Vaccine Freedom Rally & Lawsuits: Saving the Children

by Barbara Loe Fisher


http://www.vaccineawakening.blogspot.com/
http://www.nvic.org/
http://www.standupbecounted.org/

Yesterday morning, New Jersey Moms Louise Kuo Habakus and Claudine Liss of the New Jersey Coalition for Vaccination Choice appeared on Fox News (Fox & Friends) http://www.foxnews.com/video2/video08.html?maven_referralObject=3144881&maven_referralPlaylistId=&sRevUrl=http://www.foxnews.com/foxfriends to talk about the vaccine freedom rally next Thursday (October 16) in Trenton in support of conscientious belief exemption legislation giving New Jersey parents the legal right to follow their conscience when making vaccine choices for their children. After the show, Louise and Claudine were invited back for an informal, spirited discussion http://www.foxnews.com/video2/video08.html?maven_referralObject=3145131&maven_referralPlaylistId=&sRevUrl=http://www.foxnews.com/foxfriends/ about the epidemic of chronic disease and disability and the recent flu vaccine mandate instituted in New Jersey for all children.

Smart, sincere, passionate, and articulate, these two Moms are what the vaccine safety and informed consent movement is about and their call for freedom of choice echoes the one that has been made by parents of vaccine injured children for nearly three decades. For more information about how to stand with Louise, Claudine, Larry Palevsky, M.D., me and more than 500 parents registered to rally in Trenton next Thursday and make your voice heard for vaccine freedom, contact the NJ Coalition for Vaccination Choice at http://www.njvaccinationchoice.org/

On Monday, the Georgia Supreme Court issued a unanimous appeals court ruling that opened the door for families of vaccine injured children to sue vaccine manufacturers for vaccine design defects that lead to injury and death. The next day a Missouri Appeals Court upheld an $8.5 million judgment against American Cyanamid for injuries suffered by a man who contracted vaccine strain polio from a live oral polio vaccination as a child. Both civil court decisions rightly hold pharmaceutical companies accountable for failing to appropriately test and improve vaccines they sell to the public so that health risks from using the product can be eliminated or at least significantly reduced.

When Congress passed the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, which was historic societal acknowledgment that vaccines can injure and kill and that the vaccine injured should be compensated even as vaccine availability should be protected, it was clear in both the legislative history and clarifying language accompanying the Act's passage that Congress never intended to give blanket, exclusive immunity to drug companies marketing vaccines for public use. Until this week, too many federal judges have misinterpreted the spirit and intent of the 1986 law. Hopefully, the Georgia decision will ultimately give parents of vaccine injured children the legal ability to hold drug companies accountable in a civil court of law for failing to reduce the reactivity of their products.

Whether holding the pharmaceutical industry accountable in the judicial system or petitioning legislators to allow Americans to follow their conscience and exercise informed consent to medical risk taking, vaccine educated citizens in America are standing up for their civil rights in larger numbers. It is a good sign, a beacon of hope that the business of saving our children from a lifetime of chronic illness and disability has become a priority for more than a small minority of citizens. Saving our children is everyone's business and standing up for freedom of speech and conscience is the first order of business in a democratic society.

Whether you live in New Jersey or another state - I hope to see you at the rally in Trenton on Oct. 16 and two days later on Oct. 18 at the Natural Living Conference in Mahwah sponsored by the Holistic Moms Network. http://home.homewebs.com/hmnannualconference/.


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"NJ Assemblywoman Charlotte Vandervalk, Board-certified Pediatrician Dr. Lawrence Palevsky and National Vaccine Information Center co-founder Barbara Loe Fisher, will join NJ parents and professionals at a rally in Trenton for vaccination choice. Over 500 have pre-registered, requiring the city to close the streets, and more participants are expected. The speakers represent a cross-section of society including medical doctors, nurses, chiropractors, scientists, clergy, educators, soldiers, politicians, journalists, autism activists, homeschoolers and many parents. The NJ Coalition for Vaccination Choice (NJCVC) invites you to rally with them by the steps of the State House, outside Gov. Corzine's office. The Legislature will be in session. The group opposes the four new vaccine mandates including an annual flu shot for children ages 5 and under, required for daycare and pre-school. NJCVC supports the passage of bill A260/S1071 to allow a conscientious exemption to mandatory vaccination that will permit parents to select all, some, or no vaccinations for their children. A form of this parental right already exists in 19 other US states." - New Jersey Coalition for Vaccination Choice (October 7, 2008)
http://www.foxnews.com/video2/video08.html?maven_referralObject=3144881&maven_referralPlaylistId=&sRevUrl=http://www.foxnews.com/foxfriends

