Submitted by: James
Excerpt: If you or your child were to be seriously injured after receiving a
routine US government-recommended vaccination, your only recourse would
be to apply to the federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP).
Suing the vaccine manufacturer (or the doctor when the vaccine was
given negligently) to obtain financial compensation for medical care,
pain, and suffering is out of the question, as Congress and the Supreme
Court have banned vaccine product liability and vaccine injury
malpractice lawsuits in the US.
Instead, vaccine injury claims are awarded or denied by US
Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) officials using US
Department of Justice (DOJ) attorneys or adjudicated by “special
masters” in the US Court of Federal Claims.
"The evil that men do", a quotation from Act 3, scene ii of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare; AmericAwake.. JT
December 30, 2014
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By Dr. Mercola
If you or your child were to be seriously injured after receiving a
routine US government-recommended vaccination, your only recourse would
be to apply to the federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP).
Suing the vaccine manufacturer (or the doctor when the vaccine was
given negligently) to obtain financial compensation for medical care,
pain, and suffering is out of the question, as Congress and the Supreme
Court have banned vaccine product liability and vaccine injury
malpractice lawsuits in the US.
Instead, vaccine injury claims are awarded or denied by US
Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) officials using US
Department of Justice (DOJ) attorneys or adjudicated by “special
masters” in the US Court of Federal Claims.
Why Vaccine Injury Compensation Program Was Created
The VICP was created by Congress in 1986 under the National
Childhood Vaccine Injury Act because vaccine manufacturers threatened
to stop producing vaccines if they weren’t protected from vaccine
injury lawsuits.
It was created as an alternative to a civil court lawsuit, giving
partial liability protection to vaccine manufacturers, pediatricians,
and other vaccine providers from civil liability for injuries and
deaths caused by federally recommended childhood vaccines.1
If the injured party was denied compensation or dissatisfied with
the amount of the award, they could then proceed with a civil lawsuit
with certain restrictions, depending upon the case.
Unhappy with this partial liability protection, drug companies kept
pushing for complete liability protection and, in 2011, convinced the
US Supreme Court majority to rule that federally licensed and
recommended vaccines are “unavoidably unsafe” and that the VICP should
be the “sole remedy” for all vaccine injury claims.2
I think it’s worth repeating, in case you just glossed over it: The
reason you cannot sue a vaccine manufacturer for injury or death is
because vaccines are “unavoidably unsafe.”
This also means that even if it can be proven that a government
recommended vaccine that injured or killed someone in America was
defectively designed and could have been made less reactive, no one can
sue the drug company in question.3
Funds for the VICP come from a 75 cent fee added to the cost of
every dose of vaccine (so the combination MMR vaccine has a $2.25 fee
tacked on to it because that shot contains three vaccines).
In effect, Congress gave the pharmaceutical industry a free ride
when it comes to drug companies having any financial accountability for
the safety of vaccines they sell, and vaccine users and US taxpayers are the ones paying for this program.
This is because the federal government is the biggest purchaser of
vaccines provided in public health clinics. When everything is said and
done, vaccine manufacturers have virtually no incentive whatsoever to
ensure the safety and effectiveness of vaccines that are recommended by
federal health officials and mandated by state health officials.
Feds Vow to Publicize Vaccine Injuries Claim Program
Unfortunately, while the VICP was originally set up to give
vaccine-injured Americans an expedited, non-adversarial, less expensive
administrative alternative to a civil court lawsuit, the process usually only adds more suffering.
Many vaccine victims are left waiting without support and financial
assistance for years on end, while their case snakes its way through
the red tape. Some VICP claimants even say they felt “attacked” by the
government that was supposed to help them.
Another problem has been a lack of public awareness that this
program even exists. Reportedly, federal officials operating the VICP
have now vowed to publicize the program better,4 promising improvements in its literature to make it easier to understand, and improvements to its website.
They’ve also stated they will seek to increase awareness among
health care providers, parents and expectant parents, older adults,
Spanish speaking adults, as well as civil litigation and plaintiff’s
attorneys.
What actually happens remains to be seen. Several years ago, a
comprehensive consultant report about publicizing the VICP was created
at a cost of $300,000.5
Few recommendations were ever implemented however. At present, less
than $20,000 of the VICP’s $6.5 million annual budget is spent on
public outreach.
