Autistic children face lawsuit limits

St. Petersburg Times ^ | Nov. 16 | By SARA FRITZ

[kingedgars]

A measure slipped in the homeland security bill would mean those injured by childhood vaccines could collect only $250,000.

[chance33_98]

Putting it all together for one last post

is Modified to read: (3) The term ''manufacturer'' means any corporation, organization, or institution, whether public or private (including Federal, State, and local departments, agencies, andinstrumentalities), which manufactures, imports, processes, or distributes under its label any vaccine set forth in the Vaccine Injury Table including any component or ingredient of any such vaccine, except that, for purposes of section 300aa-28 of this title, such term shall include the manufacturer of any other vaccine covered by that section. The term ''manufacture'' means to manufacture, import, process, or distribute a vaccine including any component or ingredient of any such vaccine.

and then:

Kevin and Mache Liu are among the parents of some 150 autistic children who have filed suit against the drug industry in the past two years, alleging their children's conditions were caused by Thimerosal, a mercury preservative once included in childhood vaccines designed to prevent measles, mumps and rubella.

[chance33_98]

Hope that last post helped. Probably lots of wonderful things buried in there - like any other government legislation.

[Consort]

The drug companies will all move overseas and all your drugs will be made by someone named Samir or Abu or Jorgé.

[TomB]

Considering thimerosal is not an "adulterant or contaminant" but a preservative, it sounds like a reasonable inclusion.

Not to mention the fact that the vaccine that is accused of causing autism is MMR, and that vaccine never had thimerosal.

[TomB]

Also:

(2) In the event of a vaccine-related death, an award of $250,000 for the estate of the deceased.

Autism is not a fatal disease.

This thing gets more confusing as we go!

[chance33_98]

My question would be 'is it retroactive?' if the suit is already filed then this may all be a moot point, unless they argue that the date the case is settled the law on the books that day is the one to go by. Either way you can open a can of worms (he was 16 when he killed them, but will be 18 when found guilty and sentenced, etc)

[TomB]

My question would be 'is it retroactive?

The amendments made by sections 1714, 1715, and 1716 shall apply to all actions or proceedings pending on or after the date of enactment of this Act, unless a court of competent jurisdiction has entered judgment (regard- less of whether the time for appeal has expired) in such action or proceeding disposing of the entire action or proceeding.

[chance33_98]

well, looks like this is starting to flesh out some - wonder why the idiots in the press did not put forth any effort to explain any of this?

[TomB]

wonder why the idiots in the press did not put forth any effort to explain any of this?

Like I said, all the storys had very similar wording. It sounds like this weeks Dem talking points.

[cricket]

"Sure the families should be made whole, but not by killing our drug companies with unwarranted claims. Let the vultures have their way and no new drugs will be developed by American "

Agree. . .it is clear that the Demrats do not know the difference, and/or do not care, about the line that separates opportunity from opportunism and how their choices create even more innocent victims.

Mostly, they do not care.

[chance33_98]

We could play the spin game, new memo would read:

Amendment to homeland security bill insures that any manufacturer whose components are used in vaccines are now able to be held liable, whereas before only the manufacturer of the vaccine itself was to be held liable.

(FR-AP) An amendent introduced in the Homeland Security bill modifies existing laws which regulate who may be held accountable for vaccines which cause health problems, or death. Previous versions of the law explicitly applied to the manufacturer of the vaccine whereas the modified law stretches out to include those who manufacture components of the vaccine. Lawyers will now be able to go after multiple targets in the future for their clients, and not just the company who put together the individual parts and sold them as a whole.

Joe Blow, Attorney for X lawfirm, said "In the past we could only go after the drug company that sold the drug, as they were held solely responsible for the content of it. If those companies lost they would often go after the maker of the offending ingredient. Now we can go after all of them at once and broaden our scope to include both parties."

Ok, so a bit far fetched, but you get the idea :)

[alnick]

And does the substance actually cause autism?

