Cash offered for proof that Bachmann’s HPV claim is true

Story from The Takeaway. Listen to audio for full report.

Minnesota Congresswoman and presidential contender Michele Bachmann continues to draw criticism, after making remarks this week that the HPV vaccine is dangerous for young girls.

Speaking with Matt Lauer on NBC’s “Today Show,” Bachmann said that a woman in Florida told her that her daughter had received the vaccine, and “suffered from mental retardation after.”

Public health advocates are encouraging Bachmann to provide proof of this story. And two bioethics professors have upped the ante, offering to pay more than $10,000 for medical records that prove the anecdote is true. Art Caplan is one of those professors — he teaches at the University of Pennsylvania.

“What I want to know is, can Michele Bachmann deliver this person?” Caplan said on The Takeaway. “Is there a case out there, factually, of someone becoming in her words ‘retarded’ — not my words — as a result of getting the HPV vaccine.”

Caplan thinks it’s “impossible” something like that could happen. “I think we have to really be willing to call out an untruth in a crucial area like vaccines,” he said.

About 4,000 women die each year in the U.S. from cervical cancer, Caplan says, with another 12,000 left infertile by treatment.

A few years ago, some states began requiring that pre-teen girls receive the HPV vaccine, which protects them from a sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer.

Read more about the HPV vaccine on the CDC website.

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“The Takeaway” is a national morning news program, delivering the news and analysis you need to catch up, start your day, and prepare for what’s ahead. The show is a co-production of WNYC and PRI, in editorial collaboration with the BBC, The New York Times Radio, and WGBH.