OT -- SAY NO to S1873 - the Biodefense and Pandemic Vaccine and Drug Development Act of 2005

[Guest guest]

PLEASE FORWARD THIS ALERT!

SAY NO to S1873 - the Biodefense and Pandemic Vaccine and Drug Development

Act of 2005.

Dear Parents,

Thank you for your help so far. If you have already called and sent letters

we need you to do it again. If you haven't helped yet, it is very important

that you do. THE BILL PASSED THROUGH THE HELP COMMITTEE. However, we still

have Thursday to make a difference in the liability and compensation

sections of this horrible bill.

In short, we need your help immediately!!!

This bill is on the fast track. We expect to be fighting it on the Senate

Floor next week. Senators Frist, Gregg, Burr, Enzi and put in the

bill Monday. It passed through committee on Tuesday and Senators have until

the end of the day on Thursday (10-20-05) to finalize the bill so perhaps we

can make a difference - but we must act swiftly.

Help is needed for everyone to contact their Senator and the Senators on the

HELP Committee. Get your extended family to call and write letters too.

We especially need parents from Maine, Ohio, Rhode Island, Nebraska,

Arizona, Iowa, South Carolina, Oregon. These states have moderate senators

that have shown some interest in the past on our issues.

We need to inundate Enzi, DeWine, , and Clinton, but especially

Enzi - he is the chairman of the HELP Committee and a co-sponsor of the bill

- so parents from Wyoming will also be key in this fight.

NOT SURE WHAT TO SAY TO YOUR SENATOR?

Here are some possible talking points for phone calls:

1) (for Enzi) Rick Santorum said on Imus that Enzi would be getting

thimerosal hearings underway this Fall. It's now Fall, where are the

hearings? Why are Enzi's efforts instead directed towards legislation that

protects industry rather than injured children?

2) (for Enzi) The members of our community feel betrayed. Enzi's office has

been supplied with voluminous data confirming that millions of children have

been overexposed to mercury and hundreds of thousands now suffer the

consequences. With all this information damning the pharmaceutical industry,

it is unconscionable for Senator Enzi to now reward the same industry that

poisoned our children. Senator Enzi is not part of the solution, but part of

the problem.

3) Our community needs to be assured that this bill will have nothing to do

with our children's vaccine-injury cases. The bill needs to state that it

will not affect vaccines currently covered in VICA and that the bill is NOT

retroactive. It needs to preserve state's rights to hear vaccine related

cases.

4) Further empowering drug companies to produce unsafe products will

undermine the immunization program to a greater extent than anything else to

date has. We as a community have seen government's response to a failed

compensation program and will be taking our message to schools, churches,

shopping malls, and the AARP: If you allow yourself or your child to be

vaccinated, you do so at your own risk as any resulting injuries will not be

compensated.

Parents, we must stand together!

This legislation has been promoted as protecting Americans by assuring that

vaccine manufacturers will make vaccines in the case of pandemics, but what

it does is protect manufacturers from being held accountable for injuries

caused by their products and vaccines including injections containing

thimerosal.

Here is what we all need to do:

Fax AND call the following Senators ASAP. Please make plans to do both!

Contacting the two Senators in your state is the first step. Then we need to

fax and call all the HELP Senators and those we think may provide us with

the swing votes needed in the Senate: , Chaffee, Snowe and McCain.

Fax Senators with this information: (feel free to cut and paste this letter

to fax)

Dear Senator ______,

RE: S1873 - the Biodefense and Pandemic Vaccine and Drug Development Act of

2005.

Delete Sections 6 and 7 on liability and compensation!! This bill focuses on

liability protections to pharmaceutical companies from past mistakes under

the guise of focusing on future attacks or pandemics. Fear and losing civil

liberties seem to go hand in hand lately. This time the ones to lose are

innocent children and suffering families.

The bill has it all wrong. Look at what Fauci said just last year:

Fauci of the National Institutes of Health said that liability is

only a " very small part of the problem. "

" 'Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have tried to frame the issue as part

of the administration's overall health care agenda, saying it's the threat

of lawsuits that keeps manufacturers from entering and staying in the

vaccine business. But that's only a very small part of the problem,' said

Fauci, the infectious disease chief at the National Institutes of

Health and a chief [HHS Secretary] adviser. More significant, he

said, are the low-profit margin vaccines provide, unpredictable demand and

the complexity of the manufacturing process. 'The fragility of the vaccine

enterprise is an issue that has been present for decades,' Fauci said. 'It

has been an accident waiting to happen.' " [ " Flu Vaccine an Issue in

Presidential Race, " Meckler, Associated Press, 10/20/04]

Explanations regarding striking sections 6 and 7:

Section six confers immunity on anyone in the vaccine or treatment chain.

This must be deleted because:

1. Immunity from legal liability for injury results in less safe vaccines

and treatments which in turn means rapidly declining public confidence in

vaccines.

2. The safety we enjoy for goods and services is the product of both public

regulation, in which we have little confidence, and private litigation.

Private litigation is an essential component of safety and public

confidence.

3. Knowing beforehand that some Americans will suffer adverse events due to

a countermeasure and not stepping in to help should those people - many

children - suffer an injury is immoral.

