E-NEWS FROM THE NATIONAL VACCINE INFORMATION CENTER

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UNITED WAY/COMBINED FEDERAL CAMPAIGN

#9119

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"Protecting the health and informed consent rights of children since 1982."

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NVIC Note:The following letter and talking points were sent to NVIC yesterday by attorney Tom Powers.

The drug companies and thimerosal manufacturers have launched an all-out sneak attack to destroy the legal rights of thimerosal-injured children. Today in Congress the so-called "Frist Bill" was set for hearing, debate and vote in a Senate Health Committee meeting scheduled for tomorrow, Wednesday July 24! The anti-child, anti-justice provisions supported by Sen. Frist and his drug industry bakers are being offered as amendments to Senator Hillary Clinton's childhood immunization bill.

It is absolutely critical that committee members hear from parents of thimerosal-injured children--the Senators need to hear from parents who are outraged at this attack on the rights to seek justice and fair compensation for these life-altering injuries. We have 18 hours to get messages to members of the committee in order to make a difference tomorrow.

"Talking points" describing the bill are attached to this message, and can help provide information you need to get your message across. Please read the talking points, put them into your own words, and then let the Senators on the committee hear from you by fax, email and phone--and do it tonight!

Sen. Frist's amendments are anti-child, anti-justice and are an insult to the families of thimerosal injured children. The amendments should be defeated.

A list of committee members and their contact information will follow immediately in a separate email.

While all the committee members need to hear this message, it is most important that every family and friend on this listserve contact his or her own Senator immediately--as in tonight and tomorrow morning--by fax, email and phone call. They must get a flood of response overnight on this issue.

With your help we can derail this sneak attack on the legal rights of thimerosal injured children and their families.

Tom Powers

Williams Dailey O'Leary Craine & Love, PC

1001 SW Fifth Ave, Suite 1900

Portland, OR 97294

Phone : (503) 295-2924

Fax : (503) 295-3720

E-Mail : tpowers@wdolaw.com

Talking Points Re: Frist Amendment re Vaccine Program:

1.The Institute of Medicine Vaccine Safety Review Committee, in its official report on thimerosal and neurological disorders (including autism and ADHD), on Oct. 1, 2001, found that it was BIOLOGICALLY PLAUSIBLE that the doses of mercury received by infants from 1990 until mercury was removed from childhood vaccines in 1999 could indeed cause these disorders, and recommended a comprehensive program of medical and scientific research to study the extent of the injuries to these children. a.The CDC and FDA and NIH do not have the money available to fund these IOM- recommended studies.

2. Starting last year, many concerned parents have filed class actions seeking to get state courts to order the vaccine and thimerosal manufacturers to fund these studies. The vaccine manufacturers have tried to remove these actions to federal court and get them dismissed. The federal courts all over the country have rejected these industry maneuvers and have ordered the cases back to state court in Washington, Oregon, California, Florida and elsewhere.

3. Last week, for the first time a state court denied the manufacturer's motion to dismiss an individual claim for injuries from the mercury in infant vaccines and send the case to the Vaccine Court, ruling that it was a fact question as to whether the mercury in the vaccines was a n "adulterant or contaminant."

4. This bill would completely shut down all of these state court actions, stop them in their tracks, and eliminate any possibility that any court, state, federal, or Vaccine Court, could ever order that the IOM recommended studies on the effects of mercury in vaccines be funded by the manufacturers who profited from the lower cost of using mercury to sell vaccines in multidose vials.

5.On June 11, 2002, a federal court in Texas ruled that if an autistic child who first showed symptoms of that disorder more than three years ago, was not only barred from filing a petition under the Vaccine Act, but has also lost all rights to sue in state court-that is, has no remedy at all in any forum. The extension of the sol in this bill to six years leaves this decision undisturbed, and in fact, codifies it with the addition of the subtle language "timely filed petition" in sec. 22, of the amendment.

6. There is no "look back" provision to allow children and their parents who just now or in the future discover that mercury in vaccines may have caused their child to suffer from mercury poisoning to bring a claim. Since almost all serious neurological disorders manifest themselves with some symptom or sign by the age of 18 months, then even with a six year sol, any child who is now 7.5 years old or older is still forever barred from bringing a claim, anywhere, no matter what the research the IOM recommended uncovers.

7. Many states permit parents of an injured child to recover for their personal loss due to the child's injuries, and the Vaccine Act never before required these claims to be brought in Vaccine court. This bill preempts all such state laws.

8. By eliminating all equitable relief (such as orders to industry to fund the IOM studies), including explicitly medical monitoring, this bill would ensure that these studies would most likely never be done.

9. The statute of limitations should be no more restrictive than the applicable statute of limitations governing any child's claim in that child's proper forum state. This is an issue of basic constitutional right to trial. a.At the time of original enactment of the Vaccine Compensation Act, Congress was clear that it did not intend to lessen the rights of children and their families, but was intending to offer attractive alternatives to classic tort litigation.

10.This bill is contrary to the recently stated intent of the Administration and Congress to more closely supervise and monitor the illicit activities of our nation's large corporations. The Amendment would reward the manufacturers of vaccines which clearly placed profit motives over the safety of our nation's children. The industry is given complete tort immunity, notwithstanding the fact that the pharmaceutical companies placed vaccines on the market without testing the safety, or toxicity of the vaccines or the components that make up those vaccines. In the face of increasing knowledge of the potential for mercury to cause neurological illness, the manufacturers turned a deaf ear to the fact that their vaccines contained a potentially dangerous amount of mercury-derived preservatives.

11.The bill takes away rights of parents and spouses to seek redress in state courts for classically and statutorily recognized causes of action, by completely extinguishing those rights. a.One state's appellate courts has confirmed the existence of such rights in the past year, and the First Circuit Court of Appeals has also validated the rights of a spouse to a cause of action resulting from his wife's devastating illness.

12. This bill gives complete immunity to the manufacturers of mercury laden vaccines and of thimerosal from ever having to pay for the studies that the IOM Vaccine Safety Committee recommended; eliminates the power of any court (state, federal or administrative) to require through equitable orders that kids exposed to high doses of mercury be notified of their exposure and that they be followed to see what additional injuries or disorders may develop as they grow older; and if subsequent scientific studies do in fact show mercury in vaccines caused neurological disorders in kids, any child whose parents did not file a claim by the time they were 7.5 years old is forever barred from receiving any compensation for those mercury induced injuries, even though the legislatures of virtually every state in the Union allow claims for injured children to be brought until they are over the age of minority (eliminate so called "minority tolling".)

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