Gardasil Vaccine Lawsuit Filed Over Autoimmune Disease Risks

A new lawsuit has been filed claiming Merck & Co. failed to warn teenagers and their parents about the risk of Gardasil and autoimmune issues.

As a growing number of Gardasil vaccine lawsuits continue to be filed by recipients who suffered serious side effects, a lawsuit filed against Merck last month raises allegations that the Gardasil vaccine caused a Connecticut woman to suffer damage to her autoimmune system.

The complaint (PDF) was filed by Korrine Herlth in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, indicating the drug manufacturers failed to warn about serious risks associated with Gardasil, and alleging the effectiveness of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine is questionable.

Gardasil was first approved in 2006, and has been widely marketed for young girls and boys before adolescence and potential sexual activity, to help prevent HPV, which can be sexually transmitted and lead to the development of cervical cancer.

Herlth indicates she received her first Gardasil injection as a teenager during a routine examination in October 2013, and received the second shot in December 2013. However, within a week of the second dose, Herlth began to experience dizziness, headaches, shakes and nausea, according to the lawsuit.

While she refused to get the third shot, her condition still worsened over time, resulting in daily seizures, vertigo, double vision, nausea, visual floaters, problems balancing, fatigue, anxiety and panic attacks, as well as depression, cognitive problems and a host of other health maladies.

Herlth claims the vaccine manufacturer not only  failed to warn the medical community and recipients about the Gardasil HPV vaccine’s link to autoimmune disease, but also claims there is a lack of evidence the HPV vaccine even works as advertised.

“(W)hether Gardasil prevents cancer (not to mention lifetime immunity), is unproven. In fact, it may be more likely to cause cancer in those previously exposed to HPV than to prevent it,” Herlth’s lawsuit states. “Moreover, Merck knows and actively conceals the fact that Gardasil can cause a constellation of serious adverse reactions and gruesome diseases, including autoimmune diseases, and death in some recipients.”

Gardasil Autoimmune Disorder Side Effects Lawsuit

Since the late 2000’s, there have been growing concerns over the link between Gardasil and autoimmune diseases, as well as several other long term side effects associated with Gardasil shots.

In August last year, a similar Gardasil autoimmune disorder lawsuit was filed by a Rhode Island woman alleging Merck & Co. falsely promoted the efficacy and safety of the human papillomavirus vaccine, indicating the medication caused her to suffer serious and debilitating autoimmune injuries.

According to the lawsuit, after the second HPV vaccine shot, she began to experience flu-like symptoms, resulting in aches, headaches, nausea, fever, and then ear pressure, tinnitus, headaches, dizziness, fatigue, migraines and vertigo.

The lawsuit claims the side effects of Gardasil ultimately caused her to develop a number of autoimmune conditions, including fibromyalgia, orthostatic intolerance (OI), and postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS).

2022 Gardasil Lawsuit Update

Following a number of Gardasil POTS lawsuits being filed by young adults and teens nationwide left with debilitating autoimmune disorders after receiving the HPV vaccine, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) issued a transfer order in August 2022, centralizing the cases for pretrial proceedings before U.S. District Judge Robert J. Conrad, Jr. in the Western District of North Carolina.

The Gardasil multidistrict litigation remains in the very early stages, with the first 49 cases just being transferred to Judge Conrad for coordinated management during the MDL proceedings.

However, over the coming weeks and months, it is expected that hundreds of lawsuits will be filed by individuals left with devastating long-term side effects from Gardasil, including:

• POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome)
• Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP)
• Autoimmune Disorders
• Gastrointestinal Issues
• Fibromyalgia
• Other Long-Term Vaccine Injuries

As part of the coordinated management of the Gardasil lawsuits, it is expected that Judge Conrad will establish a bellwether process, where small groups of representative vaccine injury claims will go through case-specific discovery and be prepared for early trial dates, to help gauge how juries are likely to respond to certain evidence and testimony that will be repeated throughout the litigation. However, if Gardasil injury settlements are not reached during the MDL proceedings, each case may later be remanded back to the U.S. District Court where it was originally filed for separate trials.