On February 15th, Senator Edward Kennedy introduced S.2291, The Responsible Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act, which aims to expand compensation and clarify liability issues that will arise if untested vaccines and countermeasures need to be distributed in the event of a pandemic disease outbreak.
The move is clearly designed to revise the sweeping liability protection inserted as part of the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act in the Defense spending bill conference report. That bill is widely regarded as incomplete since it does not provide for funding for a vaccine injury compensation program. It has also been widely criticized for providing overly zealous liability coverage of drug and vaccine companies as well as those delivering countermeasures to patients. In fact, it requires that for any injured person to get around the liability protection, they have to prove that a drug company or medical professional administering the drug or vaccine engaged in “willful misconduct.” This is, of course, next to impossible.
The new bill…
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