Moreover, VICP directors didn’t begin taking action on publicity
until after a congressionally requested Government Accountability
Office (GAO) inquiry began earlier this year. Public outreach has also
been largely ignored since the program’s inception. A direct quote from
the book, The Vaccine Court: The Dark Truth of America's Vaccine Injury Compensation Program reads:
“One of the most OVERLOOKED provisions of the act was the
requirement that the HHS Secretary conduct public awareness and
outreach programs to inform the general public about the program and
the eligibility to file a claim for either a vaccine-related injury or
death. …This provision has been greatly ignored by the HHS Secretary.”
The Associated Press6
also claims it found evidence suggesting that “the government seems
intent on keeping the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program’s
public profile low.”
Judge Warns Publicity May Further Exacerbate Process Delays
The judge who oversees the special vaccine court in the US Court of
Federal Claims warns that greater publicity may result in a greater
number of filings, which means the process may take even longer than it
already does.
As noted in a recent article by Insurance Journal,7
compensation through the VICP can be painfully slow—at times
stretching out over a decade—and that’s if your case is even approved
for compensation. Most aren’t. According to the Associated Press:8
“Overall, the government says it distributed $2.8 billion [from
1988] through March 2014. In recent years, the program has received
more than 400 claims annually.
Claims are supposed to be resolved within 240 days, with options
for another 150 days of extensions. But between the court's opening in
1988 and the end of 2012, less than 7 percent of 7,876 cases not
including those claiming a vaccine caused the developmental disability
autism met the 240-day target...
Hundreds have surpassed the decade mark. Several people died before getting any money.”
Vaccine Injury Denialists Object to Publicizing Reality of Vaccine Injuries
Another concern among vaccine proponents is that increased publicity
around the compensation program may be “misinterpreted” as a public
message that vaccines can cause harm, which might dissuade people from
vaccinating.
Well, the truth is vaccines can cause harm. The fact that
the VICP has kept such a low profile for this long means that most
people have no idea that billions of dollars have in fact been paid out
to vaccine injured individuals. This is the truth, and however people
want to interpret that, it deserves to be widely known that vaccine
injuries can and do occur.
Unfortunately, some legal experts still vehemently deny the reality
of vaccine injuries and are working overtime to remove the ability for
parents to make informed vaccine decisions for their children. For
example, UC Hastings law professor Dorit Reiss has been quite vocal in
her opposition to changes in the VICP that would allow more vaccine
injured children to be compensated.9
She’s also advocating for the elimination of vaccine exemptions and
has, in fact, been using her position to claim that there is no
evidence vaccines cause harm, and that parents refusing to give their
children all government recommended vaccines should be held criminally
liable for deaths causes by infectious diseases.10
Journalists are also being manipulated into only reporting information
about vaccines that the CDC, FDA, and other government agencies give
them, which clearly adds to the lack of transparency on questions about
vaccine safety.
According to a July 16 issue of the Nieman Reports,11
“Public health reporters say federal agencies are restricting access
and information, limiting their ability to cover crucial health
issues.” Fed up with the perceived censorship, a group of journalists
have formed a new organization called Stop the New American Censorship12
to raise awareness about this problem. Even students are being
blackmailed into not reporting the truth about vaccine injuries. If
they write about it, they can get charged with academic misconduct, as
evidenced by this recent report13
about a Master of Science student in Australia who wrote a thesis
giving evidence for the fact that the whooping cough vaccine isn’t
working.
Adult Flu Vaccine Injuries Dominate VICP Claims
According to the GAO’s report, while the VICP was established to
assist children injured by government-recommended childhood vaccines,
most claims are now filed by adults suffering vaccine injury after
receiving influenza vaccine. The flu vaccine was added to the VICP in
2005.14 Most cases involve adults developing Guillain-Barre Syndrome
(GBS)—a crippling condition in which your immune system attacks your
nerves. GBS has been a known side effect of influenza vaccines for
nearly 40 years.
