Why liability protection for vaccine manufacturers is a terrible idea

In the 1980's, all four vaccine manufacturers threatened to stop making vaccines unless the government offered them "protection" from lawsuits. I have a simple solution to the problem.

Why do vaccine manufacturers have liability protection?

Because in the 1980’s, the four vaccine manufacturers got together and threatened to stop making vaccines unless the lawsuits stopped.

Congress obliged and we have the system we have today where, if you are vaccine injured, getting the compensation you deserve can be a hit or miss proposition.

For the current COVID vaccines, in particular, it is definitely a “miss” proposition.

There are two vaccine programs:

1. Vaccine injury compensation program (VICP): For any injury from a vaccine that is listed on the childhood vaccine schedule. Established in 1986. The creation of VAERS was part of this (VAERS started operating in 1990). $4B given out since inception. But the amount that is given out varies from year to year (depending on how much the party in power wants it to pay out). You can bring in a lawyer. Payouts can be in the millions if you are willing to fight.

2. Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP): For injury from EUA products. Established by the PREP Act in 2005. Since 2010, when they first started giving out money, have only given out money 29 times. They only pay for lost wages and unpaid medical bills. $6M total has been given out over the last 10 years. There is a $375K max per person. No judges. No lawyers. They make the decision. If you appeal, you appeal to them. Good luck on that one.

Zero has been paid to COVID vaccine victims (so far)

$6M has been paid out over 10 years on the CICP program.

But here’s the more stunning statistic: Americans have been paid nothing to compensate them for their injuries. Zero. Zip. Nada. This is truly unbelievable.

Think about that. Hundreds of thousands of people have died or been disabled and not even a dime in compensation has been awarded.

The settlement in the Larry Nassar abuse case was $380M and nobody there died or was physically disabled. Here we have hundreds of thousands of Americans who are dead or severely physically disabled at the hands of the US government and we haven’t paid out a dime in compensation. This is really stunning.

Is there any member of Congress who is outraged about this? Apparently no. Nobody cares. I haven’t heard anyone speak up.

The problem

There is absolutely no incentive for manufacturers to make a safe product; if they screw up there is no downside. The US government pays all costs, not the manufacturer.

The expert solution

There are people who know how to solve this problem and put a better system in place that holds manufacturers accountable for producing unsafe products. People like Barbara Loe Fisher, Dr. Meryl Nass, and Wayne Rohde to name a few.

My solution

I have a simpler solution. Drop the liability protection.

If that means no vaccines are produced, I will not shed a tear. We will all be better off for that since the data shows that vaccines in general have pretty much been a disaster.

We should simply let the market forces operate without government interference. If a manufacturer makes a drug that is useful and safe, they will profit. If they make a drug that is deadly, they should take it off the market.

Here’s the key question that nobody wants to answer:

We don’t have liability protection for any other drugs or for any other product for that matter. Why should vaccines be carved out? Isn’t it time we ended this?

If we can end the liability protection for vaccines, these vaccines will be pulled from the market since they will become unprofitable since they have killed so many people. It will be a win for humanity.