Unofficial Transcript from DC SCOTUS Vaccine Case Press Conference
Watch the 3/3 Press Conference here.
Louise Kuo Habakus:
“My name is Louise Kuo Habakus. I’m the director of the Center for Personal Choice. Together with the people who are standing here today, we represent over 100,000 families, professionals, and advocates who work for the interests of the autism community, for vaccine safety, and for those who care about health freedom.”
Mary Holland, Esq spoke first.
"We're deeply disappointed in the Supreme Court's decision last week in Bruesewitz v. Wyeth. It violated the social contract. It told parents that if your children are injured by vaccines, tough luck! You're on your own. . . .
"You'll hear that this program doesn't work, you'll hear that it's broken, and it's not remotely a court. There are no rules of evidence or procedure, or discovery, or a jury of one's peers. It's a program that is stacked against families...because vaccine injuries make vaccines look bad. Children in the U.S. are conscripted into a war against infectious disease but without real consent and without adequate information. With this Supreme Court decision, many more children are likely to be injured and left dead on the battlefield. The government and doctors assert that vaccines are safe and effective, but the Supreme Court acknowledges that they are indeed, unavoidably unsafe. With this decision, the Supreme Court grants almost blanket immunity from law suits to an entire industry for compulsory products. If vaccines are really so safe and effective, why does industry need so much protection? And why are children left so defenseless by law with no access to any court? Justice Sotomayor got it right in her dissent. She said Congress intended to leave the courthouse doors open for children who have suffered severe injuries from defectively designed vaccines. She wrote that the majority's decision was policy-driven and that the Court had usurped Congress's role. We look to Congress to hold hearings about the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program and to fix this system. The VICP is unacceptable in its current form."
Russ Bruesewitz: 4:53-8:33
“We are… parents of Hannah Bruesewitz, who in a recently decided Supreme Court case was denied the opportunity to hold the drug manufacturer accountable for the vaccine she received at six months of age. Almost 20 years ago, …literally two hours after receiving the vaccine, she started to seize uncontrollably, eventually regressing into brain damage and a lifetime of around-the-clock care. While the court’s decision was obviously disappointing for us personally, the future concern for all parents faced with a vaccine decision should be ONE: What incentives are in place to assure manufacturers are offering the safest alternative? And TWO: What help is available if their worst fears are realized and a vaccine injury occurs after complying with mandated vaccination?
“From our perceptive, the court’s decision answered both of these concerns with a definitive NONE. Putting this in context, the Court’s decision has granted an immunity to drug manufacturers not afforded to any other industry. … Recalls have become commonplace for … companies when discovering their products have safety issues in the marketplace. Drug companies on the other hand, have no such responsibility, legal or otherwise. Imagine Toyota ignoring question regarding the public safety of their braking system, secure in the knowledge that if found to be legitimate, they wouldn’t be prosecuted, incur any loss of revenue, or even be forced to take corrective action. That’s what’s been decided. While initially tempted to recall all the obstacles we experienced leading up to the Court’s decision, our overriding frustration has been our experience with the inappropriately named, Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, specifically, its Vaccine Court component. Originally established by Congress to swiftly and generously to address vaccine-injured petitioners in a less adversarial setting, our experience as has most everyone’s, been anything but the intended. If now left with this court as the only recourse for dealing with the long-term care needs of a vaccine injury, its credibility needs to be restored. Our legal journey is over. The final verdict has been rendered and our daughter’s condition remains the same. Everyday parents are placing their trust in a vaccination program they assume has the safeguards in place to warrant their participation.
“As a parent, how would you answer these questions?
“Is our Hannah an acceptable casualty of the greater good being served?
“Will she ever be capable of understanding the questionable sincerity of Pfizer’s General Counsel, Amy Schulman, in her expression of sympathy in a press release about our decision?
“How many other children and families will be forced to deal with a system currently tilted toward protection of manufacturers over injured vaccine recipients?
“We realize life isn’t always fair, but must our system follow suit?”
