VivirLatino

Immigrant Bodies as Guinea Pigs for Vaccines

11:40 H | Topics: Drugs - Health - Immigration - Women

Questioning what the U.S. government has deemed healthy and required labels many parents and women as dangerous, careless, negligent and even criminal. But given the history of the U.S. of using women's bodies, especially the bodies of women of color, as test subjects,as part of racist policy, usually without consent, the latest move by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services should remind us the value placed on our physical health.

In July, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services quietly amended its list of required vaccinations for immigrants applying to become citizens. One of the newest requirements? Gardasil, which vaccinates against the human papillomavirus (HPV). From the agency’s press release:

CDC’s revised Technical Instructions to Civil Surgeons for Vaccination Requirements require the following age-appropriate additional vaccinations to adjust status to legal permanent resident:

* Rotavirus
* Hepatitis A
* Meningococcal
* Human papillomavirus
* Zoster

There are a few things to note here, as pointed out by WOC phd. Gardasil, is not mandatory for U.S. citizens but now is for women who want to become permanent residents, a step in becoming a citizen. Porque?

1. profit - women would have to pay out of pocket for these shots making a sizable profit for Merk (even if they subsidize the shots, the government/tax payers will be paying $360 or more per applicable immigrant to Merk)
2. human subjects testing without IRB - altho Gardasil has already been approved by the FDA recent complications in patients using the drug, 3500 major complaints in a single year and 8000 since the approval, as well as multiple deaths, could indicate that more testing is needed. Why pull the drug off the market when you can study the results through a mandated population?

Liza over at Culture Kitchen points out that the safety of vaccines used here in the U.S. is far below international standards, leaving no doubt as to why certain bodies are used first.

It's due to my work there and the research I had to do through their legal and R&D that I became privvy of the shenanigans pharmaceutical companies can get away with thanks to the FDAs deregulation in the 1990s. The minimum mandatory testing of a drug that's going to market here in the US would never pass testing standards in Europe or Canada. That's how lax we've become.

What passes for laxness is really more about a historical legacy of people of color, specifically women and our reproductive organs, being colonized because yes this is about our bodies as physical metaphors of nation and being invaded as such. This is why resistance is criminalized.

Via / Think Progress, WOC PHd, Culture Kitchen

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