by Paul Joseph Watson via Modernity.news,
MSNBC host Joe Scarborough was ridiculed after engaging in a bizarre, performative endorsement of the strength of Joe Biden’s cognitive health.
Thursday, March 7, 2024
New Bill Would Strip COVID-19 Vaccine Manufacturers Of Liability Protection
by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
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.”
Creative Med Tech OKd for Type 1 Diabetes Prevention Therapy Under Expanded Access
Creative Medical Technology Holdings, Inc., (NASDAQ:CELZ), a leader in biotech innovation, today announced a major stride in combating Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (T1D). The company has secured FDA authorization for an expanded access therapy using CELZ-201, a pioneering cell-based program in managing abnormal glucose tolerance and preventing T1D in high-risk individuals.
Immuron Positive Results Support Travelan® progress to Phase 3
- Immuron proceeding to Phase 3 registration strategy with the FDA
- Travelan® topline clinical trial results demonstrate protective efficacy with single daily dose
- 36.4% protective efficacy against Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) induced moderate to severe diarrhea was observed in the Travelan® group compared to the placebo group (primary endpoint)
- 66.7% protective efficacy against ETEC induced severe diarrhea was observed in the Travelan® group compared to the placebo group (secondary endpoint)
- 83.3% statistically significant reduction in the number of subjects in the Travelan® group requiring early antibiotic treatment post challenge compared to the placebo (secondary endpoint)
- 100% of the subjects requiring IV fluids post challenge were in the placebo (secondary endpoint)
- 55.6% reduction in the number of subjects experiencing adverse events associated with the ETEC challenge observed in the Travelan® group compared to the placebo group (secondary endpoint)
- Phase 2 clinical study data supports the excellent safety and tolerability profile of Travelan®
CERo Preclinical Research Supports Use of Candidate CER-1236 to Treat AML
CERo Therapeutics Holdings, Inc., (NASDAQ:CERO) ("CERo") an innovative immunotherapy company seeking to advance the next generation of engineered T cell therapeutics that employ phagocytic mechanisms today announced the publication in Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, a paper titled “Therapeutic Targeting of TIM-4-L With Engineered T Cells for Acute Myeloid Leukemia.” The paper details preclinical studies by CERo analyzing its lead clinical candidate CER-1236 in targeting Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML) tumor cells from human patients, and the candidate’s killing effects on these tumor cells. The results in the paper found that the target for CER-1236 is found in the large majority (83%) of leukemic cells extracted from the bone marrow from patients, and that more importantly CER-1236 effectively eliminated leukemic cells in the company’s experiments. Finally, the target for CER-1236 was found by CERo to be highly expressed and detectable across common AML genetic classification subtypes, including patient samples with adverse risk mutations in TP53, ASXL1 and RUNX1.
Health insurers slam renewed $185 million fee bid by Quinn Emanuel
A group of U.S. health insurers have asked a judge to deny a renewed request from law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan for $185 million in class action legal fees, calling the demand “indefensible” after an appeals court last year struck it down.
UnitedHealthcare Inc and Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc made their objection to Quinn Emanuel’s requested legal fee in a filing on Tuesday in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington, D.C.
Quinn Emanuel secured a $3.7 billion class action judgment for private insurers in 2020 over claims that the U.S. government failed to meet its obligations under an Obamacare provision aimed at encouraging medical coverage to uninsured Americans.
An appeals court last year struck down the $185 million in fees initially awarded to the firm, ruling that the lower court should conduct a new analysis of the amount in relation to the hours the lawyers invested. Now Quinn Emanuel and objectors — led by UnitedHealth and Kaiser — are clashing over whether a lower amount should be awarded.
Quinn Emanuel, UnitedHealthcare and Kaiser did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The 900-lawyer Quinn Emanuel has defended the $185 million award as appropriate for the "substantial risk" it took on and 10,000 hours it expended on the case.
UnitedHealth and Kaiser on Tuesday told the court that Quinn Emanuel used “inflated and unproven hours” to justify its request. The insurers said Quinn Emanuel should be awarded between about $11 million and $23 million.
“10,000 hours is a staggeringly high number of hours under the circumstances, and the objectors reasonably wonder — as should the court — how class counsel could have possibly spent so many hours on this case,” the insurers wrote.
Quinn Emanuel has said it already distributed the $185 million award within the firm.
It had an insurance policy on the award that required it to “prosecute its interests in the attorney’s fee dispute, vigorously, in good faith, and with the same zeal as if no insurance were in place,” court documents show.
The insurers said the insurance policy “essentially forecloses” Quinn Emanuel from seeking a "reasonable" award.
“If it did so, class counsel would face the risk that its insurers would claim that it had jeopardized its insurance coverage by not ‘vigorously prosecuting’ the award,” the insurers said.
The case is Health Republic Insurance Co v United States, U.S. Court of Federal Claims, No. 1:16-cv-00259-KCD.
Patients or payroll? US healthcare hack creates hard choices
Nearly two weeks after the ransomware attack on UnitedHealth's Change Healthcare unit that has disrupted claims processing across the U.S., doctors are beginning to face a no win choice - stop treating patients or stop paying staff.
The attack, which was disclosed on Feb. 21, shut down the system that many doctors depend on to verify insurance coverage, file claims and get paid, sparking a campaign by hospitals and doctors for the U.S. government to provide financial relief as it did during the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Tuesday the government said it would push its Medicare contractors to provide flexible payment terms.
"We have an impending disaster on our hands," said Mel Davies, chief financial officer of Oregon Specialty Group, an independent practice that treats more than 16,000 patients with cancer, infectious disease and autoimmune conditions.
So far, the practice has found ways to pay the $500,000 to $1 million daily cost of chemotherapy and other intravenous drugs delivered at their infusion centers out of cash flow, but reserves are running low.
"If this doesn't get fixed, we can't treat patients because we won't have the money to pay for labor to even keep our doors open,” she said.
Many practices across the country have been unable to submit insurance claims for reimbursement since the hack, according to the American Medical Association (AMA).
UnitedHealth on its website on Tuesday said as providers implement workarounds, 90% of claims are going through, but added that there are still "a number" of providers who are unable to submit claims or receive payment.
The company said it expects to bring the claims technology fully back online, but not until after it restores its pharmacy services connection, another line of its business brought down by the hack, which it said is targeted for Thursday.
Davies said her practice is exploring lines of credit and other measures as the trickle of payments coming in from insurance companies does not cover their bills.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/patients-payroll-us-healthcare-hack-110000673.html
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