GWB: Another Debate Lie

Wednesday night George W. Bush alleged that lawyers and the potential for lawsuits hurt the production of vaccines. However, as a trade off over the polio vaccine, in 1986 Congress gave vaccine manufacturers partial immunity from lawsuits. The program has been in effect since 1988.

Any action against a vaccine manufacturer is pre-empted by the claims procedure set forth in the National Vaccine Compensation Act. Claimants have only three years to submit a claim for vaccination injury, and only two years to file a claim if death results.

The Department of Justice defends the claims for the government, & here's what they say about the program:

Another positive result of the program is that costly litigation against drug manufacturers and health care professionals who administer vaccines has virtually ceased. Although an individual who is dissatisfied with the Court’s final judgment can reject it and file a lawsuit in state or federal court, very few lawsuits have been filed since the program began. The supply of vaccines in the U.S. has been stabilized, and the development of new vaccines has markedly increased.

About the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program

Here's how Kerry should have responded to this one of Bush's many lies:

1. The health of the American people is too precious to be left to the resources of only two suppliers. Common business practice is always to have a back-up plan. It was rank negligence, therefore, for there not to have been at least two companies contracted to produce the vaccine.

A top flu researcher, W. Paul Glezen of Baylor Medical Center, said the administration should be faulted for allowing just two companies to supply the nation's flu vaccine.

Candidates inject politics into flu vaccine debate

2. With all of the fine companies in the United States, the American public must ask why we had to go to an American company that outsourced jobs overseas to get a vaccine so crucial to the health and wellbeing of American people.

3. Moreover, outsourcing of this service is a matter of national security. Why is a decision so important to the health of the American people being made by Britain?

4. Finally, there are scientists and other highly skilled professionals who are unemployed and under-employed in this country. The revenues to this economy from production of such a vital product here on this soil could have stimulated our economy, certainly in the places where the vaccine might have been produced.

The administration's negligence and poor judgment cost the American people economically and now will hurt the country's health as well.