"The Supreme Court of Georgia on Monday upheld a state appeals court ruling that could open the door to product liability claims against vaccine manufacturers by the parents of autistic children. Justice George H. Carley wrote for a unanimous court that a Fulton County suit against manufacturers filed by the parents of an autistic child may to go to trial. The justices rejected what Carley described as a "far-reaching interpretation" of a federal vaccine statute that defendant vaccine manufacturers argued gave them sweeping immunity from liability..... Carley specifically focused on Congress' intent. He wrote that a reading of the federal vaccine act "and the congressional intent behind it show that the Vaccine Act does not pre-empt all design defect claims." Instead, Carley noted, the federal vaccine law "provides that a vaccine manufacturer cannot be held liable for defective design if it is determined, on a case-by-case basis, that the injurious side effects of the particular vaccine were unavoidable." But, the judge added, "The conditional nature of this clause contemplates the occurrence of side effects which are avoidable, and for which a vaccine manufacturer may be civilly liable. In order to bar all liability for defective design and to permit liability only for manufacturing and warning defects, Congress could easily have ..... made the bar to civil liability conditional on proper preparations and warnings." "As the statute is actually written, however," Carley continued, "it is best understood as barring liability only for those side effects which were unavoidable by means other than proper manufacturing and packaging. Conversely, if such effects were avoidable by a feasible, alternative design, liability is not completely barred." Neither can federal law nor, by extension, Congress unilaterally pre-empt state causes of actions, Carley said. Instead, the justice noted that the question of whether a particular vaccine is unavoidably unsafe -- and therefore subject to immunity from liability -- is a question of fact for a jury to decide." - R. Robin MacDonald, Law.com (October 7, 2008) http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202425070398

"A Missouri appeals court Tuesday upheld an $8.5 million judgment for a St. Louis man who contracted polio after receiving an oral vaccine as a child. A three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals' Eastern District also ruled that the vaccine's manufacturer owed about $2.8 million for prejudgment interest on top of the award because it refused to accept a pretrial settlement offer that was less than the amount awarded by a jury. Cortez Strong contracted polio in June 1987, shortly after receiving a second dose of the vaccine Orimune, which was made by American Cyanamid Co.....Strong sued American Cyanamid and the pediatrician who administered the vaccine. In 2005, a St. Louis jury cleared the doctor of liability but ordered American Cyanamid to pay Strong $1.5 million for pain and suffering, $2 million for future lost earnings and $5 million for future pain and suffering. The company appealed, contending there was insufficient evidence that it was legally liable for Strong's injuries. The company also sought to have the judgment reduced or set aside or that a new trial be ordered. Strong also appealed, seeking to be allowed to introduce rebuttal evidence against the physician and to have American Cyanamid be ordered to pay interest on the award. The appeals court rejected each request except Strong's appeal for prejudgment interest. " - Chris Blank, Associated Press (October 8, 2008) http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/081008/mo_polio award.html?.v=1

Senate Votes for Secret Vaccine Agency

"Highlights of BARDA include the creation of a new position within the Department of Health and Human Services that would be solely responsible for the oversight of vaccine production and decide what medications would be distributed. Barbara Loe Fisher, the president of the National Vaccine Information Center, has been an outspoken critic of the bill. She was unaware that the bill had been passed by the Senate last night but said she's worried about the effects "secret vaccine production" could have on the American public. "This is an extremely dangerous precedent that is being set," she said." - Mary Shaffrey, Winston Salem Journal, December 6, 2006
Senate Approves Burr's Bioterrorism Bill
Critics warn about the effects of 'secret vaccine production

Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:

It is almost a done deal. The Senate has voted and the House will soon vote on a bill to create BARDA, a new and very powerful agency within the Department of Health and Human Services that will partner with drug companies to make experimental vaccines and drugs. The actions of the agency and the way these experimental drugs and vaccines are made, what they will contain, and how reactive they are, will be hidden from the public. Under the guise of "protecting national security," citizens will be prevented through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) from being able to obtain information about most of what BARDA is doing.

