18 Senators Support
Frist's Avian Flu
Vaccine Bill
By Stephen Fox
12-11-5
THE "BIODEFENSE AND PANDEMIC VACCINE AND DRUG DEVELOPMENT ACT OF 2005" (S.
1873)
We saw something uncannily similar before in the 70's, when there was that
terrifying scare about the swine flu, which turned out to have been nothing; 52
people died from the vaccine, but no one died of the swine flu!
Quoting from "Crab Wars: A Tale of Horseshoe Crabs, Bioterrorism, and Human
Health," by William Sargent, 2002, University Press of New England, 124 pages.
"The Rumsfeld history starts in 1976, when a military recruit in New Jersey
died from a flu that experts speculated might be the 'swine flu" virus of 1918
pandemic fame. As Sargent tells it, Rumsfeld, who was then and is again the
nation's secretary of defense, made the imminent "swine flu" a political issue
to add some spark to the campaign of President Ford, an interim leader without
a cause. At Rumsfeld's urging, the administration would ensure that "every man,
woman and child" was vaccinated. Huge amounts of vaccine were produced and
distributed quickly.
Some batches were contaminated. This was in the days before lysate. Six hundred
people sickened and 52 died. The program was stopped a month after the
election. And nobody got swine flu. "It was," writes Sargent, "modern
medicine's most flagrant miscalculation."
__________
Before I discuss the "Biodefense and Pandemic Vaccine and Drug Development Act
of 2005" (S. 1873), please take two minutes and read this article off CNN,
quoting from Fortune Magazine:
Rumsfeld's growing stake in Tamiflu Defense Secretary, ex-chairman of flu
treatment rights holder, sees portfolio value growing. October 31, 2005: 10:55
AM EST By Nelson D. Schwartz, Fortune senior writer
NEW YORK (Fortune) - The prospect of a bird flu outbreak may be panicking
people around the globe, but it's proving to be very good news for Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other politically connected investors in Gilead
Sciences, the California biotech company that owns the rights to Tamiflu, the
influenza remedy that's now the most-sought after drug in the world.
Rumsfeld served as Gilead (Research)'s chairman from 1997 until he joined the
Bush administration in 2001, and he still holds a Gilead stake valued at
between $5 million and $25 million, according to federal financial disclosures
filed by Rumsfeld.
The forms don't reveal the exact number of shares Rumsfeld owns, but in the
past six months fears of a pandemic and the ensuing scramble for Tamiflu have
sent Gilead's stock from $35 to $47. That's made the Pentagon chief, already
one of the wealthiest members of the Bush cabinet, at least $1 million richer.
Rumsfeld isn't the only political heavyweight benefiting from demand for
Tamiflu, which is manufactured and marketed by Swiss pharma giant Roche.
(Gilead receives a royalty from Roche equaling about 10% of sales.) Former
Secretary of State George Shultz, who is on Gilead's board, has sold more than
$7 million worth of Gilead since the beginning of 2005.
Another board member is the wife of former California Gov. Pete Wilson.
"I don't know of any biotech company that's so politically well-connected,"
says analyst Andrew McDonald of Think Equity Partners in San Francisco.
What's more, the federal government is emerging as one of the world's biggest
customers for Tamiflu. In July, the Pentagon ordered $58 million worth of the
treatment for U.S. troops around the world, and Congress is considering a
multi-billion dollar purchase. Roche expects 2005 sales for Tamiflu to be about
$1 billion, compared with $258 million in 2004.
Rumsfeld recused himself from any decisions involving Gilead when he left
Gilead and became Secretary of Defense in early 2001. And late last month,
notes a senior Pentagon official, Rumsfeld went even further and had the
Pentagon's general counsel issue additional instructions outlining what he
could and could not be involved in if there were an avian flu pandemic and the
Pentagon had to respond.
As the flu issue heated up early this year, according to the Pentagon official,
Rumsfeld considered unloading his entire Gilead stake and sought the advice of
the Department of Justice, the SEC and the federal Office of Government Ethics.
Those agencies didn't offer an opinion so Rumsfeld consulted a private
securities lawyer, who advised him that it was safer to hold on to the stock
and be quite public about his recusal rather than sell and run the risk of
being accused of trading on insider information, something Rumsfeld doesn't
believe he possesses. So, he's keeping his shares for the time being.
