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The bill’s supporters say Iowans who believe they have been injured by vaccines need more legal recourse; critics of the bill warn it would severely stunt the administration of life-saving vaccines in Iowa
DES MOINES — Federal legal protections added in the 1980s to shield vaccine manufacturers from most lawsuits would be waived any time a vaccine is administered in Iowa under legislation that was advanced Wednesday by Republican state lawmakers.
The legislation is sought by individuals who believe people — sometimes themselves or their loved ones — have been harmed by vaccines, including but not limited to the COVID-19 vaccines, and that vaccine manufacturers should be accountable.
Critics of the proposal say it would have a chilling impact by effectively banning vaccines in Iowa, since manufacturers would be hesitant to allow their vaccines to be administered in Iowa without legal protections.
“I know people have good intentions, but we have to think through the consequences of these decisions,” Grace Recker, a medical student in Iowa, said during the public comment period of a legislative hearing on the bill Wednesday at the Iowa Capitol. “If vaccines are not accessible in our state, Iowa will lose health care professionals and lose lives as a direct result of the decisions being made in this building. Vaccines do save lives.”
Created in 1986, the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act protects vaccine manufacturers from most lawsuits and instead compensates people who are injured by vaccines. The program was established to address concerns that a growing number of lawsuits would threaten manufacturers’ willingness to produce life-saving vaccines.
The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program allows individuals to petition for compensation when they believe they have been injured by a vaccine. Since 1988, more than 27,000 petitions have been filed with the federal program and just less than half — just more than 11,000 — were adjudicated and determined to be compensable, according to statistics from the federal Health Resources and Services Administration.
Bill that would have criminalized administering mRNA vaccines did not advance
Multiple bills addressing vaccines have been considered this week in the Iowa Legislature.
The most recent bill, in the Iowa House, would prohibit a vaccine from being administered, sold or distributed in Iowa unless the manufacturer waives any immunity from a lawsuit over injury granted by the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act. The bill says if any vaccine is administered in Iowa, it is presumed the manufacturer waived those federal protections.
That bill, House File 712, was advanced by the two Republican lawmakers on a legislative subcommittee — Iowa Reps. Charley Thomson of Charles City and Bill Gustoff of Des Moines — and is on the agenda for potential consideration by the full Iowa House Judiciary Committee at its meeting Thursday. Because of a deadline at the end of the week, the bill will need to be approved by the committee to remain eligible for consideration for the rest of this year’s session.
Rep. Charley Thomson, R-Charles City
“Things are generally not all good or all bad, and while vaccines are a tremendous medical advance, there has to be some control for toxic products that get into the stream of commerce,” Thomson said during Wednesday’s hearing. “The federal system, pretty clearly, is not working right now. If there’s a state solution to a broken system on the federal level, let’s see if we can find it. But let’s not make the problem worse in the meantime.”
Rep. Beth Wessel-Kroeschell, a Democrat from Ames and the third subcommittee member, did not support advancing the bill.
A bill in the Senate originally proposed making it a state crime to administer gene-based, or mRNA vaccines. The bill proposed finding doctors who administer mRNA vaccine shots guilty of a simple misdemeanor and fining them $500 per incident.
That bill, Senate File 360, also advanced out of subcommittee with Republican-only support, and the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Doug Campbell, a Republican and pharmacist from Mason City, said he planned to amend it to make it more like the House legislation. However, the Senate bill did not advance out of the Senate’s Health and Human Services Committee ahead of this week’s deadline.
“We should remove indemnity for manufacturers from litigation caused by harm to Iowa patients,” Campbell told reporters on Monday after a legislative hearing on the Senate bill. “If I manufactured car tires and they (delaminated) at 1,000 miles, I should be liable for that. … So let’s just bring appropriate due process to this product.”
While the Senate bill did not advance, the amended version that Campbell described would have been similar to the House bill that may be considered Thursday.
From thegazette.com
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