Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy has revealed a new piece of legislation on Tuesday that allows Americans who have suffered injuries and negative effects from COVID-19 vaccines to file lawsuits against their makers, an announcement that must have folks at Pfizer absolutely shaking in their boots. Regardless of where you stand on vaccines overall, it’s safe to say that when you rush one out the door as fast as this one was, without proper long-term testing, then force millions to take it, well, you can expect things to go wrong. It’s only fair those who pushed it take responsibility for its failures.
According to Fox News:
The Let Injured Americans Be Legally Empowered (LIABLE) Act is aimed at wiping away COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers’ statutory protections, opening them up to civil lawsuits.
A summary of the bill obtained by Fox News Digital said, “The LIABLE Act will allow Americans who took vaccines that were misleadingly promoted and forced onto many Americans via federal mandates to pursue civil litigation for their injuries. These vaccines were given emergency use authorization unilaterally and did not go through the normal FDA approval process.”
Currently, manufacturers and health care providers responsible for distributing COVID-19 vaccines are mostly immune from civil lawsuits, even if those seeking money damages have medical proof of their vaccine-related injuries.
Why are these companies immune? You can thank the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act of 2005 for that. PREP places limits around the liability for “the manufacturing, development, and distribution of medical countermeasures related to a public health emergency.”
The PREP Act also created the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP), which has a one-year statute of limitations and only provides compensation in the event of death or serious injury. According to Roy, CICP has compensated people just 11 times despite thousands of claims lodged.
“Millions of Americans were forced to take a COVID-19 shot out of fear of losing their livelihoods and under false pretenses,” Roy said in statements made to Fox News Digital. “Many have faced injury from the vaccine, but few have been afforded…recourse. To date, a mere 11 injury claims have been paid out despite nearly 700 million doses of the vaccine having been administered.”
While the declaration of a public health emergency for COVID expired in 2023, its protections aren’t expected to go bye-bye until the end of this year. The LIABLE Act from Roy would enable Americans harmed by the vaccine to sue manufacturers retroactively regardless of the protections currently in place.
We’re talking about a vaccine that can cause egregious side effects like blood clots, strokes, and in some cases sudden death. I don’t think it’s inappropriate to force said people to be responsible for these issues, since they were largely due to the vaccine being hurried through production. People’s lives have been forever altered by the product, some in drastic ways. Monetary compensation is the least that can be done to make up for the side effects.
As you might imagine, not everyone is a fan of the bill. Andrew Powaleny, PhRMA spokesperson, slammed the legislation in a statement delivered to Fox News Digital.
“COVID-19 has been a reminder of why we need safe and effective vaccines. All vaccines, including those for COVID-19, are subject to a rigorous safety and efficacy review process and post-market monitoring. By upending the existing liability framework manufacturers rely upon to provide predictable vaccine development, our ability to address future public health threats will be at risk,” the statement read.
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