Landmark case could allow injured persons to once again sue vaccine makers

Wednesday, October 13, 2010 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer
Tags: vaccines, lawsuits, health news

(NaturalNews) Vaccines are implicated in causing all sorts of health damage, from neurological disorders like autism and Alzheimer's disease to intestinal problems like ulcerative colitis and Chron's disease -- and everything in between. And a vaccine injury case currently before the Supreme Court could be the landmark decision that once again allows those injured by vaccines to sue vaccine manufacturers for damages, a course of action that has been barred since 1986 because of special federal protections enacted to immunize vaccine manufacturers against having to abide by the rule of law.

Nearly 25 years ago, the U.S. Congress passed the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, which exempts vaccine manufacturers from being liable for damages caused by their vaccines. The Act established an entirely new "legal" system to deal specifically with vaccine injury cases, handling each one in a special "vaccine court" that essentially just dismisses most cases as unwarranted.

The Act is entirely unconstitutional as no company or entity can legally be exempted from due process within the real legal system, but it was enacted anyway and has served as a shelter for vaccine companies to hide behind in order to avoid costly litigation. And since the medical industry as a whole continues to deny a link between vaccines and autism, for instance, the "vaccine courts" can just automatically go along with the notion and arbitrarily reject all autism-related vaccine cases as unsubstantiated.

But all that could change, depending on how the Supreme Court handles a case currently before it involving a young lady whose parents say she became permanently injured by a diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus (DPT) vaccine called Tri-Immunol that she received when she was a child. The Bruesewitz's say that Wyeth, the manufacturer of the DTP vaccine, knew about a safer version of the vaccine, but continued to sell the dangerous one anyway. Now their daughter Hannah requires costly, specialized care for the rest of her life.

The case was first rejected in "vaccine court" when just a month before the case was to be heard, the court removed all the reported severe injuries from the list of compensatory items. After then taking the case to civil courts, the Bruesewitz's were told that the case was automatically invalid because of the federal Vaccine Act. So now the case sits before the Supreme Court where, if determined in the Bruesewitz's favor, will set a new precedent whereby vaccine manufacturers will no longer be able to avert the rule of law.

The illegitimacy of 'vaccine court'

Much like the phony Internal Revenue Service (IRS) "tax courts", "vaccine courts" have no justifiable basis anywhere in the law. They serve as nothing more than a way for drug companies to avoid having to bear responsibility for the harm caused by their vaccines. Any other person or company must go through the standard legal process, but the federal Vaccine Act literally grants special legal immunity to vaccine makers that nobody else receives.

There are a few cases where "vaccine courts" have ruled in favor of plaintiffs, but such cases are likely just a ploy to trick the public into thinking such courts are legitimate and lawful. Most cases are rejected by "vaccine court" and, even though plaintiffs can then take the case to civil courts, the process has been made very difficult because of the federal Vaccine Act.

Even though $154 million was paid in 2010 for "vaccine court" cases, that amount is a mere fraction of the overall profits vaccine companies rake in every year. And truth be told, vaccine manufacturers do not even pay such settlements.

Vaccine companies don't even injury settlements, the public does!

Of the few cases that are actually ruled in favor of injured plaintiffs in "vaccine courts", not a single one of them is paid for by the vaccine manufacturers that cause the harm. A special excise tax is collected when vaccines are sold to the public, which is later used as settlement compensation. This means that insurance companies and ultimately the public end up paying for vaccine settlements while the vaccine manufacturers get off scot-free!

So not only are vaccine manufacturers essentially exempted from the real legal system, but the mock legal system set up in their favor actually guards them from having to pay a single cent for damages caused by their products.

It's time to end the vaccine racket

Proponents of special legal protection for vaccine manufacturers say that it is necessary to protect them from "undue" litigation. But that is precisely what the real court system is for in the first place: to evaluate cases and determine whether or not a defendant is liable for damages. Setting up special "vaccine courts" that bypass due process is tyranny in the name of medicine, and it is simply unacceptable.

Because of "vaccine courts", the idea that vaccines are in any way related to causing autism has been dismissed all across the board, even though numerous studies and research data continue to suggest a connection (https://www.naturalnews.com/027178_autism_vac...). And in the case of Hannah Bruesewitz, the system permits gross negligence on the part of vaccine manufacturers to go unpunished, unless of course the Supreme Court decides to do the right thing.

Sources for this story include:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/12/health/12v...

http://www.aboutlawsuits.com/supreme-court-v...