ARIZONA LEGISLATURE GETS EYE-OPENING VACCINE HISTORY LESSON FROM ICAN LEGISLATE’S LEAD ATTORNEY
ICAN Legislate lead attorney Aaron Siri was again invited to testify in front of a state legislature—this time on May 25, 2023, to discuss COVID-19 vaccine safety before the Arizona State Legislature. More specifically, he walked the audience through the answer to the question, “How did the vaccine oversight system get so broken?”
Speaking to a committee that included the heads of the Arizona Senate and House health committees, Siri started with an overview of the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act that granted vaccine manufacturers immunity from liability.
Siri explained that leading up to 1986, there were only three routine vaccines given to children in America: DTP, MMR, and OPV. The amount of liability that the vaccine manufacturers were facing from injuries from those products far exceeded the revenue that those products were bringing in.
He explained to the legislators that the pharmaceutical companies threatened to stop making the vaccines. Instead of insisting that they develop better, safer vaccines, Congress decided to give the companies immunity so that no one could sue them. That “solution” is what broke the market forces that assured product safety with regards to vaccines. It removed the financial incentive the companies had to make safer products.
Siri shared that one of the most damaging parts of the Act was that Congress didn’t just give pharmaceutical companies immunity for just those three vaccines existing in 1986 but, instead, Congress gave immunity for vaccines developed for children thereafter.
Siri then proceeded to show how the 1986 Act directly led to a flood of poorly studied vaccines being brought to market and, ultimately, set the stage for the rapid approval of the COVID-19 vaccines as “safe and effective.” Siri’s entire testimony is based almost entirely on data obtained from government websites, Freedom of Information Act requests, depositions of leading vaccine scientists, and lawsuits. This is information every American should have about the current state of vaccine oversight in this country—but doesn’t.
ICAN Legislate encourages each supporter to share this video, especially with local legislators, and ask the question: After listening to this presentation, do you remain confident in the U.S. government’s ability to bring any vaccine to market safely?