Posted on 12/15/2002 7:44:25 PM PST by FairOpinion
The next Congress should repeal a provision in the homeland security bill that protects drug companies like Eli Lilly from lawsuits, urged a handful of lawmakers and autism activists at a Wednesday press conference.
Proponents of the provision, however, argue that lawsuit immunity is necessary to make sure that companies continue to offer life-saving vaccines to combat bio-terrorism.
Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) plan to introduce legislation next year to undo the grant of lawsuit immunity to companies that have used a vaccine preservative called thirmerosal, which contains ethylmercury.
Some believe that there is a link between exposure to thirmerosal and autism, the neurological disorder that causes life-long disability in human interaction and communication skills.
Though there has not been a definitive link established between thirmerosal and autism, the Food and Drug Administration has said that thirmerosal might expose children to unsafe levels of mercury, and the product has been removed from most vaccines.
The preservative has been the impetus for hundreds of lawsuits against companies like Eli Lilly, the company that first developed thirmerosal in the 1930s.
According to Government Reform Committee Chairman Dan Burton (R-Indiana), House Minority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) said that he inserted the lawsuit immunity provision into the homeland security bill at the behest of the White House.
Burton, who has an autistic grandson, called the thirmerosal rider a "terrible injustice" that was "done under the cover of darkness." It takes away any "avenue of hope" that families might someday get restitution, he said.
Burton also suggested that other means of making restitution could include extending the three-year statute of limitations on the 1986 "Vaccine Injury Compensation Program" (VICP) and getting companies to put more money into the fund.
Richard Diamond, a spokesman for Armey, denied that Armey-or any other lawmaker-was engaging in special interest politics on behalf of drug manufacturers.
"The language is there for a good reason," said Diamond. "The news media has willfully not reported our side of the story. We're doing this because we're dead if we don't. What's happening on this issue is demagoguery."
The homeland security provision "does nothing of what the people complaining about it say it does," he said. "Guess who's mad? Trial lawyers and their biggest recipients of campaign contributions-the Democrats," said Diamond, notwithstanding the involvement of McCain and Burton.
Eli Lilly and Company issued a statement accusing the trial bar of trying to "short-circuit" the process of forcing plaintiffs through the compensation program by claiming that vaccine ingredients are not covered by the program.
"The trial bar is clearly attempting to thwart the original aim of Congress, which was to reduce the chilling effect that the litigation has on the development of new vaccines," read the statement. "That is why it was important to include the clarification of the law in the Homeland Security Act."
"No credible scientific link has been established between vaccines and autism," the company said, pointing to recent research that mercury contained in thirmerosal is excreted more quickly in infants than previously thought and not stored in the body.
The trial lawyers are trying to manipulate people into this, using the victims callously.
Tons of Junk Science put forth by the truly evil lawyer industry seeking easy mega-bucks by exploiting naive, anxious parents, feeble minded juries and deep pocketed marks. The grifter shysters are forever seeking utterly corrupt, oops I meant activist, judges and stench-filled venues to ply their sinister, lucrative business.
The result of the vermin-filled lawyer industry?: Dead and maimed children who never got vaccinated due to parental fear. No new life-saving vaccines.
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