Emily Tarsell 8:52-11:53 (Whose daughter Christina died after receiving the Gardasil series)
“To the families and consumers out there, did you know that vaccine manufacturers are protected by law against lawsuits for injuries and deaths from their products, even if the damages resulted from a defectively designed vaccine? There is no other industry that has that kind of blanket protection against liability for death or injury caused by their product. For vaccine manufacturers, it’s all profit, no liability. And since they can’t be held accountable, there’s no incentive for vaccine manufacturers to do the research to insure product safety and effectiveness and to improve their product. I had always assumed vaccines are safe and effective. I trusted the advice of a gynecologist my daughter visited when she recommended Gardasil vaccine. But I was wrong, very, very wrong. Gardasil’s one of those vaccines that was rushed to market without adequate testing. There’s no long term safety data. It was approved in just six months. And my daughter was the victim of a vaccine she did not even need. Chris died eighteen days after her third injection with Gardasil. This is a picture of Chris. And she’s not alone. There are now 93 deaths, and those are just the ones we know of, that have been reported, post Gardasil, as well as 21,000 adverse events, many of which are very serious injuries. And the pharmaceutical industry has no liability. People have to know that there are serious adverse reactions to Gardasil. People have to know that there are deaths. And people have to know that the law protects the manufacturer and not you. All profit, no liability. So the manufacturer is motivated to make more vaccines and make them as quickly as possible. There are dozens, maybe hundreds of vaccines in the pipeline, and they’ll be targeting you and your family. So watch out.”
Rolf Hazlehurst, Esq (Father of an autistic child whose claim was denied in Vaccine Court)
"My son's case was the second test case in the Omnibus Autism Proceeding in what is known as Vaccine Court. ...My son is eleven years old. He suffers severe and permanent brain damage. In all probability, he'll spend his adult life locked in a mental institution. ... When you consider that the rate of autism has risen from one in 10,000 to one in 100 in less than twenty years, we as parents have a moral obligation to legitimately question vaccine safety. ...If I had time to explain, I'd like to talk about the financial conflicts of interest between the pharmaceutical industry, the FDA, and the CDC, but unfortunately, that would take all day.
"The main point I want to talk about is my personal experience in Vaccine Court. For twenty-five years, the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Act of 1986 has kept vaccine-injured children out of state and federal court. It should be called the National Vaccine Manufacturers Protection Act. ... For twenty-five years, the government has said that before you can go to a court of law, you must first to Vaccine Court. It's highly misleading for the government to refer to Vaccine Court as a court. In Vaccine Court, there is no judge, no jury, and the most basic rules of law do not apply. The rules of evidence do not apply. The rules of civil procedure do not apply. The rules of discovery do not apply. In Vaccine Court, the rule of law and the American legal system has been replaced by what is known as a Special Master. A Special Master is nothing more than a politically appointed, governmen t attorney. Vaccine Court is nothing more than a procedural hurdle that has kept the vaccine-autism issue out of court for twenty-five years. I truly believe that if it were not for the Vaccine Act of 1986, the autism epidemic would not be possible. I've been an attorney for 15 years and in my personal opinion the actions of the government officials in Vaccine Court is part of the most frightening and blatant abuse of power that I've ever witnessed.
"I'd like to explain just one example. ... That's the case of Hannah Poling and what I call the the Zimmerman issue. In essence, Dr. Zimmerman is one of the top neurologists in the country. He was an expert witness for the government. He submitted a written opinion which stated, there is no scientific basis for a connection between the MMR, mercury intoxication, and autism.
"When the Cedillo case went to trial, the government did not call Dr. Zimmerman as a witness. But since we're not in a court of law, his opinion was allowed to remain in. Dr. Zimmerman subsequently filed a second opinion. He filed it on behalf of his colleague, for Hannah Poling. In that opinion, Dr. Zimmerman's opinion states words to the effect that she suffered a vaccine injury which manifested as autism. Manifested as autism, is autism.
