Time to Repeal the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act that Protects Big Pharma While Injuring and Killing Children

As the Children’s Health Defense eBook, Conflicts of Interest Undermine Children’s Health, tries to make clear, the passage of the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act (NCVIA) in 1986 was a watershed event that emboldened vaccine manufacturers and their public- and private-sector accomplices—notably the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)—to systematically hide the serious damage caused by vaccines. In addition to making a mockery of pre-licensing safety testing and post-marketing surveillance, these entities have regularly manipulated (or destroyed) data to exaggerate both the benefits and effectiveness of vaccination. Manufacturers have also used their money and power to subordinate the mainstream media, medical journals and front groups, making it possible to publish and broadcast deceptive studies that whitewash questions inconvenient to the financial bottom line. From multiple standpoints—not least of which is children’s dismal state of health—the status quo is untenable. Three of the most urgent steps to be taken include repealing the NCVIA, eliminating vaccine mandates (making both childhood and adult vaccination voluntary) and addressing conflicts of interest by establishing a fully transparent and independent vaccine safety commission.

National Vaccine Laws Routinely Ignored by Health Officials and Doctors Regarding Patient Information on Vaccine Risks

In 1986, Congress passed the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act (NCVIA), a carefully crafted piece of legislation that gave vaccine manufacturers their dream come true: blanket immunity from liability for injuries resulting from childhood vaccines. Throwing a bone to the safety concerns of consumers, the Act also mandated that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) (via the CDC) develop and distribute educational materials to inform vaccine recipients and/or their parents about a given vaccine’s risks and benefits. The NCVIA stipulated that doctors give out the appropriate materials—currently called Vaccine Information Statements (VISs)—“prior to every dose of specific vaccines,” including before “each dose of a multi-dose series.” Early on, government documentation emphasized the importance of giving VISs every time a vaccine is administered because “the health status of the child could have changed”—and as an example of changes in health status, the CDC cited children with “evolving neurological disorder[s].” By 2005, however, researchers were calling attention to doctors’ frequent failure to give out VISs, while also noting that the physicians who did distribute VISs “rarely initiated discussions regarding contraindications to immunizations.” To rectify the situation, the same authors carried out a CDC-coordinated evaluation in 2007 and proposed revisions “that would alert the physician to the need to use the VIS.” Neither the CDC nor state-level officials endorsed the proposed revisions. What appears to matter most to the CDC is that health care providers use “every opportunity to administer appropriate vaccines,” and informing patients about the potential risks to receiving vaccines is counter productive to that goal.

Rhode Island Urges Congress to Repeal Law Protecting Big Pharma from Vaccine Injuries and Deaths: Subpoena CDC Whistleblower

While many state governments across the U.S. are trying to pass legislation to increase vaccination rates and make vaccines mandatory, one state is seemingly going in the exact opposite direction. The Rhode Island General Assembly has just introduced a Senate resolution calling on the U.S. Congress to repeal The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act (NCVIA) of 1986. The NCVIA gives legal immunity to pharmaceutical companies producing vaccines, so that any injuries or deaths caused by vaccines have to be litigated in a special government vaccine court funded by taxpayers. Pharmaceutical companies bear no responsibilities for producing faulty or dangerous vaccines in the United States thanks to the 1986 law. However, there is one result of vaccine injuries that is not allowed to be litigated even in the vaccine court: autism. The government position is that the "science is settled" regarding any link between vaccines and autism, and therefore, if your child develops autism after being injected with vaccines, you currently have no legal recourse. It has been well documented that since 1986, the rates of autism have skyrocketed. The ability for parents and families to defend themselves against injuries due to vaccines seems to be the motivation for the Rhode Island Senate Resolution.