__________
Following are my comments on Senator Frist's Bill:
In addition to the $7.1 Billion it allocates (including $1.35 billion for
stocking up on the vaccine, enough to vaccinate 75 million Americans, and $1
Billion for creating a new secret agency for surveillance, BARDA, this bill
includes a permanent absolution, a carte blanche, a get-out-of-jail card for
the pharmaceutical industry, the likes of which Americans have never seen
before.
We would be giving up a lot, not so much just a lot of dollars, but almost all
potential claims against the pharmaceutical industries involved in producing
this vaccine, strangely reminiscent of the hysteria which resulted in the
Patriot Act, but this one has been crafted and tailor-made for the
pharmaceutical industries. In the last 5 years, it is increasingly shocking how
many of these government policies are written for the regulators by those who
are supposed to be regulated: to name just a few: in Energy Policy, by
Halliburton and by major Oil Company Executives; the so-called "Cheeseburger
Tort Reform," a few of which have actually passed several state legislatures,
which absolve fast food corporations of all responsibility for obesity suits;
FDA policies, which just transpose corporate boilerplate mantras from industry
websites [in other words, ask the FDA for answers to your questions about a
product's safety and consumer complaint record, and they direct you to corporate
website, from which you are supposed to emerge complacent and convinced that
everything is safe, and just peachy!
But don't act so surprised! That is the way it was with Asbestos, PCB's, DDT,
Vioxx, Cyclamates, and so on, down a very long list, which many at the FDA and
in Congress would seemingly like the average American consumer to just
completely forget about.
Senator Frist expects us to believe that on top of coughing up $7.1 billion for
more meds, that this is "just a drop in the bucket," as he puts it, "just 1% of
the hit the economy would take if we do nothing"! On December 9, Senator Frist
said, "a $675 billion hit on the economy is without question a grim prognosis."
I would like to see the USA, its citizens, and its all-so sacred Economy, take
that chance, which I believe is even less remote that than the 1 in 300 chance
described by the Congressional Budget Office there would ever be an major
pandemic in this nation. Let's at least wait for a bit, and see how the Chinese
program attempting to vaccinate every fowl in China turns out.
Depending on which strain of the Avian Flu you speak of, between 10 and 60 have
died of it. The most recent at this writing was a 9 year old Thai boy who
handled some infected poultry poop from his neighbor's chicken. Tragic, yet, no
doubt for him and his family. Scary to a few Americans, but to spend $7.1
billion, including $1.35 billion to inoculate 25% of the American population at
about $18 each? Then for "surveillance," another billion dollars?Which
corporate buddies of this administration will profit from that billion dollars?
A new division of Halliburton?
Then the Health and Human Services Secretary, Mike Leavitt, former Governor of
our neighboring state Utah, chimes with this comment applauding Frist's speech,
on December 9: "While the analysis estimates a $675 billion hit to the American
economy, it is clear that this impact can be lessened by the actions we take
today."
Maybe these guys have whipped themselves up in their pontifical lucrative ivory
tower inside the Beltway to the extent that they genuinely believe this
hysterical nonsense.
However, I don't believe it, and you shouldn't either.
At the very least, it is very flawed economic thinking, which is befuddled by
hysteria and steeled by the cold hard logic derived from the old cold warriors
who invoke such hysterical medical nonsense while it actually works, long
enough for Roche and Tamiflu and a few other big Pharm Buddies to rush in
there, make a few billion dollars, get out while the getting is good, and
emerge with the biggest trump card of all, which might even last longer than
the Patriot Act, a law absolving Big Pharm of product liability for the vaccine
manufacturers!
The bill refers to "Liability protection from civil lawsuits?" What does that
mean? Who pays for those injured by bad vaccines? Or is the average American
just supposed to "take the hit" and absorb such losses with no recourse to the
Courts? This bill is really bad politics, bad medicine, bad economics, bad
government, and terribly bad legislation.[Frist blithely informs us that "to
ally irrational fear, communication must be the bedrock of every public policy
response."]
