Vaccination At Gunpoint
No Mercury.org
3-4-5
"Similar to the legislative sleight of hand employed in the Homeland
Security Bill fiasco in 2002, the sponsors of S.3 are manipulating the
political process by tying domestic programs affecting every
American's health and safety to unrelated "anti-terrorism" programs.
In this way they are attempting to make legitimate opposition to S. 3
politically unacceptable."
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Dear Members and Friends -
This is a VERY important alert that requires your attention AND
action. Please read through and use the sample letter provided to
communicate your message to the senators listed in this email.
THIS IS A PRESS RELEASE FROM www.NoMercy.org
LET THESE SENATORS KNOW HOW YOU FEEL ABOUT THIS.
GO TO THIS SITE FOR SUGGESTIONS ON LETTER WRITING AND FAX COMPOSITION:
www.NoMercury.org.
Dear Parent/Advocate:
Please look closely at US Senate Bill 3. A copy of the bill is
available at www.NoMercury.org
Under the guise of "Protecting America in the War on Terror" US
Senators Gregg, Frist, Sessions, DeWine, Allen, Santorum, McConnell,
and DeMint have introduced S. 3 which calls for many sweeping changes
in pharmaceutical product liability, vaccine regulation, policy,
research and The Vaccine Injury Compensation Act. This directly
impacts those families whose children have suffered adverse vaccine
reactions, Gulf War Veterans, and any other veteran who suffers from
adverse reactions from the multiple vaccines given (remember the
ill-fated anthrax vaccine and small-pox vaccines).
The most recent bill introduced in the U.S. Senate (S. 3) is aimed at
liability protection of drugs and vaccines and to prevent state
legislation to ban Thimerosal (mercury) in vaccines. This bill is
worse than the Eli Lilly provision of the Homeland Security Act and is
a direct "gift" to the pharmaceutical companies. The pharmaceutical
industry gave almost $45 million in campaign contributions for
Presidential and Congressional elections since 2002
(www.opensecrets.org) and the health care/pharmaceutical industry has
over 600 lobbyists in Washington, D.C. alone. If constituents do not
weigh in on this horrendous bill, the American people will suffer;
having their civil rights violated and state autonomy will be
compromised. It is an insult to every state elected official and every
American.
This bill is being "fast-tracked" and is already on the agenda at the
National Vaccine Advisory Committee meeting, scheduled for February 8,
2005 at 10:45 am: http://www.hhs.gov/nvpo/nvac/agenda.html.
It would also severely limit the public access to any information
regarding vaccine research, vaccine production, vaccine regulations,
including, but not limited to meetings about vaccines and
"countermeasures" for pandemics, epidemics, etc. This bill places
severe restrictions on FOIA and will impact your ability to find out
about drug/vaccine safety, regulation and policy. The last thing this
country needs is to give government the ability to hold more "closed"
meetings without accountability to the media/public.
Furthermore, Sec. 761 (a)(1) would preempt any state legislation
regulating vaccines. It would preempt State authority and legislation
dealing with vaccines or vaccines components, such as Thimerosal
(mercury). Missouri currently has three bills pending to ban mercury
(Thimerosal) in vaccines. They are Missouri SB 49, SB74 and HB 131.
The States of Iowa and California have already banned mercury in
vaccines yet this bill will preempt such legislation forcing states to
allow vaccine manufacturers to continue using toxic levels of mercury
in vaccines (in excess of Federal EPA safety guidelines). Numerous
other states are pursuing similar legislation such as Maryland,
Nebraska, New York, Pennsylvania and Washington. Various other states
are also planning to introduce legislation banning mercury in vaccines
within the next few weeks/months, such as Ohio, Illinois, North
Carolina, Michigan, Massachusetts and Minnesota.
This horrendous piece of Federal legislation would even prohibit the
warning or informed consent provisions for drugs, vaccines and
biologics. Additionally, this bill would prohibit punitive damages and
cap compensatory damages against any pharmaceutical company. This
takes the saying "to the victor goes the spoils" to a whole new and
ominous level. If the FDA approves it, the company making it is
protected from liability. We have all seen how attentive the FDA has
been to protect Americans from dangerous drugs such as Vioxx.
This cleverly crafted legislation includes something nearly every
American will understandably want to support: raising the death
gratuity for families of soldiers killed in Iraq from $12,000 to
$100,000 and increases other military benefits. Including an unrelated
but popular provision that should stand alone legislatively seeks only
to cloud the issues addressed in the major portion of this bill's
language. Every American supports increased benefits for our soldiers
and their families and that includes us. As parents and loyal
Americans, however, we believe that S. 3 has been carefully crafted to
unfairly paint parents who seek justice for vaccine injured children
into a political corner.
Similar to the legislative sleight of hand employed in the Homeland
Security Bill fiasco in 2002 the sponsors of S.3 are manipulating the
political process by tying domestic programs affecting every
American's health and safety to unrelated "anti-terrorism" programs.
In this way they are attempting to make legitimate opposition to S. 3
politically unacceptable.