In the future, when the Secretary of Health and Human Services declares a public health "emergency" under Bioshield and other federal and state legislation passed since Sept. 11, 2001, Americans could be quarantined and forced to use experimental drugs and vaccines and have no recourse to the civil justice system if they are injured by them. Congress has already given complete liability protection to drug companies and those who order citizens to take drugs and vaccines during a declared public health "emergency."

The individual appointed to head BARDA will be one of the most powerful individuals in the U.S.. Congress has already given the Secretary of Health and Human Services, also a political appointee, unprecedented power. The militarization of the civilian public health system with unchecked power residing in the hands of unelected government health officials, who have no accountability to or oversight by the public, is a serious threat to freedom and public safety.

For more information about the possible consequences of the Bioshield laws and the pending BARDA legislation, go to www.nvic.org homepage ("Liability Shield Given to Pharma") and read NVIC's letter to Senate staffer Col. Robert Kadlec, M.D.

The House vote to approve BARDA could take place before this Friday, Dec. 8. If you want to let your Congressperson know how you feel about BARDA, call him or her at 202-224-3121. Go to www.house.gov to find information about your Congressperson.

Secret Vaccine Agency Being Created

Burr's bill, commonly referred to as BARDA, would create a new position within the Department of Health and Human Services that would be solely responsible for the oversight of vaccine production. This individual, who would require Senate confirmation, would administer a billion-dollar fund for the next two years that would aid the development of vaccines. Bob Kadlec, a bio-defense and public- health consultant, used to work for Burr. He said that Hurricane Katrina demonstrated the need to have one person in charge, and though the bill has many components, this is perhaps the most critical. "This was something that (has been) left in flux," Kadlec said. "It's important to have one identifiable person in charge." - Mary Shaffrey, Winston Salem Journal, Nov. 14, 2006


Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:

Bob Kadlec and his former boss, Senator Burr, have lobbied for the creation of a new agency, BARDA, headed by an individual empowered to spend billions of taxpayer dollars developing experimental drugs and vaccines behind closed doors with no public oversight. Whenever the Secretary of Health gives the green light, these experimental drugs and vaccines can be forced on American citizens.

The millions of Americans who will become the U.S. government's human guinea pigs will have no legal recourse if they are injured. Kadlec and Burr made sure of that when they helped ram Bioshield Two (Biodefense and Pandemic Vaccine and Drug Development Act of 2005) through Congress in the middle of the night without public knowledge.

BARDA is a bad idea, especially since the BARDA czar sitting in back rooms with drug company execs will have access to hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars but their activities will be exempt from FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests from the public to find out how that money is being spent. Nobody but the BARDA czar and his boss, the politically appointed Secretary of Health, will know just how toxic those experimental vaccines and drugs might be before they are forced on citizens in the name of protecting the public health and national security.

For more information on the plans that bi- partisan supporters of authoritarian biodefense legislation have for America, read the letter NVIC sent to Bob Kadlec in November 2005 at www.nvic.org (Under News & Features on homepage, click on "Liability Shield Given to Pharma).

If you want to voice your opinion about plans to create BARDA so drug companies can develop experimental drugs and vaccines in secret, it is important for you to write,email and fax your Senator and Congressperson at their Washington, D.C. office and their home office in your state without delay. If you oppose the legislation, ask for public hearings in both the House and Senate in January 2007 before any legislation is passed. Go to www.house.gov or www.senate.gov to find out how to contact your federal legislators.