I am asking you as a United States Senator to do the right thing by

hard-working, tax-paying Americans. Please delete the liability and

compensation portions from this bill and allow the regular system of checks

and balances rule in these future cases. Please make sure this bill is not

retroactive and the bill should state that it will not affect any injuries

for vaccines now covered under the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.

Sincerely,

(Your name)

_____

Forward this note to all of your friends and members of your family that you

think will help. If they don't mind, do the work for them. Just substitute

their name at the bottom of your letter and send it to their Senator or

yours again. The staff will be counting names, not looking specifically at

letters. We need to inundate them with calls and faxes. They need to know

that thousands of parents are watching!

Lastly, reply to the NAA if you think you can come for a day or two to DC

next week to help us fight this bill! We need parents visiting Senator

offices reminding Senators that they are representing the people and not

pharmaceutical companies!

Thank You!!!

The NAA Team

_____

Republicans on the HELP Committee:

Gregg, Judd (R - NH)

393 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510

Phone:

Fax:

E-mail: mailbox@...');>

mailbox@...

Frist, (R - TN)

416 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510

Phone:

Fax:

E-mail:

http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=cqjospbab.0.9f66spbab.faomd6n6.1&p=http%3A%2F%2Ffri

st.senate.gov%2Fcontact.cfm> http://frist.senate.gov/contact.cfm

Enzi, Mike (R - WY)

290 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510

Phone:

Fax:

E-mail: senator@...');>

senator@...

Burr (R-NC)

217 Senate Office Building

Washington, DC 20510

Phone:

Fax:

E-mail: richard.burrnc05@...');>

richard.burrnc05@...

Isakson ny (R- GA)

120 Senate Office Building

Washington, DC 20510

Fax:

, Lamar (R-TN)

UNITED STATES SENATE WASHINGTON DC 20510

Phone:

Fax:

E-mail: http://alexander.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.Home>

http://alexander.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.Home

, Pat (R - KS)

302 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510

Phone:

Fax

E-mail: http://roberts.senate.gov/e-mail_pat.html>

http://roberts.senate.gov/e-mail_pat.html

Ensign, (R - NV)

364 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510

Phone:

Fax

E-mail: http://ensign.senate.gov/forms/email_form.cfm>

http://ensign.senate.gov/forms/email_form.cfm

DeWine, Mike (R - OH)

140 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510

Phone:

Fax

E-mail: senator@...');>

senator@...

Democrats on the HELP Commitee:

Kennedy, - (D - MA)

317 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510

Phone:

Fax:

senator@...');>

senator@...

Dodd, (D - CT)

448 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510

Phone

Fax

E-mail:

http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=cqjospbab.0.5f66spbab.faomd6n6.1&p=http%3A%2F%2Fdod

d.senate.gov%2Fwebmail%2F> http://dodd.senate.gov/webmail/

Harkin, Tom (D - IA)

731 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510

Phone

Fax

E-mail: tom harkin@...');>

harkin@...

Mikulski, Barbara (D - MD)

709 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510

Phone:

Fax (202)224-8858

E-mail: senator@...');>

senator@...

Bingaman, Jeff (D - NM)

703 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510Phone:

Fax

E-mail:

senator_bingaman@...');>

senator_bingaman@...

Murray, Patty (D - WA)

173 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510

Phone:

Fax:

E-mail: senator_murray@...');>

senator_murray@...

, Jack (D - RI)

320 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510

Fax

E-mail: jack@...');>

jack@...

Clinton, Hillary (D - NY)

476 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510

Phone:

D.C. Fax

Long Island Fax

Email:

http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=cqjospbab.0.repkr8aab.faomd6n6.1&p=http%3A%2F%2Fcli

nton.senate.gov%2Femail_form.html>

http://clinton.senate.gov/email_form.html

Helpful Senators, not on the HELP Committee but important to contact:

Senator

172 Senate Office Building

United States Senate

Washington, D.C. 20510

Phone:

Fax

Senator Olympia Snowe

154 Senate Office Building

United States Senate

Washington, D.C. 20510

Phone:

Fax

Senator Lincoln Chafee

141A Senate Office Building

United States Senate

Washington, D.C. 20510

Phone:

Fax:

Senator McCain

241 Senate Office Building

United States Senate

Washington, D.C. 20510

Phone

Fax

Senator Debbie Stabenow

702 Hart Senate Office Building

Washington, DC 20510

Fax

Jeffords, (I - VT)

728 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510

Phone:

Fax

Graham, Lindsey - (R - SC)

UNITED STATES SENATE WASHINGTON DC 20510

Phone:

Fax:

Web Form: http://lgraham.senate.gov/index.cfm?mode=contactform>

http://lgraham.senate.gov/index.cfm?mode=contactform

Helpful Congressmen to contact:

Congressman Dave Weldon

2347 Rayburn House Office Building

Washington, DC 20515

Fax:

Congressman Dan Burton

2185 Rayburn HOB

Washington, DC 20515

FAX:

Congressman

2373 Rayburn Building

Washington, DC 20515

FAX:

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