I am focused on real consumer protection in a different field, getting rid of
neurotoxic food additives, and even though it is a different field than Bill
Frist's and Donald Rumsfeld's Tamiflu, their calculated mass hysteria about
avian flu, and the ghastly draconian insult to the history of medicine implicit
in this bill, I recognize a cow-pie while it is being formed and while it is
coming out; that is what Dr. Frist's bill is, a giant nation- sized cow-pie,
emerging from the male cow with the horns.... (with all due respect to all of
the cows, including the bulls).
This entire scenario reminds me of the play, "The Emperor's New Clothes." When
I was 12 and in the school play version of "The Emperor's New Clothes," I
played one of the two brothers who swindled the Emperor into believing he had
beautiful new glorious robes. I can recognize similar tactics to manipulate the
truth into a "New World Order," implicit in Senator Frist's $7.1 billion Avian
Flu Bill, disingenuously titled the "Biodefense and Pandemic Vaccine and Drug
Development Act of 2005" (S. 1873).
Please call Senator Bingaman and ask him to remove his heretofore good name
from the list of those Senators supporting it.
Bingaman, Jeff (D - NM)
703 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510
Phone:(202) 224-5521
Fax (202) 224-2852
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Thank you,
Stephen Fox
Founder, New Mexico Nutrition Council
The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) is calling the "Biodefense and
Pandemic Vaccine and Drug Development Act of 2005" (S. 1873), which passed out
of the U.S. Senate Committee one day after it was introduced "a drug company
stockholder's dream and a consumer's worst nightmare." The bill establishes the
Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Agency (BARDA), as the single
point of authority within the government for the advanced research and
development of drugs and vaccines in response to bioterrorism and natural
disease outbreaks such as the flu. BARDA will operate in secret, exempt from
the Freedom of Information Act and the Federal Advisory Committee Act, insuring
that no evidence of injuries or deaths caused by drugs and vaccines labeled as
"countermeasures" will become public. They will pass this bill by December if
you don't take vigorous action NOW.
There are 18 Senators pushing for us to face forced vaccines and forced
drugging with untested/experimental drugs and vaccines giving freedom from
liability to drug companies. Contact them ALL. This bill is called "The
Biodefense and Pandemic Vaccine and Drug Development Act of 2005." The text is
under Senate Bill 1873 [S. 1873].
Surprising to me, on the list of 18 Senators pushing for this bill, you will
find:
Bingaman, Jeff (D - NM)
703 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510
Phone:(202) 224-5521
Fax (202) 224-2852
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
To quote Rima E. Laibow, M.D., Medical Director of the Natural Solutions
Foundation:
Be not intimidated... nor suffer yourselves to be wheedled out of your
liberties by any pretense of politeness, delicacy, or decency. These, as they
are often used, are but three different names for hypocrisy, chicanery and
cowardice.
We are, I am sorry to tell you, facing a uniquely dangerous moment in our
history. An industry with more money than sense and a government with more
greed than patriotism are conspiring to take away your right to control your
body, keep it safe and, if harmed, seek recompense from the corporation which
harmed you. I often write to you to alert you to important health and health
freedom issues. This letter is an urgent notice about an immediate threat to
your well-being and your liberty. If you do nothing else to safeguard your
health freedom, I urge you to take action on this issue, pass this email to
everyone you know and become a source of information and strength to everyone
you know. If there ever was a time for activism, this is it!
Tell the people you speak to that you are adamantly opposed to S1873 and HR3970
since vaccines are dangerous and compulsory vaccination violates your personal
rights to self determination. Further, you flatly reject the creation of a
secret agency which would operate without public oversight to created and
compel the use of vaccines whose composition, side effects and hazards are not
only unknown, but would be kept permanently hidden from the public.
Let them know that you will not tolerate the loss of compensation for harm and
the loss of a trial by a jury of your peers to determine the nature and extent
of any such harm to you or your loved ones and that a vote for these bills --
or others like them -- is completely unacceptable if the member of Congress
wants to stand for re-election.
Make no mistake about it: Whatever you are vaccinated with will be experimental
and therefore dangerous. With no liability to deter them, the vaccine makers
can try anything they want or use any shoddy techniques they like and you
cannot claim any harm has been done to you for the purposes of compensation.
Not only that, the contents of these forced vaccinations for who-knows-what are
secret!
Even if you believe in vaccines for you and yours, the idea of a compulsory
vaccine program administered by a secret agency with zero accountability to you
and the same legal liability for the companies who make potentially lethal
injections (zero once again) is a major threat to your liberty and mine. I urge
you to take action and ask your circle of influence to do the same.
