National Vaccine Information Center Cites “Betrayal” of Consumers by U.S. Supreme Court Giving Total Liability Shield to Big Pharma
February 23, 2011 08:03 AM Eastern Time
WASHINGTON--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), whose co-founders worked with Congress on the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 (PL-99-660), is calling yesterday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision giving drug companies total liability protection for injuries and deaths caused by government mandated vaccines a “betrayal” of the American consumer.
“The U.S. Supreme Court has removed all financial incentive for multi-national pharmaceutical corporations, which enjoy a $20 billion dollar business, to make vaccines as safe as they can be”
In a 6-2 decision, the Court majority voted to reject substantial evidence in the Act’s legislative history that the 99th Congress fully intended to protect an American’s right to sue a pharmaceutical corporation for injuries that could have been prevented if the company had elected to make a safer vaccine.
NVIC co-founder and president Barbara Loe Fisher, said “Parents of vaccine injured children, who worked in good faith with Congress in the early 1980’s on the 1986 law, have been betrayed by six American judges, who ignored congressional intent and threw victims of vaccine injury under the bus in order to give complete liability protection to a wealthy industry with a long history of hiding their products’ risks. They have removed the safety net we were promised. If we had known this day would come, we would have vigorously opposed any federal legislation that limited civil liability for drug corporations now making substantial profits from vaccines mandated by government.”
Hannah Bruesewitz was brain injured by DPT vaccine as a child but she was denied compensation by the U.S. Court of Claims, which administers the federal vaccine injury compensation program created by the 1986 Act that has turned away two out of three plaintiffs. Her attorneys then sued in civil court, providing evidence that Wyeth-Lederle had the technology to produce a less reactive, purified pertussis vaccine but declined to do so.
“The U.S. Supreme Court has removed all financial incentive for multi-national pharmaceutical corporations, which enjoy a $20 billion dollar business, to make vaccines as safe as they can be,” said Fisher. “This is a sad day for all Americans forced by law to use dozens of doses of vaccines or be barred from school or health insurance or employment. The only leverage left to American consumers to ensure that vaccines with the fewest health risks are produced is to oppose vaccine mandates and work to defendvaccine exemptions in all public health laws.”
The National Vaccine Information Center is a non-profit charity founded in 1982 to prevent vaccine injuries and deaths through public education. NVIC co-founders were responsible for inclusion of vaccine safety and research provisions in the 1986 Act, including theVaccine Adverse Events Reporting System, and for ensuring that the Act protected the right of those injured by vaccines to access the civil court system if they were turned down for compensation or offered too little to meet their lifetime medical care needs.
NVIC has been critical of the failure of the U.S. Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services to implement the 1986 law in accordance with legislative language, history and congressional intent. For more information, go to http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.NVIC.org&esheet=6622408&lan=en-US&anchor=www.NVIC.org&index=15&md5=d3fb2d1052731c8207935bdcc708556e
Thnx so much for this info. Our daughter Ariella Talha, a 21 month old baby girl, was vaccine injured at age 4 months. They forced us to get 6 vaccine shots in onew day. Turnso out it was actually 12-13 shots. Now she is paralyzed, emotionless, and has not smiled or laughed since she was 4 months old!
Posted by: Victor Talha | December 09, 2015 at 08:26 AM
Why is our news media covering the riots and upheaval between citizens and governments in the Mid East, when OUR own government has sold us out for profit and convenience. We TOO should be in the streets, asking for the heads of those 6 Supreme Court members for being traitors to their own citizens. I'm convinced that our three branches of government are in fact, bought and paid for by today's international "Corpocracy". We are no different than those lemmings we see on television that have been accepting for the last 40 years.
Posted by: gary moody | March 04, 2011 at 12:00 PM
I say BULL! They won't win...when 1/3 mothers are at least QUESTIONING wether or not to vaccinate their children...then we are ALREADY winning. Continue to educate, continue to exercise your rights, never back down, never be quiet. Big Pharma won't survive without people to drown in their toxic crap...we say NO and we educate. And if we keep up at work, others WILL follow.
Posted by: Tiffany | February 24, 2011 at 06:09 PM
I am shocked and astounded that the Supreme Court of the Unites States of America has ruled (Bruesewitz v. Wyeth) against total safety of vaccines, by stating vaccines are "UNAVOIDABLY UNSAFE"; thereby putting our nation's most vulnerable group of citizens, our infants and children, at risk. AND, at the same time, ruled to remove any right to recourse from vaccine injury beyond that of the lopsided Federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Court. This is truly a travesty of justice, especially since most of these vaccines are mandated for all our nation's infants and children.
The safety requirements for no other pharmaceutical or product on the planet falls into this category, yet this is one of the most important products that enters our children's bodies. Sadly, thousands of children (and adults) have adverse reactions to vaccines every year; ranging from mild - to permanently debilitating - to life threatening - to death. Vaccines are an important health safety tool, but as with any pharmaceutical, one size does not fit all. The goal should be making vaccines one of the safest things that goes into our children’s bodies…not just sort of safe!
This is not about Autism vs. Vaccines. This is about common sense and standing up for the rights and safety of our nation's children by providing them with safe and effective vaccines; as well as equal recourse under the law when those safety standards are not met.
