Frist on his Knees

The pork filled Department of Defense Appropriations bill that was signed into law just before New Year’s was a big gift - just full of holiday cheer for the pharmaceutical companies. Like fresh blood rejuvenating a vampire, the “Frist provision”, named after the ethically deficient physician, turned crooked pol, Bill Frist – will immunize Big Pharma from responsibility for vaccine-induced injuries. Why did this have to be done? Silly, don't you know about the War on Terror?

Cash stuffed politicians in Washington, being fattened by the lobbyists on K Street, listened to arguments that the drug corporations might go out of business if they were forced to take responsibility for injuries caused by their products. Never mind they may cover up damaging test results. Never mind they may falsify data to get products to market faster. Never mind the innocent citizens who trust their products are safe.

This bill will effectively indemnify the corporations from any legal liability arising from the manufacture of drugs that are administered to fight epidemics, pandemics, and bio-terror agents. While many presume this law will be applied prospectively, in treating flu outbreaks for example, many are also concerned that it will be applied in a blanket fashion - in other words, an application of total immunity from injuries related to vaccines: past, present, and future. Injured persons would be forced to prove “willful intent to harm” – an extraordinarily high standard – in order to be eligible for compensation.

What qualifies as an epidemic? Could it be avian flu? Of course. How about the obesity epidemic; the AIDS epidemic; the male impotence epidemic; the cholesterol epidemic; the cancer epidemic? It's a safe bet that we will soon witness a huge increase in the types of “epidemics” this country faces. People injured by unethical and illegal drug company actions may have no redress – after all, we're in a war you know.
Posted on The Human Stain