod et al. v, Monsanto Company ordered the agrochemical giant to pay $2.055 billion in damages to the plaintiffs, Alva and Alberta Pilliod, a Bay Area couple in their 70s. R. Brent Wisner served as co-lead trial attorney for the Pilliods, delivering the opening and closing statements and cross-examining several of Monsanto’s experts. Wisner Baum managing shareholder, Michael Baum and attorney Pedram Esfandiary also served on the trial team in the Pilliod case.
The judge later reduced their award to $87M. Monsanto appealed the Pilliod’s verdict which the California Court of Appeal for the First Appellate District denied on August 9, 2021. Monsanto then requested the California Supreme Court review the appeal’s court decision, which the court denied on Nov. 17, 2021. Monsanto (Bayer) then submitted a petition for a writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court which SCOTUS denied on June 27, 2022, allowing the final judgment of $87M to remain intact.
$289.2 million jury verdict in Monsanto Roundup trial
Wisner Baum co-represented Dewayne “Lee” Johnson in the first Roundup cancer lawsuit to proceed to trial. On Aug. 10, 2018, a San Francisco jury ordered Monsanto to pay $39.25 million in compensatory damages and $250 million in punitive damages to Mr. Johnson, a former groundskeeper who alleged exposure to Monsanto’s herbicides caused him to develop terminal non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Months after the jury verdict, the judge overseeing the trial reduced the punitive damages to $39.25 million. Mr. Johnson decided to accept the remittitur, bringing the adjusted amount awarded to Mr. Johnson $78.5 million.
Monsanto (Bayer) appealed the verdict and Johnson cross appealed. On July 20, 2020, the First Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the verdict against Monsanto but reduced Mr. Johnson’s award to $20.5 million. The company chose not to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, ending the litigation.
In 2016, Wisner Baum attorney Timothy A. Loranger and six other attorneys in the Plaintiffs’ Management Committee were able to secure a $265 million settlement for victims of the 2015 Amtrak 188 derailment in Philadelphia, one of the largest in the U.S. for 2016.
