Vaccination At Gunpoint
No Mercury.org - 4 March 2005
"Similar to the legislative sleight of hand employed in the
Homeland Security Bill fiasco in 2002, the sponsors of S.3 are manipulating
the political process by tying domestic programs affecting every
American's health and safety to unrelated "anti-terrorism"
programs. In this way they are attempting to make legitimate opposition
to S. 3 politically unacceptable."
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Dear Members and Friends -
This is a VERY important alert that requires your attention AND
action. Please read through and use the sample letter provided to
communicate your message to the senators listed in this email.
THIS IS A PRESS RELEASE FROM www.NoMercy.org
LET THESE SENATORS KNOW HOW YOU FEEL ABOUT THIS.
GO TO THIS SITE FOR SUGGESTIONS ON LETTER WRITING AND FAX COMPOSITION:
www.NoMercury.org.
Dear Parent/Advocate:
Please look closely at US Senate Bill 3. A copy of the bill is available
at www.NoMercury.org
Under the guise of "Protecting America in the War on Terror"
US Senators Gregg, Frist, Sessions, DeWine, Allen, Santorum, McConnell,
and DeMint have introduced S. 3 which calls for many sweeping changes
in pharmaceutical product liability, vaccine regulation, policy,
research and The Vaccine Injury Compensation Act. This directly
impacts those families whose children have suffered adverse vaccine
reactions, Gulf War Veterans, and any other veteran who suffers
from adverse reactions from the multiple vaccines given (remember
the ill-fated anthrax vaccine and small-pox vaccines).
The most recent bill introduced in the U.S. Senate (S. 3) is aimed
at liability protection of drugs and vaccines and to prevent state
legislation to ban Thimerosal (mercury) in vaccines. This bill is
worse than the Eli Lilly provision of the Homeland Security Act
and is a direct "gift" to the pharmaceutical companies.
The pharmaceutical industry gave almost $45 million in campaign
contributions for Presidential and Congressional elections since
2002 (www.opensecrets.org) and the health care/pharmaceutical industry
has over 600 lobbyists in Washington, D.C. alone. If constituents
do not weigh in on this horrendous bill, the American people will
suffer; having their civil rights violated and state autonomy will
be compromised. It is an insult to every state elected official
and every American.
This bill is being "fast-tracked" and is already on the
agenda at the National Vaccine Advisory Committee meeting, scheduled
for February 8, 2005 at 10:45 am: http://www.hhs.gov/nvpo/nvac/agenda.html.
It would also severely limit the public access to any information
regarding vaccine research, vaccine production, vaccine regulations,
including, but not limited to meetings about vaccines and "countermeasures"
for pandemics, epidemics, etc. This bill places severe restrictions
on FOIA and will impact your ability to find out about drug/vaccine
safety, regulation and policy. The last thing this country needs
is to give government the ability to hold more "closed"
meetings without accountability to the media/public.
Furthermore, Sec. 761 (a)(1) would preempt any state legislation
regulating vaccines. It would preempt State authority and legislation
dealing with vaccines or vaccines components, such as Thimerosal
(mercury). Missouri currently has three bills pending to ban mercury
(Thimerosal) in vaccines. They are Missouri SB 49, SB74 and HB 131.
The States of Iowa and California have already banned mercury in
vaccines yet this bill will preempt such legislation forcing states
to allow vaccine manufacturers to continue using toxic levels of
mercury in vaccines (in excess of Federal EPA safety guidelines).
Numerous other states are pursuing similar legislation such as Maryland,
Nebraska, New York, Pennsylvania and Washington. Various other states
are also planning to introduce legislation banning mercury in vaccines
within the next few weeks/months, such as Ohio, Illinois, North
Carolina, Michigan, Massachusetts and Minnesota.
This horrendous piece of Federal legislation would even prohibit
the warning or informed consent provisions for drugs, vaccines and
biologics. Additionally, this bill would prohibit punitive damages
and cap compensatory damages against any pharmaceutical company.
This takes the saying "to the victor goes the spoils"
to a whole new and ominous level. If the FDA approves it, the company
making it is protected from liability. We have all seen how attentive
the FDA has been to protect Americans from dangerous drugs such
as Vioxx.
This cleverly crafted legislation includes something nearly every
American will understandably want to support: raising the death
gratuity for families of soldiers killed in Iraq from $12,000 to
$100,000 and increases other military benefits. Including an unrelated
but popular provision that should stand alone legislatively seeks
only to cloud the issues addressed in the major portion of this
bill's language. Every American supports increased benefits for
our soldiers and their families and that includes us. As parents
and loyal Americans, however, we believe that S. 3 has been carefully
crafted to unfairly paint parents who seek justice for vaccine injured
children into a political corner.
Similar to the legislative sleight of hand employed in the Homeland
Security Bill fiasco in 2002 the sponsors of S.3 are manipulating
the political process by tying domestic programs affecting every
American's health and safety to unrelated "anti-terrorism"
programs. In this way they are attempting to make legitimate opposition
to S. 3 politically unacceptable.
