[NVIC] Anti-Terror Bill Unconstitutional

[Guest guest]

E-NEWS FROM THE NATIONAL VACCINE INFORMATION CENTER

Vienna, Virginia http://www.nvic.org

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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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Contact: 703-938-0342

for immediate release

February 4, 2005

NATIONAL VACCINE INFORMATION CENTER CALLS

“ANTI-TERROR” BILL “UNCONSTITUTIONAL”

Washington, D.C. – The nation’s largest and oldest consumer-led vaccine

safety organization, the National Vaccine Information Center, is calling a

bill introduced into Congress by Senators Gregg and Frist entitled

“Protecting America in the War on Terror Act of 2005” (S.3) as an “assault

on the Constitution” and a serious threat to protecting the health and

informed consent rights of those who use federally regulated vaccines and

drugs.

“This bill is labeled as a “anti-terror” bill,” said NVIC president and

co-founder, Barbara Loe Fisher, “but it is power grab by the federal

government and an assault on self-governance and the informed consent ethic.

It takes away the freedom of the people to make their voices heard through

their elected state representatives and protect themselves from unsafe

drugs, such as Celebrex and Vioxx, and unsafe vaccines, such as those that

contain high levels of mercury. It gives unprecedented liability protection

to the drug industry and broad powers to federal officials to hide the truth

from the people about vaccine and prescription drug risks.”

The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution specifies that “The powers not

delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to

the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.”

Protecting the public health was not delegated to the federal government and

public health laws, including laws governing use of vaccines, have always

been under the control of citizens residing in each state.

Of major concern to vaccine safety advocates, are the following

provisions in S.3:

· Eliminates a state’s right to more strictly regulate vaccines and drugs

and more fully inform their citizens about vaccine and drug risks than does

the federal government. Laws already passed in California and Iowa limiting

mercury content in vaccines would be repealed.

· Gives comprehensive liability protections to drug companies. Eliminates a

citizen’s right to seek justice in state courts for drug and vaccine

injuries and deaths and limits awards in federal courts. Gives tax credits,

grants and patent extensions to the drug industry.

· Allows the Department of Health and Department of Justice, the defendants

in the federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, to write the terms of

their own defense in order to further limit awards to vaccine injured

children;

· Creates and funds a mandatory, national electronic tracking system

operated by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to monitor vital records

of citizens relating to both notifiable and non-notifiable diseases and “new

trends” and “patterns in public health.” Creates penalties for states and

health care providers not reporting in a “timely manner” to the national

tracking system. There are no provisions for mandatory reporting of serious

health problems following vaccine and prescription drug use or punishments

for not reporting serious side effects.

S. 3 is being promoted by sponsors as a military veteran benefit bill

because it raises the death benefits and other financial support for the

families of soldiers who lost their lives in the war in Iraq.

“The irony of this bill is that it is using the families of citizens who

have given their lives to defend our nation’s freedom in order to take

rights and freedoms away from other families. Military veterans should not

be used to protect the drug industry and take away the freedom for all

Americans to have their voices heard through their elected state

representatives,”said Fisher. “In his Inaugural speech, President Bush said

‘there is no justice without freedom.’ This bill is does not serve justice

or freedom.”

The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) is a national, non-profit

organization founded in 1982 by parents of vaccine injured children. NVIC

worked with Congress on the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986

and has worked with families in states to protect informed consent rights,

including the right to have full and accurate information on vaccine

benefits and risks prior to vaccination and make informed, voluntary vaccine

decisions. NVIC worked with families in California on the Mercury Free Act

of 2004, which limited the amount of mercury in vaccines sold in that state.

For more information, go to www.nvic.org.

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