Legislation introduced on March 5 would strip COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers of liability protections, enabling Americans injured by the shots to sue the companies.
The bill, proposed by Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), would retroactively remove protections from the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP Act) for COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers.
“No federal law … may make the manufacturer of a COVID-19 vaccine immune from suit or liability, or limit the liability of such a manufacturer, with respect to claims for loss caused by, arising out of, relating to, or resulting from the administration to or the use by an individual of a COVID–19 vaccine,” the bill states.
The PREP Act currently protects manufacturers and people who administer the vaccines from liability, under a 2020 declaration entered by then-Health Secretary Alex Azar during former President Donald Trump’s administration in 2020. President Joe Biden’s administration has since extended the declaration.
The only exception to the PREP Act protection is in cases of death or serious injury caused by “willful misconduct.”
The protection even covers people who “reasonably could have believed” they were protected even if, in actuality, they were not, according to an opinion from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
“Millions of Americans were forced to take a COVID-19 shot out of fear of losing their livelihoods and under false pretenses. Many have faced injury from the vaccine, but few have been afforded little recourse,” Mr. Roy said in a statement.
He said he was introducing the new bill “to empower Americans to remove crony federal liability protections for COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers and empower injured Americans,” adding, “The American people deserve justice for the infringement on their personal medical freedom and those medically harmed deserve restitution.”
As part of the federal vaccine system, people who have suspected or confirmed injuries from COVID-19 vaccines can apply for compensation from the government under a program called the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program. But as of January, just 11 people have been compensated, with the highest payout being just $8,961.
The overwhelming majority of claims that have been processed have been rejected, according to the HHS, which both runs and administers the program. Some of the denials involved people whose doctors diagnosed them with vaccine injuries. A lawsuit has challenged the constitutionality of the program, describing it as a “kangaroo court.”
The new legislation makes clear that it does not affect the ability of people to apply for recompense through the compensation program.
Pfizer and Moderna did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the bill and have not appeared to comment publicly on it.
A spokesperson for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a trade group for pharmaceutical companies, told Fox News that “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.”
HHS has said the PREP Act declaration “has been a key tool for ensuring that Americans have broad access to critical COVID-19 countermeasures including vaccines, tests, and treatments” and “has provided flexibilities and protections for those individuals and entities who have been involved in providing these critical tools that have helped the United States get to a better place with COVID-19.”
Mr. Roy’s bill already has 19 co-sponsors, including Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Clary Higgins (R-La.), Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), and Andy Harris (R-Md.).
“Many Americans were wrongly forced to take a COVID-19 vaccine,” Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.), another co-sponsor, said in a statement. “Of course, they should be allowed to sue if they become injured by the shot.”
Children’s Health Defense, a nonprofit, is among the supporters of the proposal.
“The damages and fatalities caused by the COVID-19 vaccine demand accountability,” Mary Holland, president of the group, said in a statement. “This legislation represents a critical milestone in rectifying these injustices and paving the way for a more accountable future.”
Isn’t this unconstitutional? The government can’t pass a law today that makes some action illegal, and then prosecute you for doing it yesterday when it wasn’t illegal. Likewise, it can’t negotiate an agreement to induce a company to perform certain actions (e.g., to indemnify them from liability, so that releasing a drug prematurely poses less risk to them), and then change the terms of that agreement after the fact.
That would be like giving someone banknotes in exchange for precious metals, under the assurance that they will always be able to reverse the trade to get back their original assets, and then later declaring those banknotes worthless…
I guess we can see how our Representatives might come to think it can work this way.
My son was forced to take the vaccine a month after he had a bad bout of Covid–at which time he had immunity. That mandated practice should not have immunity. Nevertheless, retroaction prosecution is a dangerous practice
IMO they shouldn’t have had immunity from the get go.
Company immunity from being sued, or Persoanl immunity not received by the so-called vaccinations.? Turns out this whole COVID fraud was just another establishment manufactured crisis to seize power, that only the conspirators were allowed to never let go to waste. Again the wrong people get rewarded with the power, not based on science, but who is best at deceiving THE PEOPLE. So many hospitals got paid tens of thousands of government dollars for treating people who died WITH the COVID not OF the covid, including many who died in mortorcycle accidents but since they tested positive the hospitals got paid as “Deat by COVID”, giving way too much power to lab technicians who could get bought and sold for the right price with the Taxpayers getting the shaft.
Corporate immunity from being sued due to the so-called vaccine CAUSING PROBLEMS.
Note, during the times we had the shots pushed, we saw LESS AND LESS news reports ON ANY issues.. Almost like they wanted to SILENCE any such news.
Tried to edit previous reply
My son was forced to take the vaccine a month after he had a bad bout of Covid–at which time he had immunity. That mandated practice should not have immunity. Nevertheless, retroactive prosecution is a dangerous practice
No different than some areas retroactively removing the statute of limitations on accused sex crimes from 20 years ago
Why not make those responsible for forcing individuals to get the vaccine liable?