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From US Code Title 42 [1]: "(1) No vaccine manufacturer shall be liable in a civil action for damages arising from a vaccine-related injury or death associated
by skuhn 5y ago
From US Code Title 42 [1]:
"(1) No vaccine manufacturer shall be liable in a civil action for damages arising from a vaccine-related injury or death associated with the administration of a vaccine after October 1, 1988, if the injury or death resulted from side effects that were unavoidable even though the vaccine was properly prepared and was accompanied by proper directions and warnings."
This is not new. This is not specific to mRNA vaccines. The simple math is that if you prepare a treatment and give it to 300 million people, 300 people with adverse reactions may make the entire endeavor unwise financially.
The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program was established to partially resolve this [2]. They state:
"[The VICP] was created in the 1980s, after lawsuits against vaccine companies and health care providers threatened to cause vaccine shortages and reduce U.S. vaccination rates, which could have caused a resurgence of vaccine preventable diseases."
If you're interested in looking into the reasons why things are done a certain way, I suggest reading the law and understanding how historical events have led us to the (imperfect) system we have today.
[1] https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/300aa-22 https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/300aa-22
[2] https://www.hrsa.gov/vaccine-compensation/index.html https://www.hrsa.gov/vaccine-compensation/index.html
- logicchains 5y ago>The simple math is that if you prepare a treatment and give it to 300 million people, 300 people with adverse reactions may make the entire endeavor unwise financially. Yet other medicines taken by the majority manage fine without liability immunity, like aspirin and paracetamol. Why do vaccine manufacturers deserve a license to kill without liability?
- skuhn 5y agoI believe that point is directly addressed by my quote from the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, namely that we do not have a national incentive to ensure that aspirin usage is at herd immunity levels.
- mbg721 5y agoI think aspirin usage at herd immunity levels would create vast new markets for organ medicines. That stock keeps going up up up!
- thehappypm 5y agoVaccine manufacturers have saved millions of lives. I support them not getting financially ruined for one-in-a-million adverse effects.
- dekhn 5y ago"deserve a license to kill" is a crappy framing. Vaccines are different for a number of reasons; see the history of antivax (predating modern antivax). all medicines come with risks, vaccines probably have a higher risk than aspirin, but still represent a massively overall good thing, and the public is very sensitive to hearing about extremely small numbers of adverse events.