URGENT: Contact US Senate NOW! Demand Removal of Vaccine Sections from HR 34 (21st Century Cures Act)

Just when you thought you could start to prepare for your holiday season, a lame duck Congress is about to “Scrooge” the public over vaccines and give a huge holiday bonus to drug companies. Your action is urgently needed to email and fax your two US Senators over the weekend and call them on Monday to demand the removal of three sections (3091, 3092 and 3093) from a “Christmas Tree Bill” called The 21st Century Cures Act, HR 34 that was just passed by the US House of Representatives. Here are some of the few that opposed the bill on the House floor:

The 21st Century Cures Act legislation was originally passed in the house last year on July 10, 2015 as HR 6. NVIC issued a press release on July 22, 2015 and Barbara Loe Fisher, NVIC Co-founder and President, released a referenced commentary in opposition to this proposed legislation in which she said,

“The 21st Century Cures Act is a drug company stockholder’s dream and a consumer’s worst nightmare,” said Barbara Loe Fisher, NVIC Co-founder and President. “Making experimental drugs quickly available for the sick and dying, who voluntarily choose to use them, is one thing but Congress should not be greasing the skids to license experimental vaccines that government will recommend and legally require healthy children and adults to use. It is a prescription for disaster.”

After passing the house in 2015, the legislation stalled. Many of the provisions of HR 6 were broken up into several smaller bills, but over the Thanksgiving holiday, the legislation was quickly reassembled into a new version including some sections from HR 6 and adding some new sections, amending them all onto bill HR 34. HR 34 was originally a bill that only addressed “Tsunami Warning, Education, and Research”, but was passed by the US House of Representatives on November 30th as an 824 page monstrosity!

ACTION NEEDED:

• Over this weekend on Saturday December 3^rd and December 4th, FAX AND EMAIL your two US Senators demanding that they remove sections 3091, 3092, and 3093 from HR 34, the 21^st Century Cures Act.  See sample letter below.
• On Monday December 5^th, CALL your two US Senators and ask to speak to the person who is in charge of HR 34, The 21^st Century Cures Act. Tell him/her that it is critical all 3 sections, 3091, 3092, and 3093, are removed because they fast track the approval of all vaccines and shield drug companies and vaccine administrators from liability for fetal injuries and deaths caused by vaccines marketed for and given to pregnant woman. Tell them that if this bill passes without these sections removed, you will be demanding that your state legislators REMOVE ALL VACCINE MANDATES from state law. 
• To find your US Senators and their contact information, register/login to the NVIC Advocacy Portal, Click on the “National” tab on the top of your home page. Your two U.S. Senators are listed on the right hand side. Click on their names for direct links to all of their contact information. You can also find US Senate contact information
• Please FORWARD this email to your contacts asking them to help this weekend and Monday. This alert is also posted on the National Vaccine Information Center Facebook page and can be shared on social media.

SAMPLE FAX AND EMAIL

December 3, 2016

The Honorable FIRSTNAME LASTNAME

STREET ADDRESS

Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Senator LASTNAME,

As a constituent of yours, I am writing to you for your assistance.

On Monday, December 5^th, you will be asked to vote on HR 34, the 21^st Century Cures Act. Please amend HR 34 to REMOVE Sections 3091, 3092, and 3093 from this bill prior to voting because they shield drug companies and vaccine administrators from liability for fetal injuries and deaths caused by vaccines marketed for and given to pregnant woman and they rush the regulatory approval process by fast tracking all new vaccines. 

Please remove the following sections from HR 34:

SEC. 3091. PREDICTABLE REVIEW TIMELINES OF VACCINES BY THE ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON IMMUNIZATION PRACTICES – Page 302 and 303  

SEC. 3092. REVIEW OF PROCESSES AND CONSISTENCY OF ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON IMMUNIZATION PRACTICES RECOMMENDATIONS – Page 303-305  

These sections fast track and incentivize vaccines outside of the normal regulatory review and licensing process.