We question why politically popular legislation supporting our troops
is tied to a bill with far-reaching provisions that affect and the
safety of vaccines given to millions of American children. Let's
not confuse the issues. We believe that by casting the vaccine safety
provisions in the language of fighting terrorism (epidemic "countermeasures"
is S.3's new code word for "vaccines"--this is truly Orwellian
doublespeak) the American people are being misled about S.3's impact
on vaccine safety programs. Let's deal with one thing at a time.
Taking away the right of states to protect their citizens from dangerous
vaccine components and drugs like Vioxx and Paxil does not translate
into protecting our children--from terrorism or anything else. All
it does is give control of these matters--vaccines and drugs--to
a few powerful people who operate behind closed doors. The vaccine
safety provisions are pharma support positions, plain and simple,
and are not necessary for bio-terror defense, at least not in this
form.
It would also overhaul The National Vaccine Injury Compensation
Program to the detriment of children and families. Other parts of
this legislation are extremely troublesome as well and we have included
a copy in pdf format for your review. This is not a benign bill--this
goes directly to counter state and parental efforts to protect children
from vaccine injuries.
Read a few excerpts below. If this bill is as concerning to you
as it is to other parents and many members of the medical community,
please contact all members of the US Senate, particularly your Senators
and members of the US Senate Finance Committee (see their contact
info below).
This is not anti-terrorism--this is Federalism gone wild.
Finance Committee Republicans on Finance Committee Grassley Charles
R- IA Chairman, Committee on Finance
135 Hart Senate Bldg. Washington, DC 20510-1501 Tel: (202) 224.3744
Fax: (202) 228 0578 http://grassley.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.Home
Hatch Orrin R- UT
104 Hart Office Building Washington, DC 20510 Tel: (202) 224-5251
Fax: (202) 224-6331 http://hatch.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Offices.Contact
Lott Trent R- MS
487 Russell Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 Phone: 202-224-6253
Fax: 202-224-2262 http://lott.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.Email
Snowe, Olympia R-ME
154 Russell Senate Office Buildg. Washington DC 20510-1903 Ph 202-224-5344
Fax 202-244-1946 olympia@snowe.senate.gov
Kyl Jon R- AZ
730 Hart Senate Building Washington, D.C. 20510 Phone: (202) 224-4521
Fax: (202) 224-2207 http://kyl.senate.gov/contact.cfm
Thomas, Craig R- WY United States Senate
307 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510 Phone:
202-224-6441 Fax: 202-224-1724 http://www.senate.gov/%7Ethomas/html/contact.html
Santorum Rick R- PA
511 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510-3804 Phone:
202-224-6324 TTYD Number: 202-224-5024 Fax: 202-228-0604 http://santorum.senate.gov
Frist Bill R- TN Office of Senator Bill Frist
509 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3344
202-228-1264 (fax) http://frist.senate.gov/index.cfm
Smith Gordon R- OR
404 Russell Building Washington, DC 20510-3704 Phone: (202)224-3753
Fax:(202)228-3997 http://gsmith.senate.gov/webform.htm
Bunning Jim R- KY
1717 Dixie Highway Suite 180 Fort Wright KY, 41011 Phone 859-341-6480
Fax: 859-341-6482 Jim@bunning04.com
Crapo, Mike R- ID
239 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 phone 202-224-6142
FAX 202-228-1375 TDD 202-224-2806 http://www.crapoforsenate.com/contact_us.asp
Democrats on Finance Committee
Baucus Max D- MT
511 Hart Senate Office Bldg. Washington, D.C. 20510
(202) 224-2651
(202) 224-4700 (Fax)
(800) 332-6106 (from MT)
(202) 224-1998 (TDD) http://www.senate.gov/~baucus/emailmax.html
Rockefeller, IV, John D. D- WV
531 Hart Senate Office Bldg Washington, DC 20510 Ph: 202-224-6472
Fax: 202-224-7665 Email Address: senator@rockefeller.senate.gov
Conrad, Kent D-ND
530 Hart Senate Office Building United States Senate Washington,
DC 20510-3403 Fax: (202) 224-7776 Online: http://conrad.senate.gov
E-mail: http://conrad.senate.gov/webform.html
Jeffords, James (I - VT)
728 Hart Senate Office Bldg. Washington DC 20510 Phone: (202) 224-5141
Fax (202) 228-0776 http://jeffords.senate.gov/contact-form.html
Bingaman, Jeff D- NM
413 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510
(202) 224-5141
(202) 224-5521 TDD: (202) 224-1792 http://www.senate.gov/~jeffords/contact-form.html
Kerry, John F D-MA
304 Russell Bldg. Third Floor Washington D.C. 20510
(202) 224-2742 - Phone
(202) 224-8525 - Fax http://kerry.senate.gov/bandwidth/contact/email.html
Lincoln Blanche L. D- AR
355 Dirksen Senate Building Washington, DC 20510-0404 Phone: (202)224-4843
Fax: (202)228-1371 http://lincoln.senate.gov/webform.html
Wyden Ron D- OR
230 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510-3703
(202) 224-5244 fax (202-228-2717) http://wyden.senate.gov/contact/
Schumer Charles D- NY
313 Hart Senate Building Washington, DC 20510 Phone: 202-224-6542
Fax: 202-228-3027 TDD: 202-224-0420 http://www.senate.gov/%7Eschumer/webform.html
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