Remember when, back in January, Senator Frist tried to tack on a rider to the Homeland Security Bill, indemnifying Eli Lilly and other pharmaceutical campaign contributors from lawsuits about their use of mercury-based vaccine preservative Thimerosal, which may be one of the causes of autism? Well, he’s up to his old tricks again, as Wampum details:
But what would motivate Frist to be so cruel? His cat-killing history aside, he is still a doctor, and supposedly sympathetic to the injured and ill. I suspect that his motivations on vaccine liability legislation correlate to those on medical malpractice tort reform. Its not the injured who are the targets: They are just collateral damage. The real target is Democratic campaign funding, and a big chunk of that comes from trial lawyers. Limit attorney fees, either by capping payouts or by restricting who can actually file. Thirty million children were injected with dangerous amounts of Thimerosal from 1990 onward alone. Even if only a small fraction of those children file claims, there are attorney fees to be paid by the NVICP. If those children’s claims are accepted, but then later denied by the court, they can still be pursued in civil court, and may be deemed valid by a jury. More, and possibly larger, attorney fees.
But secondly, I think Senator Frist’s final provision of his bill, now resurrected in its entirety in S15, tells of an additional motive.
Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, the Advisory Commission on Childhood Vaccines shall report to the Secretary regarding the status of the Vaccine Injury Compensation Trust Fund, and shall make recommendations to the Secretary regarding the allocation of funds from the Vaccine Injury Compensation Trust Fund.
The Republicans want to raid the billions in the Trust Fund. But if you allow thousands of new claims, the fund will dry up.