Posted by: McQ on Friday, May 05, 2006 Harry Reid issued a statement concerning the White House pandemic flu plan. It's the usual mix of faint praise and "we can do it better" rhetoric one has come to expect from the left side of the isle. But one paragraph struck me as worth discussing: "Finally, we need to make protecting the American people - not special interests - our highest priority. To accomplish this task, we need to address a provision that was inserted into legislation in the dead of night without any debate last December. This new law gives unprecedented and sweeping liability protections to the pharmaceutical industry even when Americans are harmed by their medicines. The liability provisions do not provide for compensation to victims who are injured and shield manufacturers even if their actions constitute reckless wrongdoing. I support reasonable protections for vaccine makers whose products may cause unforeseen or unpreventable harm, but protections must be narrowly tailored and must be accompanied with protections and compensation for injured patients."Aside from the complaint about a provision which was, per Reid, "inserted into the legislation in the dead of night without any debate", I'm interested in the fact that liability protections have been afforded the pharmeceutical industry. On the face of it, and having not read the provisions, I find that to be more good than bad. One reason is because we are completely at the mercy of foreign providers for flu vaccine. If there is indeed a pandemic looming, that is not a position we wish to find ourselves. However, because of the lack of such liability protection has all but dried up vaccine providers here in the US. Medicines and vaccines have different effects on different people. And we all risk our health to some degree when we take any medicine. Side effects found in testing are stated and expected, to include a certain percentage of the population for which the dose may be lethal. For most of us, it's a crap shoot everytime we take a new med. One of the primary reasons the FDA exists is to ensure rigorous testing of new drugs and vaccines and determine whether the risk to benefit ratio is acceptable. Few, if any meds are approved that don't carry a risk for someone. It has, for the most part, done a good job (with some spectacular exceptions). I won't go into how I believe its procedures are sometimes too extensive and hold good medicines off the market longer than is necessary. But for the most part, our system seems to work. What doesn't work is the expectation that life is risk free and that we should assume it is and thus are entitled to unlimited compensation when our false assumption doesn't prove true. While large corporations like oil and pharmaceutical are popular targets for politicians, our lives have been immeasurably helped by their products. They should certainly take reasonable responsibility and liability for their products. But that liability shouldn't be unlimited and open ended. "Reckless wrongdoing" is one thing. Acceptable risk is another. No one will support a company which recklessly endangers the health of consumers. However, because of the unique makeup of every human being we have to accept the risk medicines and vaccines bring as weighed against the vast good they do. We also need to understand and accept the consequences of using them if we so choose too without expecting to own the pharmaceutical company should our expectations not be met. Limiting liability, on the whole, is a smart move by Congress, especially if we want to be independent of foreign providers who may provide an inferior product and puts even more consumers at risk with no legal recourse. |
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