Pharma Protected

Excerpt from Dr. Sherry Tenpenny

In 1976, the Federal Insurance Company advised Merck that all liability, indemnity, and defense costs associated with claims arising from the new swine flu vaccine would not be covered by its insurance plan. Having absorbed the embarrassment and the economic losses caused by the polio vaccine in 1955, the pharmaceutical industry and their insurance providers were determined that would not happen again.

This time, there are no worries. Drug companies have completely covered their tracks, and when reports of adverse event and deaths from the new swine flu vaccine start to roll in, they will be smiling all the way to the bank.

Flu shots were added to the Vaccine Injury Compensation Table in 2003, meaning, if anyone is injured, a claim needs to be filed through the Federal Court of Claims and it will be years before it is adjudicated. And that is just the basic layer of protection. All the drug companies have to do is whisper that this may be a "terrorist attack" and they are home free.

Before he was voted out of office in 2006, then-senator Bill Frist (R-TN), a physician, drove through a bill that gave drug companies more immunity than any bill ever passed by Congress. The legislation, referred to as "Division E" was tacked to a Defense appropriations bill during the final minutes of the congressional sessions before the Christmas recess. This bill provides at least four sweeping provisions:

1. Immunity from liability for all drugs, vaccines, or biological products deemed as a covered countermeasure against bioterrorism in the event of an outbreak of any kind. The proposal is not only limited to new drugs or vaccines developed under the umbrella of "bioterrorism" or "pandemic" protection. The proposal is so broad that it could include drugs like Tylenol, Advil and would have applied to Vioxx.
2. Immunity for any product used for any public health emergency declared by the secretary of HHS. The authority to declare an emergency now rests completely in the hands of the secretary of HHS an appointed, non-medical person who has no accountability to the general public. The president's hand-picked person that is part of his inner circle will have the power to mandate vaccines and other medications given to the American people.
3. Immunity from accountability. No matter what a drug company does wrong, they are protected. Even if the company's dirty facility created a batch of contaminated vaccines that resulted in death or injury to thousands of people, the drug company will not be held accountable.
4. Immunity from law suits. A person who suffers any type of loss will be prohibited from suing the drug companies. Vaccine manufacturers have immunity from almost everything, perhaps even murder. The bill provisions provide a mechanism for filing a lawsuit, but the language explicitly prevents frivolous suits by setting a standard for liability more rigid than any known standard of negligence.

In simple terms, if a claim is filed by a plaintiff it can go forward only if the injured party can prove that the company performed an act of "willful misconduct" resulting in an injury or a death. In other words, the injured party would have to prove the vaccine maker intentionally caused him harm.