According to the book, The Vaccine Court: The Dark Truth of America's Vaccine Injury Compensation Program,
the swine flu vaccine program was cut short in 1976 when it became
clear that the swine flu vaccine was associated with serious
neurological side effects such as GBS and transverse myelitis. Congress
also passed the “Swine Flu Act” that same year, which transferred
liability for vaccine injuries associated with the swine flu vaccine
from the vaccine manufacturers to the federal government. Some
influenza vaccines, including the adult high-dose flu vaccine for
seniors sold under the name Fluzone, also list GBS as a potential side
effect in its package insert.15
All Vaccines Carry Risks
It's important to understand that ALL vaccines carry a risk for
provoking an immediate acute adverse reaction, such as anaphylactic
shock, fainting, or having a seizure,
which could be truly life threatening if you're driving a car or
crossing a street after you have left the store where you got
vaccinated, for example. Further, vaccines can impair and alter immune
system responses and can also cause brain inflammation (encephalitis or
encephalopathy) that may lead to permanent brain damage.
In addition, as Institute of Medicine Committees have pointed out in
published reports, some individuals are more susceptible to suffering
harm from vaccines because of biological, genetic, and environmental
risk factors but, most of the time, doctors cannot predict who will be
harmed because there are few scientific studies that have evaluated
vaccine risks for individuals.16 Here are just some of the ways vaccines can impair or alter immune responses and brain function:
- Some components in vaccines are neurotoxic, including heavy
metals such as mercury preservatives and aluminum adjuvants; residual
toxins like endotoxin and bioactive pertussis toxin; and chemicals like
formaldehyde and phenooxyethanol.
- The lab-altered and genetically engineered viruses and bacteria
in vaccines may impair immune responses and do not stimulate the same
kind of immunity that occurs when the body responds to an infectious
disease
- Foreign DNA/RNA from human, animal and insect cell substrates
used to produce vaccines may trigger serious health problems for some
people
- Vaccines may alter your T-cell function and lead to chronic illness
- Vaccines can trigger allergies by introducing large foreign
protein molecules into your body that have not been properly broken
down by your digestive tract (since they are injected). Your body can
have an allergic reaction to these foreign particles
In the video below, Barbara Loe Fisher, co-founder and president of
the non-profit National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), interviews a
Connecticut artist and her mother, a former professor of nursing, who
developed GBS after getting a seasonal flu shot in 2008. She became
permanently disabled with total body paralysis.
It’s really important to understand what influenza and flu shot
risks are, so that you can ask yourself, “Does my (or my child’s) risk
of getting influenza and developing complications outweigh the risks of
getting a flu shot and developing complications?” In the end, it is up
to you to become fully informed about all risks and make informed
vaccine and other health care decisions for yourself or your child if
you are a parent.
New Changes to VAERS
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food
and Drug Administration (FDA) are also proposing changes to the
Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). Public comments are
accepted until January 23, 2015.17
In recent years VAERS has received about 30,000 vaccine-injury reports
annually. The suggested changes to the VAERS reporting form are
intended to “improve reporting efficiency and data quality.”
Significant changes include:
- A special box for military-related vaccine injuries
- The addition of check-boxes to indicate more specifically the location where the person was vaccinated (e.g., nursing home, pharmacy, school health clinic, etc.)
- Boxes to report pre-existing conditions the person may have had
prior to vaccination, such as allergies, other illnesses, and
long-standing chronic health conditions
- A box to list any over-the-counter and prescription drugs the
person was on, as well as a list of dietary supplements or herbal
remedies they may have been taking
VAERS is another critical resource that has not been given due
publicity or attention. In 1999, FDA Commissioner David Kessler, MD
wrote in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) that physicians failed to report up to 99 percent of all serious adverse reactions to vaccines and medications,18 and it still remains that way today. At best, a maximum of 10 percent of adverse reactions are ever reported. At present, the VAERS database19 lists 8,000 different adverse vaccine reactions, from localized swelling and anaphylactic shock to autism, coma, and death.20
According to Dr. Kessler, physicians should report when there is a suspicion
that the drug may be related to a serious event; they do NOT have to
establish the connection or wait for more compelling evidence.
Unfortunately, most doctors today are pressured by public health
officials and medical trade organizations to push vaccines and consider
preventing disease through vaccines to be a primary goal of their
profession.21
Some doctors go so far as to “fire” patients who refuse to get every
government recommended vaccine even when patients report they have
suffered reactions after previous vaccinations! If doctors would
instead actively look for and report serious adverse health outcomes
following vaccination, including hospitalizations, injuries and deaths,
instead of dismissing them as a “coincidence,” it could go a long way
toward building a clinical evidence base that will reveal the whole
truth about vaccine risks.
