Posted on 10/25/2004 6:25:58 AM PDT by OESY
...Neither Kerry nor running-mate John Edwards is being truthful with the American people about this issue. If they were, they'd have to look to their major allies — the tort-lawyer lobby — as a major source of the problem.
Back in the 1960s, 26 companies made vaccines in the United States; today, only four do — and none makes flu vaccines. The two sources for flu shots are firms in Britain and France.
What changed?
As The Weekly Standard reported last week, it was a new legal concept called "liability without fault" that began emerging four decades ago. This held companies liable for huge damages even in cases where no negligence had been proven.
Moreover, vaccines became a low-profit business after the federal government began purchasing the doses and distributing them to doctors — instead of the companies selling the vaccines directly to physicians.
Combine low-to-nonexistent profits with a growing risk of sky-high jury verdicts, thanks to exactly the sort of litigation lotto encouraged by voracious tort lawyers (like John Edwards), and you can understand why pharmaceutical companies feel they're better off staying away from vaccines.
Indeed, as Dr. Paul Offit, head of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, writes: "Vaccines became one of the first medical products to be eliminated by lawsuits."
Congress tried to address fears of a potential shortage with President Bush's Health Act, which would have reduced liability for flu-vaccine manufacturers. It passed the House, but not the Senate. John Edwards voted no — John Kerry didn't even bother showing up for the vote....
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Uh, government has already intervened - with disastrous results. The vaccine makers were doing fine until Hillary tried to force them to sell their vaccines for at or below cost, using the purchasing power of government. Since no business is sane enough to sell their products for a loss, the drug companies just stopped producing the vaccines. Try reading Atlas Shrugged sometime.
Add to the fact that the process of making flu vaccines is obsolete. If I'm not mistaken, the vaccines come from sterilized chicken eggs, using a time-consuming and costly process.
Speaking at the meeting, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, MD (R, Tenn.), vowed to address the issue this year. Liability reform legislation was passed by the House last year [2002] but never made it to the Senate floor.
March 2003 - Bush to AMA: Tort reform a must
For the sake of affordable and accessible health care in America, we must have a limit on what they call non-economic damages -- I propose a cap of $250,000," Bush told an enthusiastic audience made up of health care workers, Republican supporters and students at the University of Scranton. The president was referring to a limit on pain-and-suffering awards.
In addition, Bush urged Congress to pass caps on punitive damages. Bush backed similar legislation that was approved in the House last year [2002], but not in the then-Democratic controlled Senate.
The Clinton's set it all in motion back in the mid-1990's, and Edwards profited from the lawsuits.
Same here. I would just let it run it's course when I got sick. I've never had a full blown flu in over 15 years, and when I do get the flu, it lasts maybe 2 or 3 hours. It's similar to waking up in the morning with stuffed nasal passages and a dry throat. Glass of orange juice and a couple tissues of Kleenex and it's gone.
He could go to Mexico! They are selling them on the street corners there. Really!!!
I'm sorry that you've had to go through so much. Hodgkins was one of the first diagnoses they gave me, but it was incorrect. When I saw pictures of all of those sick people standing in long lines waiting to get their flu shot, I felt bad for them. Some of them were on oxygen, so I decided to wait to get one. No matter how bad things are, I know there are a lot of people worse off than I am. I opted to wait, so those who are worse can get theirs.
WRONG. I know of at least two high risk people who have not been able to get it. One is a family member.Yet illegal kids and elderly are getting it.
Last year 24 hours after my flu shot I was sicker than a dog. Happened a few years ago 24 hours after I got the shot. I will never ever get it again.
Repeat, as needed...
There's so much hype about it this year, much of it probably to make Bush look bad. After all, what did he know and when did he know it? (smile)
I'm not talking about the stomach flu. I mean influenza.
Bttt for later
I am talking about research and development. Pay attention to setences that come before and after.
Or perhaps you (or your wife) are of the opinion that Viagra is one of the world's most important drugs.
Flu Shot Info (just in by e-mail)
How the vaccine works:
Influenza vaccine is produced by growing the virus in eggs. The virus is killed and processed to create the vaccine, which is given by injection under the skin. The body then produces antibodies to the virus over the next two to four weeks. If the immunized person then comes into contact with the influenza virus, the antibodies attack and kill the virus before it has a chance to cause infection. The vaccine contains the 3 most likely strains to be active during the "Flu season."
Why the shortage:
Almost half of the nation's flu vaccine will not be delivered this year. Chiron, a major manufacturer of flu vaccine, will not be distributing any influenza vaccine this flu season. Chiron was to make 46-48 million doses vaccine for the United States. Chiron is a British company. Recently British health officials stopped Chiron from distributing and making the vaccine when inspectors found unsanitary conditions in the labs. Some lots of the vaccine were recalled and destroyed.
Why is our vaccine made in the UK and not the US?
The major pharmaceutical companies in the US provided almost 90% of the nations flu vaccine at one time. They did this despite a very low profit margin for the product. Basically, they were doing us a favor. In the late 80's a man from North Carolina who had received the vaccine, got the flu. The strain he caught was one of the strains in that years vaccine made by a US company.
What did he do?
He sued and he won. He was awarded almost $5 million! After that case was appealed and lost, most US pharmaceuticals stopped making the vaccine. The liability out weighed the profit margin. Since UK and Canadian laws prohibit such frivolous law suits, UK and Canadian companies began selling the vaccine in the US. By the way...the lawyer that represented the NC man in the flu shot law suit was a young ambulance chaser by the name of...... John Edwards.
No it only cost Bush votes,That's why the race is tight,they never fight back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111
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