It's amazing that people want to rush to sue someone when nobody knows what causes autism. How can a drug company be held responsible for autism when the cause of autism is not known?

[TomB]

LOL. Very good.

You'd make a fine trial lawyer.

(no offense)

[TomB]

It's amazing that people want to rush to sue someone when nobody knows what causes autism

As I pointed out before, autism was originally associated with the MMR vaccine on the strength of a study by Andrew Wakefield in Britain that covered all of 12 children. Subsequent studies showed NO association.

But now we see that autism has become the new cause celeb, and every vaccine is blamed. It's pretty sad, especially since, as you said, we don't know what causes autism.

[Poohbah]

If the stuff DOES cause child autism

Big "if." The only people who seriously believe this are trial lawyers and their well-paid shills expert witnesses. And they just HAPPEN to have a financial stake in the outcome.

Welcome to junk science in the courtroom.

[gore3000]

Medical research has not established a link between autism and Thimerosal.

I like how this is stuck at the end of the article.

That is the problems with a lot of these lawsuits, the lawyers play on emotion not on the facts. They also ask for totally outrageous amounts.

[Poohbah]

Sure the families should be made whole, but not by killing our drug companies with unwarranted claims...if a jury finds for the plaintiff then the claim was warranted.

Juries goof, particularly on cases like these--because the plaintiffs boot off the jury anyone who actually knows something about pediatrics, medicine, immunizations, or anything more complicated than watching "Oprah" every afternoon.

[End The Hypocrisy]

>>>First Doctors don't restrict the supply. It's restricted by the huge cost of educating a physician TO OUR STANDARDS. Do you really think an undergraduate degree would make a good physician? <<<


Like I said, healthcare in other nations (where medicine's typically a focused UNDERGRADUATE degree) is surprisingly good and much more affordable. We're brainwashed if we think doctors are the victims, instead of potential patients themselves.
Meanwhile, anybody who tries to "union bust" by working in place of their mafia ring goes to jail. Talk about the hippocratical oath :-)

[Mamzelle]

re: "Schools across the country innoculate children against Hep C"...)))

First of all, there is no vaccine for Hep C. You are thinking of Hep B, a similar disease but not quite as bad as Hep C. The health policy of vaccinating middle-school children (may well be wrongheaded, but is not profit-driven) is to try to eliminate a large conduit of infection of a sexually transmitted disease (and needles, etc. ) in a community. The vaccine, I believe, is out of patent or will be very shortly. I don't believe there are any significant side effects to this vaccine--you may be thinking of DPT and tentanus. Remember the long shortage of tetanus vaccines? Do you know why there was a shortage?

Demonizing the pharm industry is a habit better left to the left.

Since you brought up Hep C--we have a vast number of infected people with this chronic and incurable disease. Believe me, they get treated at our expense. It is a leading cause of liver failure and cirrhosis and claims most of the need for liver transplants. People with failing and rotten livers cost us lots of money

The demonized pharm industry is on the verge of a cure for Hep C, are now being treated to the tune of $12K which would save millions and millions of dollars. There are two companies now competing to bring this cure to market. Bless the profit motive of the pharm industry. They produce, rather than confiscate, wealth--the lawyers are confiscators...

But no cure yet for Hep B, which goes after health professionals...hopefully those pharm companies will come up with something. If there are fewer "chronic carriers" there will be fewer infections of Hep B. That is the policy behind the vaccinations.

[Mamzelle]

Are you still beating this tiresome old conspiratorial "doctor's union" drum? You did this months ago. You need to expand your horizons. Go to PA school, go overseas to med school and take the test on reentry. The fact is, it's expensive to educate a doctor here or anywhere. It's not like a law school, which only has to have classrooms, a library, and some burned-out old rainmakers to churn out the legions of lawyers. You're not likely to see medical licensing of physicians abandoned wholesale in your lifetime, as you seem to want. You might as well want the moon to fall.