Posted by: Danny'sVoice | February 24, 2011 at 05:31 PM
The dissent from Sonia Sotomayor is worth the read, she clearly gets it (starts on pg 32 of the following):
http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/10pdf/09-152.pdf
Check out the explanation of the term "unavoidably unsafe product" on page 35...you won't see this language on any vaccine inserts!
The House Energy and Commerce Committee Report accompanying the Vaccine Act, H. R. Rep. No. 99–908, pt. 1 (1986) (hereinafter 1986 Report), explains in relevant part:
“Subsection (b)—Unavoidable Adverse Side Effects; Direct Warnings.—This provision sets forth the principle contained in Comment K of Section 402A of the Restatement of Torts (Second) that a vaccine manufacturer should not be liable for injuries or deaths resulting from unavoidable side effects even though the vaccine was properly prepared and accompanied by proper directions and warnings. “The Committee has set forth Comment K in this bill because it intends that the principle in Comment K regarding ‘unavoidably unsafe’ products, i.e., those products which in the present state of human skill and knowledge cannot be made safe, apply to the vaccines covered in the bill and that such products not bethe subject of liability in the tort system.” Id., at 25–26.
Posted by: David Foster | February 24, 2011 at 05:26 PM
John and Nancy, The powers that be have redefined the word "choice", creating the oxymoron "forced choice". Or even better, "forced uninformed choice".
As Ed Aranga so powerfully wrote some time ago, "Words Win Wars". http://www.ageofautism.com/2008/02/words-win-wars.html
We need to redefine the words and take control of the argument.
Posted by: Sandy Gottstein | February 24, 2011 at 03:47 PM
Nancy
Not consumers, slaves. Of course, the unavailability of single vaccines also denies choice.
Posted by: John Stone | February 24, 2011 at 03:29 PM
Someone pointed out to me that the word "consumer" implies having a choice. Government mandates and single-choice vaccines also erase consumer choice.
Posted by: nhokkanen | February 24, 2011 at 03:19 PM
OOPS! I posted the link w/extra stuff! Here is is "clean" -
http://www.vaccinationnews.com/Scandals/2005/Dec_23/Scandal75.htm
Posted by: Sandy Gottstein | February 24, 2011 at 01:40 PM
Age of Autism has posted my column "The Perfect Business Plan" (http://www.vaccinationnews.com/Scandals/2005/Dec_23/Scandal75.htm)in the news section today because it is as timely now as it was when I wrote it in 2005. Maybe more so.
Check it out!
All the best,
Sandy
http://www.vaccinationnews.com
Posted by: Sandy Gottstein | February 24, 2011 at 01:28 PM
I see where you are heading Mary, but in many cases the Health Departments administered the injections. If they are blocking pharma like a 350lb linebacker... they surely will protect their own.
I am in shock that the general public doesn't see how this decision effects their children and grandchildren as well. Every single American should feel robbed, and afraid right now. I have said many times it is Genocide. If you seriously think about it...how crazy does it sound now? You have the genetics to survive their what 70 junked up immunizations..or you don't. And when you do not, no one really cares.
Posted by: Tammy Swarek | February 24, 2011 at 12:40 PM
Would it not be great if we could return to the days of yesteryear...
An AAP doctor here...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEIkQSFRZ4A&feature=related
or here... they did telephone surveys much the same way they do telephone surveys today to ensure the vaccine program is safe...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCMzjJjuxQI
Posted by: cmo | February 24, 2011 at 10:25 AM
We should lobby for repeal of the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986. Eliminate liability protection for the multinational drug consortium. It's become pretty simple now. Either pharma controls us, or we control pharma. How do we wish to live our lives?
Posted by: patrons99 | February 24, 2011 at 09:39 AM
A "total liability shield" plus vaccine mandates is a recipe for an even greater public health disaster than we now face. It also represents medical fascism. Pharma is pushing to eliminate vaccine exemptions, in each state. This will ultimately give pharma complete control over our food supply. Not only do they wish to control what we eat, they want to force-feed us. Vaccine mandates and codex alimentarius are examples. Here is just a single recent example of what can go wrong:
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/newPathogenInRoundupReadyGMCrops.php
As recent events have shown, we can not depend on a legal remedy from the courts. Our numbers have grown. We are becoming a stronger group, politically. Our religious values and spirituality remain strong. We should carry our agenda to the political and religious arenas. We have always been on the high ground, morally and spiritually.
There ought to be a rallying cry by people of faith the world over. We are all in this together. Pharma seeks to ban religious exemptions, globally. Medical freedom and freedom of religion are God-given inalienable rights. It's time for some new legislation.
“Vaccine philosophical exemptions: A moral and ethical imperative” by Alan Phillips, J.D. on February 18, 2011.
http://www.naturalnews.com/z031389_vaccines_philosophical_exemptions.html
Posted by: patrons99 | February 24, 2011 at 09:04 AM
I think that if the doctors were held responsible for vaccine injuries, the vaccinating would stop instantly. Pharma made the poisonous product but my pediatrician INJECTED it. She's responsible in my eyes. I see some day pharma throwing their loyal servants (doctors) under the bus just for their own amusement. It's sort of happening now with flu shots for healthcare workers.
Posted by: Mary | February 24, 2011 at 08:27 AM
Barbara, you were warned. If you hadn't been so pushy for this Act it wouldn't have passed. Many people in the early 1980s who were critical of vaccines were against this and told you at the time.
Posted by: MinorityView | February 24, 2011 at 08:00 AM