Fast tracking all vaccines is a terrible idea because:

• Vaccines are given to healthy people who are not desperate for a disease treatment and the side effects can injure and kill them. (Here Comes the 21st Century Cures Act: Say Goodbye to Vaccine Safety Science)
• Pharma has no liability for injuries or deaths caused by any vaccine. (End Pharma Liability Shield Endangering Public Health and Human Rights)
• Many people in America currently do not have the option to decline a vaccine required for school or work. (Blackmail and the Medical Vaccine Exemption)
• Skepticism of vaccine safety is already at an all-time high, and rushing the approval process will just create more distrust.

SEC. 3093. ENCOURAGING VACCINE INNOVATION, VACCINES RECOMMENDED FOR USE IN PREGNANT WOMEN – Page 305 – 309

This section, which appeared originally in S.2742, includes a provision on pages 307- 309 that forces unborn babies injured or killed after maternal vaccination out of the courts and into the Federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP).

Established by Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300aa–11) in 1986, the VICP shields vaccine manufactures and vaccine administrators from most civil product liability. The U.S. Supreme Court declared vaccines to be “unavoidably unsafe” in 2011 and removed all product liability from FDA licensed vaccines.

Sec. 3093 (c) (3) adds ‘‘A covered vaccine administered to a pregnant woman shall constitute more than one administration, one to the mother and one to each child (as such term is defined in subsection (f)(2)) who was in utero at the time such woman was administered the vaccine.’’

It is unconscionable to absolve the manufacturer and vaccine administrator from liability for injuries and deaths when the vaccine is marketed to and administered to pregnant women and yet it is not tested by the vaccine manufacturer or approved as safe for use by the government by a “child in utero.”

Removing drug company and vaccine administrator liability for unborn babies should be removed from this bill because:

• Vaccines aren’t adequately tested and approved as safe for use in pregnant women with respect to their unborn babies. In fact they are classified as Pregnancy Category B and C biologicals because it is not known whether the vaccines are genotoxic and can cause fetal harm or death. There are no sufficient studies looking at the health and the viability of a pregnant vaccinated woman’s baby before or after birth and comparing that information to women who do not get vaccinated while pregnant. Vaccine induced brain and body inflammation and chromosomal changes are not evaluated. See FDA Prepares to Fast Track New Vaccines Targeting Pregnant Women.
• The government run Federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program is already a miserable failure and should be repealed, not expanded to include unborn babies. See National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) Renews Call for End to Product Liability Shield for Vaccine Manufacturers.
• Pregnant women are already being pushed to get Tdap and Flu Vaccines during pregnancy even though safety hasn’t been proven for the mother or baby. See Vaccine During Pregnancy: Is It Safe? With no threat of liability, there will be no end to the new vaccines that Pharma will target on pregnant women. Legislators should not be fooled into thinking that the task force in Section 2041 (see page 93-99) will provide any protection for unborn babies.

If sections 3091, 3092, and 3093 are not removed, VOTE NO on HR 34.   

Sincerely,

YOUR NAME

YOUR STREET ADDRESS

YOUR CITY, STATE, ZIP

YOUR EMAIL

YOUR PHONE

ADDITIONAL CONCERNS:

These are just a few sections of this bill that should be removed. The bill is 824 pages long and there is not enough time to analyze other sections that could be problematic like NIH Innovation Projects to support the development of cancer vaccines in Section 1001 (Page 14); accelerating the development and innovation of medical countermeasures including vaccines in Sections 3084 (Pages 280-281) and Section 3085; and section 4002 on interoperability of electronic health records that could include immunization tracking systems and registries (Pages 327 – 362).  If you have legislative, staff or lobbyist connections in Washington, please contact them asking for their assistance with this.

Comment

National Vaccine Information

http://NVIC.org and http://NVICAdvocacy.org

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