We question why politically popular legislation supporting our troops
is tied to a bill with far-reaching provisions that affect and the
safety of vaccines given to millions of American children. Let's not
confuse the issues. We believe that by casting the vaccine safety
provisions in the language of fighting terrorism (epidemic
"countermeasures" is S.3's new code word for "vaccines"--this is truly
Orwellian doublespeak) the American people are being misled about
S.3's impact on vaccine safety programs. Let's deal with one thing at
a time. Taking away the right of states to protect their citizens from
dangerous vaccine components and drugs like Vioxx and Paxil does not
translate into protecting our children--from terrorism or anything
else. All it does is give control of these matters--vaccines and
drugs--to a few powerful people who operate behind closed doors. The
vaccine safety provisions are pharma support positions, plain and
simple, and are not necessary for bio-terror defense, at least not in
this form.
It would also overhaul The National Vaccine Injury Compensation
Program to the detriment of children and families. Other parts of this
legislation are extremely troublesome as well and we have included a
copy in pdf format for your review. This is not a benign bill--this
goes directly to counter state and parental efforts to protect
children from vaccine injuries.
Read a few excerpts below. If this bill is as concerning to you as it
is to other parents and many members of the medical community, please
contact all members of the US Senate, particularly your Senators and
members of the US Senate Finance Committee (see their contact info
below).
This is not anti-terrorism--this is Federalism gone wild.
Finance Committee Republicans on Finance Committee Grassley Charles R-
IA Chairman, Committee on Finance
135 Hart Senate Bldg. Washington, DC 20510-1501 Tel: (202) 224.3744
Fax: (202) 228 0578
http://grassley.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.Home
Hatch Orrin R- UT
104 Hart Office Building Washington, DC 20510 Tel: (202) 224-5251 Fax:
(202) 224-6331
http://hatch.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Offices.Contact
Lott Trent R- MS
487 Russell Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 Phone:
202-224-6253 Fax: 202-224-2262
http://lott.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.Email
Snowe, Olympia R-ME
154 Russell Senate Office Buildg. Washington DC 20510-1903 Ph
202-224-5344 Fax 202-244-1946
Kyl Jon R- AZ
730 Hart Senate Building Washington, D.C. 20510 Phone: (202) 224-4521
Fax: (202) 224-2207 http://kyl.senate.gov/contact.cfm
Thomas, Craig R- WY United States Senate
307 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510 Phone:
202-224-6441 Fax: 202-224-1724
http://www.senate.gov/%7Ethomas/html/contact.html
Santorum Rick R- PA
511 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510-3804 Phone:
202-224-6324 TTYD Number: 202-224-5024 Fax: 202-228-0604
http://santorum.senate.gov
Frist Bill R- TN Office of Senator Bill Frist
509 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3344
202-228-1264 (fax) http://frist.senate.gov/index.cfm
Smith Gordon R- OR
404 Russell Building Washington, DC 20510-3704 Phone: (202)224-3753
Fax:(202)228-3997 http://gsmith.senate.gov/webform.htm
Bunning Jim R- KY
1717 Dixie Highway Suite 180 Fort Wright KY, 41011 Phone 859-341-6480
Fax: 859-341-6482
Crapo, Mike R- ID
239 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 phone
202-224-6142 FAX 202-228-1375 TDD 202-224-2806
http://www.crapoforsenate.com/contact_us.asp
Democrats on Finance Committee
Baucus Max D- MT
511 Hart Senate Office Bldg. Washington, D.C. 20510
(202) 224-2651
(202) 224-4700 (Fax)
(800) 332-6106 (from MT)
(202) 224-1998 (TDD) http://www.senate.gov/~baucus/emailmax.html
Rockefeller, IV, John D. D- WV
531 Hart Senate Office Bldg Washington, DC 20510 Ph: 202-224-6472 Fax:
202-224-7665 Email Address:
Conrad, Kent D-ND
530 Hart Senate Office Building United States Senate Washington, DC
20510-3403 Fax: (202) 224-7776 Online: http://conrad.senate.gov
E-mail: http://conrad.senate.gov/webform.html
Jeffords, James (I - VT)
728 Hart Senate Office Bldg. Washington DC 20510 Phone: (202) 224-5141
Fax (202) 228-0776 http://jeffords.senate.gov/contact-form.html
Bingaman, Jeff D- NM
413 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510
(202) 224-5141
(202) 224-5521 TDD: (202) 224-1792
http://www.senate.gov/~jeffords/contact-form.html
Kerry, John F D-MA
304 Russell Bldg. Third Floor Washington D.C. 20510
(202) 224-2742 - Phone
(202) 224-8525 - Fax
http://kerry.senate.gov/bandwidth/contact/email.html
Lincoln Blanche L. D- AR
355 Dirksen Senate Building Washington, DC 20510-0404 Phone:
(202)224-4843 Fax: (202)228-1371
http://lincoln.senate.gov/webform.html
Wyden Ron D- OR
230 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510-3703
(202) 224-5244 fax (202-228-2717) http://wyden.senate.gov/contact/
Schumer Charles D- NY
313 Hart Senate Building Washington, DC 20510 Phone: 202-224-6542 Fax:
202-228-3027 TDD: 202-224-0420
http://www.senate.gov/%7Eschumer/webform.html
soup - ask
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