"In the first opinion, our government relied upon his evidence. In the second, contradictory opinion of Dr. Zimmerman, the government placed it under seal and it was not allowed to be used as evidence. In fact, during the closing arguments in my son's case, the government's attorney read from Dr. Zimmerman's report, read that there is no basis that thimerosal-containing vaccines and the MMR cause autism. However, it was only three weeks later that the same government attorneys used Dr. Zimmerman's second contradictory opinion to secretly and very quietly compensate Hannah Poling. I submit that the government compensated Hannah Poling as a tactical decision and procedural maneuver to prevent Dr. Zimmerman's second opinion from being used as evidence.
"I want to clarify. I am in no way critical of the Polings. They have done anything wrong at all. For that matter, I'm not critical of Dr. Zimmerman. In fact, the Polings filed what is called a motion for complete transparency. Basically what that means is Hannah Poling's parents wanted to talk about their child's case. They wanted to make their child's medical records public. They wanted to make their child's records public in order to help other children. The government opposed that motion for complete transparency, continues to oppose that motion for complete transparency and has done everything that they possibly can to prevent her records from being used as evidence. ...I sincerely believe that the records in Hannah Poling's case could help an untold number of other children. ...I do not contend that Dr. Zimmerman did anything unethical or wrong. He's an expert in a ...rapidly deve loping field of medicine; he's entitled to change his opinion. What is wrong is for the government to have one expert with two opinions, use the opinion which says vaccines do not cause autism, take the second opinion, which said that the vaccines did cause autism, and seal it up.
"In a strange twist of fate, my son Yates was also was also a patient of Dr. Zimmerman. My son also has the same neurological diagnosis, regressive encephalopathy with features of an autism spectrum disorder. Dr. Julie Gerberding, who's the former head of the CDC, tried to twist this into, oh well, Hannah Poling's case is different from everybody else's. She's really not autistic. It’s all a mitochondrial disorder. I don't doubt that Hannah Poling does have a mitochondrial disorder. We subsequently learned that my child has a mitochondrial disorder. In fact, many of the parents that I know who’ve been able to afford to have their children tested, [have found that their children have] a mitochondrial disorder.
"The President promised us complete transparency. That's not the case in the autism proceeding. Again the government has done everything that it can to prevent the fact that the government's expert witness submitted two contradictory affidavits, the government using the one that is favorable and sealing up the one that is not. The actions of the government in sealing up Dr. Zimmerman's second contradictory opinion is wrong, dishonest, corrupt, obstruction of justice. I would call it perpetration of fraud upon the court, except we're not in the court, we're in the so-called Vaccine Court. Now the Supreme Court has told us that in almost any case, if your child is injured, you cannot go to a court of law. Instead, you mu st go to Vaccine Court. I submit to you, look up kangaroo court, in a legal dictionary and it'll describe the Vaccine Court to a tee. Unfortunately, in the past nine years, I 've learned more than I ever wanted to about vaccines, autism, the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Act of 1986. And of this I am certain: One of the fundamental causes of the autism epidemic is the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Act of 1986. This program is broken and it is out of control. I hope every American will join us in demanding a Congressional inquiry into the vaccine program. I think most Americans would be shocked if they knew what has happened.”
Jim Turner, Esq (DC based attorney who’s been fighting for safer vaccine policy for forty years)
“The vaccine safety debate has arrived at a point when it is be held out and handled in public. It’s time for the Congress to go back and visit its legislation. I was involved in this activity all the way back starting in 1970. We were able to at that time, stop the swine flu vaccine of 1976 by just putting out the science and showing that it was causing more harm help. We thought that that was going to be a very important wakeup call for Americans. The response was to create a compensation act that prevented the actual debate from taking place in courts and really taking place in Congress. Congress thought it had solved the problem. We now know, as a result of this case decided last week, that the issue remains a hot, significant issue for people all across the country. Vaccine supporters, vaccine users, vaccine resisters, vaccine critics, all of us, all of the people who are involved in this country, now need to face up to the fact that this is a live debate and it is something that needs to be addressed. Over $2 billion has been paid to families whose children have either died or been maimed by a vaccine.
