Unknown Risks

Dr. Terrell used to say that the danger in medicine was not always what we know, but what we don't know. What we don't know can get us. For a current example, read the recent news regarding Europe's Pandemrix swine flu shot.

Liberty and Gardasil

Any parents who wish for their child the protection from HPV afforded by the vaccine can give permission, leaving intact the liberty of dissenters. The benefits of herd immunity so cherished by those at central nodes of power is not well-satisfied by this approach, but Liberty smiles. Diversity… smiles with Liberty. Not only is a population strengthened by genetic diversity, so also is a body politic when the genomes of unscientific belief and attitude are allowed expression. Science is incompetent to decide these matters, on either side. Let the science be heard, let the people’s beliefs be heard, then let the people decide.


Read more of Dr. Terrell's article, "The Case Against Gardasil," originally published in the Arizona Medical Association's AzMedicine.

The Case Against Gardasil

The Gardasil debate frequently gets lost in statistics instead of focusing on more foundational principles. Cancer prevention ought not to be treated as a supreme good nor should only measurable entities like diseases or pregnancies be considered. There are "other outcomes, generally unintended, perhaps much delayed, which are not measured or even measurable."


Read Dr. Terrell's article, "The Case Against Gardasil," originally published in the Arizona Medical Association's AzMedicine.

Mercurial Logic

Read more of Dr. Terrell's thoughts on vaccinations in an article he wrote for the AAPS.

More on Vaccinations

I would commend spacing [vaccinations] out firmly on the grounds of general principles: there is NEVER something for nothing in life, medicine included. That is, we are fiddling with systems about which relatively little is known. It is not usually possible to achieve the good we want without some liability to harm, and the whole of life is getting the most good for the least bad.


Excerpt from a personal letter, 2004

On Vaccinations

The dangers of vaccines, while undeniable, including such disasters as large scale vaccine-caused polio several decades ago and small scale transmission today, apparently are quite small. The dangers fall into a background static that requires huge numbers of people and careful statistical study to sort out. Single case studies or testimonials are bootless to answer the question. Anyone against anything can dig up or adapt scary stories. The risk your child takes riding a bicycle for a total of a few hours may well exceed the risk you are trying to calculate.


Excerpt from "On Vaccinations"