Protect Your Right to Informed Consent and Defend Vaccine Exemptions
With all the uncertainty surrounding the safety and efficacy of
vaccines, it's critical to protect your right to make independent
health choices and exercise voluntary informed consent to vaccination.
It is urgent that everyone in America stand up and fight to protect and
expand vaccine informed consent protections in state public health and
employment laws. The best way to do this is to get personally involved
with your state legislators and educating the leaders in your
community.
THINK GLOBALLY, ACT LOCALLY.
National vaccine policy recommendations are made at the federal level
but vaccine laws are made at the state level. It is at the state level
where your action to protect your vaccine choice rights can have the
greatest impact. It is critical for EVERYONE to get involved now in
standing up for the legal right to make voluntary vaccine choices in
America because those choices are being threatened by lobbyists
representing drug companies, medical trade associations, and public
health officials, who are trying to persuade legislators to strip all
vaccine exemptions from public health laws.
Signing up for NVIC's free Advocacy Portal at www.NVICAdvocacy.org
gives you immediate, easy access to your own state legislators on your
Smart Phone or computer so you can make your voice heard. You will be
kept up-to-date on the latest state bills threatening your vaccine
choice rights and get practical, useful information to help you become
an effective vaccine choice advocate in your own community. Also, when
national vaccine issues come up, you will have the up-to-date
information and call to action items you need at your fingertips.
So please, as your first step, sign up for the NVIC Advocacy Portal.
Share Your Story with the Media and People You Know
If you or a family member has suffered a serious vaccine reaction,
injury, or death, please talk about it. If we don't share information
and experiences with one another, everybody feels alone and afraid to
speak up. Write a letter to the editor if you have a different
perspective on a vaccine story that appears in your local newspaper.
Make a call in to a radio talk show that is only presenting one side of
the vaccine story.
I must be frank with you; you have to be brave because you might be
strongly criticized for daring to talk about the "other side" of the
vaccine story. Be prepared for it and have the courage to not back
down. Only by sharing our perspective and what we know to be true about
vaccination will the public conversation about vaccination open up so
people are not afraid to talk about it.
We cannot allow the drug companies and medical trade associations
funded by drug companies or public health officials promoting forced
use of a growing list of vaccines to dominate the conversation about
vaccination. The vaccine injured cannot be swept under the carpet and
treated like nothing more than "statistically acceptable collateral
damage" of national one-size-fits-all mandatory vaccination policies
that put way too many people at risk for injury and death. We shouldn't
be treating people like guinea pigs instead of human beings.
Internet Resources Where You Can Learn More
I encourage you to visit the website of the non-profit charity, the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), at www.NVIC.org:
- NVIC Memorial for Vaccine Victims:
View descriptions and photos of children and adults, who have suffered
vaccine reactions, injuries, and deaths. If you or your child
experiences an adverse vaccine event, please consider posting and
sharing your story here.
- If You Vaccinate, Ask 8 Questions: Learn how to recognize vaccine reaction symptoms and prevent vaccine injuries.
- Vaccine Freedom Wall:
View or post descriptions of harassment and sanctions by doctors,
employers, and school and health officials for making independent
vaccine choices.
Connect with Your Doctor or Find a New One That Will Listen and Care
If your pediatrician or doctor refuses to provide medical care to you
or your child unless you agree to get vaccines you don't want, I
strongly encourage you to have the courage to find another doctor.
Harassment, intimidation, and refusal of medical care is becoming the
modus operandi of the medical establishment in an effort to stop the
change in attitude of many parents about vaccinations after they become
truly educated about health and vaccination.
However, there is hope.
At least 15 percent of young doctors recently polled admit that they're
starting to adopt a more individualized approach to vaccinations in
direct response to the vaccine safety concerns of parents. It is good
news that there is a growing number of smart young doctors, who prefer
to work as partners with parents in making personalized vaccine
decisions for children, including delaying vaccinations or giving
children fewer vaccines on the same day or continuing to provide
medical care for those families, who decline use of one or more
vaccines.
So take the time to locate a doctor, who treats you with compassion and
respect and is willing to work with you to do what is right for your
child.
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