“This is an unconscionable act for products that are required for children to take. We now have a situation where children are required on one end to take vaccines, and on the other, are prevented from being able to litigate whatever harms may come from those vaccines. The Congress must now step in and at a bare minimum, clarify what it intended, which was this was something that was to be done either as an alternative to or a preliminary to going to court. Congress never meant for the court to be cut out of this process. The best thing to be done is just to repeal the act and go forward with the litigation. It would be a very short time before this vaccine matter would be a very clear, solid issue that would be debated in the country and I predict for you that we would have a very proper balance between vaccine use and vaccine resistance.”
Louise:
“In last week’s decision in Bruesewitz v. Wyeth, the Supreme Court got it wrong. You just heard from three families that paid the highest possible price. Their children were destroyed by vaccines. You just heard from three attorneys who told us that the law has failed us. Our government doesn’t get it. Industry has no legal duty to make safer vaccines. Without this motivation, we will never get safer vaccines. The Vaccine Injury Compensation Program is broken. It is not functional and this is a very big problem. It’s a big problem because Americans vaccinate their children. American children are required to receive between 30 and 45 doses of 12 vaccines for school admission. If the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program is as corrupt as these families say, and many others say, then this injustice affects every single family in America. It’s intolerable. This is a profound betrayal of trust and we won’t stand for it. We call for Congress to call hearings into the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. If you want to understand how we got here, we ask you to read a new book called Vaccine Epidemic. Mary Holland and I are co-editors. There are 25 contributing authors. It’s a story about corruption in industry, medicine and government. And it’s a story about individuals, children, adults, soldiers, parents, and what happens when vaccines go wrong.”
If "separate education facilities are inherently unequal" (Chief Justice Earl Warren, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas), then a separate "court" system cannot be anything but unequal. Even more so, when "vaccine court" is not actually a court at all, but an administrative proceeding - and one that is heavily slanted against the vaccine injured.
Posted by: Carolyn M | March 07, 2011 at 05:03 PM
“The legal situation regarding vaccine mandates is based on a 1905 case, Jacobson v Massachusetts which upheld the state's police power to fine people who do not accept a mandated vaccine. Jacobson did not raise the issue of vaccine safety!! Just the power to fine was questioned. The Supreme Court reserved to the Federal Courts the authority to intervene in vaccination issues. The high court held that the judiciary is “competent to interfere and protect the health and life of the individual concerned.” The issue has never been revisited by the court and it has never ruled on the situation where imminent risk of harm could be shown.” – Posted to AoA by: Ralph Fucetola JD | September 27, 2010 at 02:05 PM
"Imminent risk of harm" sure sounds like "clear and present danger", “unavoidably dangerous”, and “unavoidably unsafe” to public health posed by vaccine mandates. Who has the burden of proof? How difficult a burden of proof is this to meet if a forceably-inoculated citizen were to raise the issue in federal court? It seems to me as though the "clear and present danger" and "imminent risk of harm" are different issues than a conscientious objection for personal religious beliefs. Might there be other Constitutional issues that could raised based on the Bill of Rights, e.g., First Amendment, Fifth Amendment (Equal Protection), Fourteenth Amendment (Due Process and Equal Protection), Ninth Amendment (e.g. equal treatment under law)? Healthcare workers have fundamental God-given natural rights, too, including both enumerated and unenumerated Constitutional rights. The State does not own anyone's body. This is still a free country, isn't it? Government-mandated inoculations violate our natural God-given rights. They are immoral and sacrilegious. They offend our Creator. They violate both enumerated and unenumerated Constitutional rights. Personally, on conscientious religious grounds, I am adamantly opposed to government-mandated inoculations of any kind.
