Issue Position: Health - Vaccine Liability

Issue Position

The FY 2006 Defense Appropriations bill contained a massive holiday gift to the pharmaceutical industry in the form of liability immunity for pandemic flu vaccines. This giveaway will not result in increased vaccine production, but it leaves consumers with no recourse if they are injured, and it could exacerbate the epidemic. This provision was slipped into the bill without any public deliberation or vote on the critical issues. As such, the insertion of the language represents an unapologetic abuse of majority power.

Congressman Kucinich argued powerfully against this provision in a letter to all of his colleagues in the House of Representatives. He pointed out that a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that liability concerns are not the reason that pharmaceutical manufacturers do not want to manufacture vaccines. In fact, Chiron, a major pharmaceutical company and vaccine manufacturer, does not need more financial incentives - they have been working on an H5N1 vaccine since 1997. Congressman Kucinich pointed out that medical personnel would be less likely to take the vaccine if the Congress saw enough potential for harm that it removed liability protections. Congressman Kucinich also pointed out that the very safety of the vaccines was suspect because they contained a controversial adjuvant which is suspected to be part of the cause of Gulf War Illnesses. Congressman Kucinich further brought attention to the issue by speaking to his colleagues on the House floor about it.

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