Yours in health and freedom,
Rima E. Laibow, MD
----------------------------------------------------------------------- -------
Rima E. Laibow, M.D. is the Medical Director of the Natural Solutions
Foundation. She is a graduate of Albert Einstein College of Medicine (1970) who
believes passionately in the right every American to choose a personal health
path that is free of government or corporate interference.
She has practiced drug-free, natural medicine for 35 years by seeking the
underlying cause of every illness and ailment. During this time, she has
enjoyed remarkable success with a wide assortment of cataclysmic problems and
health promotion efforts.
Like other healers who trust the innate ability to heal, she believes in using
nutrients and other natural options to find, define and treat the problems
which underlie degenerative, chronic diseases. The key is supporting the immune
and other crucial body systems. Dr. Laibow has seen results from these
techniques so often in her patients and in her personal life, that she believes
the medicine of the future is the medicine of cooperation with nature.
Dr. Laibow is the President of the NeuroTherapy Certification Board. Because of
Dr. Laibow's awareness of the wide variety of powerful natural, non-toxic
options available to treat the underlying causes of disease, she is focused on
maintaining these choices for all Americans. Based on her understanding of the
impact of poor nutrition and chemical/pesticide toxicity on the declining
health of America, Dr. Laibow is determined to help Americans maintain their
right to choose health promotion rather than illness care in their efforts to
protect themselves
List of 18 Senators
REPUBLICANS
Gregg, Judd (R - NH)
393 Senate Russell Building
Washington DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-3324
Fax: (202) 224-4952
http://gregg.senate.gov/sitepages/contact.cfm
Frist, William (R - TN)
509 Hart Senate Building
Washington DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-3344
Fax: (202) 228-1264
http://frist.senate.gov/index.cfm? FuseAction=AboutSenatorFrist.ContactForm
Enzi, Mike (R - WY)
379A Senate Russell Office Building
Washington DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-3424
Fax: (202) 228-0359
http://enzi.senate.gov/email.htm
Burr, Richard (R-NC)
217 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-3154
Fax: (202) 228-2981
http://burr.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.Home
Isakson, Johnny (R- GA)
120 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-3643
Fax: (202) 228-0724
http://isakson.senate.gov/contact.cfm
Alexander, Lamar (R-TN)
302 Senate Hart Office Building
Washington DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-4944
Fax: (202) 228-3398
http://alexander.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.Home
Bond, Christopher (R - MO)
274 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-5721
Fax (202) 224-8149
http://bond.senate.gov/contact/contactme.cfm
Roberts, Pat (R - KS)
109 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-4774
Fax (202) 224-3514
http://roberts.senate.gov/e-mail_pat.html
Ensign, John (R - NV)
356 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-6244
Fax (202) 228-2193
http://ensign.senate.gov/forms/email_form.cfm
DeWine, Mike (R - OH)
140 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-2315
Fax (202) 224-6519
http://dewine.senate.gov/
DEMOCRATS
Kennedy, Edward - (D - MA)
317 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-4543
Fax: (202) 224-2417
http://kennedy.senate.gov/index_high.html
Dodd, Christopher (D - CT)
448 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510
Phone (202) 224-2823
Fax (202) 228-1683
http://dodd.senate.gov/webmail/form-opinion.html
Harkin, Tom (D - IA)
731 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510
Phone (202) 224-3254
Fax (202) 224-9369
http://harkin.senate.gov/contact/contact.cfm
Mikulski, Barbara (D - MD)
503 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-4654
Fax (202)224-8858
http://mikulski.senate.gov/contactme/mailform.html
Bingaman, Jeff (D - NM)
703 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510
Phone:(202) 224-5521
Fax (202) 224-2852
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Murray, Patty (D - WA)
173 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-2621
Fax: (202) 224-0238
http://murray.senate.gov/email/index.cfm
Reed, Jack (D - RI)
728 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510
Phone:(202) 224-4642
Fax (202) 224-4680
http://reed.senate.gov/form-opinion.htm
Clinton, Hillary (D - NY)
476 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-4451
D.C. Fax (202) 228-0282
NY Fax (631) 249-2847
http://clinton.senate.gov/contact/webform.cfm?subj=issu
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