Could a well-informed individual citizen draw up a legally-binding exemption and be prepared to go to court if an inoculation is mandated and administered against their will? See the Bill of Rights to our U.S. Constitution. It is extremely likely that MANY more injuries will occur due to government-mandated inoculations. MIGHT the injured have legal standing to raise the issue of the Constitutionality of the government-mandated inoculation before the U.S. Supreme Court, should the need arise? See also the Federal Declaration Judgment Act.
http://federalpracticemanual.org/node/53
http://www.ageofautism.com/2010/09/observations-from-upenns-the-science-ethics-and-politics-of-vaccine-mandates-/comments/page/5/#comments
Posted by: patrons99 | March 07, 2011 at 04:26 PM
Jeff C made the following observations regarding recent AoA comments:-
"Following up on Teresa's comment, it appears AoA is being spammed with phony comments alleging solidarity, but actually meant to sow discord. It's called astroturfing as in a phony grass roots movement. Seems like it's been happening a lot more lately, as if someone decided to start a campaign. I wonder how many of these comments have real emails as opposed to throw away yahoo and gmail addresses?"
The following is a recent extract from Rebecca Fisher's 'Jabloonies' web site:-
"So the original purpose of this blog was to show quite how batshit bonkers the JABS forum is, by posting an (almost) daily quote from one of its regular contributors. However, now that JABS is moderated, it appears that some of the more insane (and hence bloggable) stuff doesn't get past the moderator, I'll also be turning my eye towards other sources of evil bastardry - mainly Age of Autism and The Australian Vaccination Network (AVN)."
I have been waiting for the delightful Ms Fisher to manifest herself on AoA. Her filthy profane comments are no longer tolerated on most internet blogs and forums.
Posted by: Jenny Allan | March 07, 2011 at 03:09 AM
Vaccine injury Press Conferences and vaccine injury congressional hearings, rarely attract the attention of the broader media. I remember Congressman Dan Burton speaking to the journalists running around the congressional hallways, basically pleading with them to cover the Government Oversight hearings. Nope.....nada.....
This press conference could have sent out gold plated invitations weeks in advance, and it wouldn't have changed who covered or attended. We are broken and the vaccine epidemic will only get worse until..............
Posted by: michael | March 06, 2011 at 11:56 PM
I made a comment on another post that there have been a lot of "my child was never vaccinated but still has autism, we need to look at other causes..." comments lately. The comments are usually couched in terms of what a great site this is, or what great people we are, BUT...
Following up on Teresa's comment, it appears AoA is being spammed with phony comments alleging solidarity, but actually meant to sow discord. It's called astroturfing as in a phony grass roots movement. Seems like it's been happening a lot more lately, as if someone decided to start a campaign. I wonder how many of these comments have real emails as opposed to throw away yahoo and gmail addresses?
Posted by: Jeff C. | March 06, 2011 at 11:42 PM
Hi Jennifer S.-
I think your complimenting then casting a shadow at the end of your post is a pattern that I have seen before. Not sure if you notice but some folks might do that to appear to be with a group and show solidarity when they are really trying to muddy the waters.
I think there was not a thing wrong with letting the media, parents, legislators, Congressional staff, etc know that there is a book out that is written by those deeply involved in this issue. We are talking children harmed by a product who have zero recourse (many children cannot go through the vaccine injury compensation program based on age and the narrow window in statute of limitations) so your comment seems like you are wanting further information to be not revealed and I think that is unhelpful.
I also think that these brave parents and professionals are putting themselves in positions that lend many challenges for them personally and professionally, and for anyone to put them down or question their sound decisions and support of helping all of the children would make me wonder why such a comment would be added in a post?
Posted by: Teresa Conrick | March 06, 2011 at 09:25 PM
VACCINES CAUSE AUTISM
Posted by: Willie | March 06, 2011 at 02:19 PM
Truly informative and greatly appreciated post.
Thank you for your press conference.
My immense gratitude to the Center of Personal rights for your incredible activism. Thank you for your continued fortitude.
