US lawmakers against curbs on suing vaccine firms (Frist vetting, for Freepers)

WASHINGTON, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Members of both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate vowed on Wednesday to get rid of controversial provisions, slipped quietly into the Homeland Security Act, that they say benefit vaccine makers at the expense of children with autism and other diseases.

But one of the authors of the provisions said they were meant to ensure the country will have vaccines to give children.

Vaccine critics say they can cause autism, and many have filed lawsuits. Studies have found no link between vaccines and autism but vaccine makers say they have spent hundreds of millions of dollars defending against these suits. Companies say it is one big reason that so many of them have stopped making vaccines.

A huge outcry followed the news that provisions making it harder to sue vaccine makers had been added to the bill creating the federal Department of Homeland Security last month. Groups advocating safer vaccines immediately decried the move as being aimed at protecting rich companies.

Several members of Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, took up the call, and on Wednesday several vowed to remove the provisions when Congress reconvenes in January.

Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a Michigan Democrat, called the provision an "outrage." "It is really government at its worst," she told a news conference.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, called it a "huge gift to drug companies ... at the expense of autistic children."

But Tennessee Republican Sen. Bill Frist said the provisions came from a bill he was sponsoring that was aimed at encouraging more companies to make vaccines.

"The threat of liability has become a barrier to our ability to protect the American people," he said. "Three provisions from my bill were put into the Homeland Security Bill," he added. "It's a big mystery who did this."

Only four companies now make the vaccines routinely given to children to protect them against measles, mumps, whooping cough, polio, hepatitis, diphtheria, tetanus, chickenpox, meningitis and pneumococcal disease.

They are Merck and Co. Inc. (nyse: MRK - news - people), GlaxoSmithKline Plc , Wyeth (nyse: MRK - news - people) and Aventis-Pasteur . Just two of those companies -- Merck and Wyeth -- are U.S.-based.

The country had a severe shortage of vaccines this past year that left thousands of children under-vaccinated. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is tracking reports of disease outbreaks to see if there have been any extra cases of childhood disease because of the shortage.

Frist said trial lawyers found a loophole around the Vaccine Injury Compensation Act of 1986, which was designed to provide a pool of money to take care of children who have side-effects from vaccines.

Frist said that trial lawyers had begun suing the makers of thimerosol, a mercury-based preservative recently removed from childhood vaccines. Eli Lilly and Co. (nyse: LLY - news - people) has been a primary target.

"Trial lawyers don't like it because manufacturers are the huge pockets," he said. Studies have found no link between thimerosol and autism.

The 1986 act is aimed at preventing multiple lawsuits against vaccine makers, hospitals, nurses and others who give vaccines to people, with the idea being that vaccines provide for the greater good of society, and thus society should bear the burden of any side-effects.

"It was supposed to be no-fault," Dr. Robert Chen, chief of vaccine safety and development for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a recent interview.

Homeland Security Rider Prompts Protest From Autism Activists
By Christine Hall
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
December 12, 2002
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewPolitics.asp?Page=%5CPolitics%5Carchive%5C200212%5CPOL20021212a.html

(CNSNews.com) - 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.

See Related Story:
Senate Approves Homeland Security Bill (Nov. 19, 2002)

E-mail a news tip to Christine Hall.

Send a Letter to the Editor about this article.

But one of the authors of the provisions said they were meant to ensure the country will have vaccines to give children.

A slick lie since the multitude of vaccines by and large have no problem. The occasional ones from defect will now be less costly, or no cost, to the pharm companies. Now they can cut even more costs and corners. The use of "Homeland Security" and the smallpox scare has been lobbied up to a big juicy kiss to the industry. It's blatant, and that's why they were tricky about it.

Richard Diamond, a spokesman for Armey, denied that Armey-or any other lawmaker-was engaging in special interest politics on behalf of drug manufacturers.

This guy kills me! (I hope not us literally). That's what exactly it is. I don't know who's more powerful these days, the airline or the pharm lobbies.

Unspun the spinning? Take a red herring, the autism issue, which may or may not be caused by mercury. Mercury in vaccines? Sure raises suspicions. Anyway, the writer leaves out the fact that the pharm cos have not used thimerosol in years. Throw in the word "lawyer" or "trial lawyer" to raise the hackles of those inculcated to be repulsed at the word.

A few points I'd like to make:

1. 59 PPB mercury in Iceland was demonstrated to measurably reduce IQ, and the EPA arbitrarily took 10% of that to set the 5.9 PPB standard. Who says that's safe?

2. There are cases when vaccines are administered all at once, rather than spread out over a period of several months, increasing the peak exposure.

3. The critic points out that the blood was not drawn until several days after vaccination, missing the peak mercury levels.

4. What happens when a bad batch is administered that has a higher level than normal of thimerosoal?

The bottom line is that there is certainly a strong circumstantial case, given mercury's known effects and anecdotes from parents where children are normal until a certain vaccination event occurred. Also, *something* has caused the massive increase in autism rates over the past 20 years. Thimerosal use has been discontinued in new vaccines; yet there has been no recall of existing stock on the shelves. Why? Because that would increase Eli Lilly's legal exposure...maybe now that it's reduced they'll issue a recall.

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