To the families who spoke at this press conference and shared with us, I am so sorry for what I cannot even find appropriate enough words to express with regards to what has happened to your beautiful children so unnecessarily. Your children's stories are forever cemented in my heart. This injustice cannot go on any longer, and your work will make a difference on behalf of all current and future children to stop this unnecessary epidemic triggered by greed and deceit.
Thank you for fighting for the truth and justice for even those who don't realize they need it yet.
Posted by: Jean | March 06, 2011 at 12:36 AM
It is clear that children are considered second class citizens, especially our children because they do not have a voice.
As parents of a daughter with autism, we (Mom especially) have almost always been treated with condescendence by the medical profession, particularly in the early stages of our quest for answers and therapies. It was quite traumatic to find ourselves "on the other side" with our beautiful little girl , as we are both physicians. We did not expect any "special" treatment, but were shocked by the doctors'lack of empathy. I felt frankly ashamed of being part of a heartless system and could only imagine how non-physician parents in our situation were being treated.
I finally understood what my patients meant when telling me that their former physicians "did not listen".
Clearly, the attitude of the medical establishment, threatened by the autism families' quest for not only answers but the truth about unsafe vaccination practices, has contaminated the justice system. Our children do not matter to them. In the end, it boils down to dollars and cents. Only money talks.
Posted by: Marie-Anne Denayer, M.D. | March 05, 2011 at 11:21 PM
Correction:
"Struggling Supreme Court Loses Eighth Consecutive Case"
http://ow.ly/48GMe
Posted by: Dan E. Burns - SavingBenBook.com | March 05, 2011 at 10:30 PM
Although I applaud the amazing testimony of the parents - which I saw on their video - I wonder why this press conference was called with so little notice - arranging this two or three days in advance is not exactly enough time for those committed parents to arrange to attend. Did the organizers actually want parents in attendance, or was the prime goal to sell books?
Posted by: Jennifer S. | March 05, 2011 at 08:22 PM
excellent testimony
Posted by: Beth Kennedy | March 05, 2011 at 07:22 PM
Now we know why they have held up over 5000 cases in kangaroo court...They wanted to hold them there so that they could get this bogas preceedent through the supreme kangaroo court.... The american congress should be ashamed, screwing injured babies is as about as low as one could get. The continued infancide will claim many more babies.
Posted by: sammy:) | March 05, 2011 at 06:20 PM
Thank you so much to these parents for bravely sharing their stories.
I read and re-read their statements. This is the way justice is adjudicated for kids w/ autism or other vaccine injuries???
The is the United States where everyone is entitled their day in court, if they have been hurt or injured.
When did we give up our constitutional rights for a judge and or jury to decide our cases?
This is just insanity. A billion dollar business creates unsafe products. Products we are forced to buy and this business is 100% indemnified?
The deaths and brain damage of American children are an acceptable price to pay in order to avoid chicken pox, the flu, diarrhea and a 100% preventable sexually transmitted disease? We are forced to buy these unsafe products because pharma does not want to pay 1 cent more for an Hg free vaccines or 50 cents more for single dose vaccine? We are triggering an endless cycle of incurable GI disease in children because Merck doesn't want to separate the MMR...
Posted by: Katie Wright | March 05, 2011 at 12:16 PM
A flu death report below, vaccine status not stated...
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/03/03/572-pound-spokesman-unhealthy-eatery-dies/
PHOENIX — A 572-pound man who gained fame as spokesman for the Heart Attack Grill -- a Phoenix-area restaurant that unabashedly touts its unhealthy, high-calorie menu –- died Thursday, MyFoxPhoenix.com reported.
Friends of 29-year-old Blair River say he died Tuesday, possibly from contracting pneumonia after a bout with the flu.
Posted by: cmo | March 05, 2011 at 10:19 AM
Thanks so much for posting this!
Posted by: Donna L. | March 05, 2011 at 09:37 AM
It was an amazing press conference. I extend my thanks to all those who worked so hard to make it happen.
Maurine
Posted by: Maurine Meleck | March 05, 2011 at 09:30 AM