Q: If a press conference at the State Capitol falls on a busy #TuesdayNewsDay, and no mainstream media outlet in attendance reports on it, did it still happen?

A: Yes. Yes, it did.

I was there.

And so were several other reporters, representing WCCO Radio, KTSP, FOX, Star Tribune and more. A couple attendees even stormed out in the first few minutes.

In this press conference on Tuesday, May 14, MN lawmakers brought forward a common sense Resolution asking “the President and Congress to hold vaccine manufacturers liable for design defects that result in adverse side effects from vaccines.”  (See HF 2825, HF 2862, SF 2781, SF 2831 and SF 2911.)

In total, nearly 3 dozen legislators from both parties, including doctors and nurses, signed the Resolution. (Senate files can only have 5 signatures each, hence the 3 SFs.)

Rep. Jeremy Munson kicked off the conference explaining the backstory that led to “Vaccine Court”:

“In 1986 there were 7 vaccines routinely administered to American children. Yet there were so many catastrophic injuries caused by the schedule that some of the vaccine manufacturers threatened to stop producing [vaccines], due to the large damage rewards that they were ordered to pay when people were injured.  So the pharmaceutical industry heavily lobbied Congress to pass the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act. This unprecedented law established a compensation program…to compensate those killed or harmed by vaccines.”

Why does this Resolution matter?

After all, holding pharmaceutical manufacturers of vaccines liable for injuries caused by their design defects seems reasonable, right?

If your car has a defect that causes accidents and deaths and is eventually recalled, you’d want the maker held accountable to fix the recall on your vehicle and improve their product going forward.

If you heard that the baby food you fed your child was found to be contaminated by the manufacturer and your child was severely poisoned, you’d want the company to be held liable for damages and reimburse your child’s doctor visits, hospital stay, etc.

If your child was one of the 32 confirmed who died in Fisher-Price’s defective infant seat, you’d probably want to sue the company who made the defective product.

Not so with vaccines.

Today, when you or your child is injured or dies from the ingredients in vaccines, you cannot sue the manufacturer or take them to court.

Instead, you have to go up against the United States Department of Justice and sue the federal government in “Vaccine Court.”

Vaccine manufacturers are the only industry in this country that has enjoyed a complete liability shield ever since the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 went into effect October 1, 1988.

Just as vaccine injuries continued to occur prior to 1986, they have only increased, since the vaccine schedule in the U.S. is up from 7 in 1986 to 72 now.

Since 1988, over $4.1 billion has been paid out by you and I and other taxpayers in 30 years through the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.

That’s one of the many realities this press conference brought to light.

But this was no anti-vaccine event.

Kristin Sullivan, a parent and volunteer advocate with the Vaccine Safety Council of Minnesota pointed out that this “is not [about] whether or not you should vaccinate, it’s really about putting liability back onto Pharma.”

Rep. Jeremy Munson noted that the purpose of this Resolution is not to change a law in Minnesota. It’s to urge Congress to restore the NCVIA back to its original intent.

Let’s unpack the NCVIA a bit here. Because it can seem complex if you’re new to this topic.

When Congress passed the NCVIA in 1986, it was well-intentioned and required certain provisions:

1. Swift justice and generous compensation for the victims.
2.  ALL injuries and adverse effects from vaccines were to be reported by medical personnel to a national database, the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).
3. Congress charged HHS with the responsibility to improve vaccine safety, by requiring them to submit biannual reports to Congress.

But now 30+ years later and NONE of the above has been followed. Instead:

1. “Vaccine Court” is neither swift nor generous. At the conference Wayne Rohde, author of The Vaccine Court: The Dark Truth of America’s Vaccine Injury Compensation Program and father of a 21-year-old who was injured by vaccines at 13 months, explained that the process is “litigious and highly adversarial.” It can take up 4–10 years before a decision is reached or the case dismissed.
2. A government-commissioned study by Harvard researchers found that only 1% of injuries and deaths from vaccines are actually reported to VAERS! (in other words 99% of injuries and deaths go unreported.)  And many healthcare personnel don’t even know about it, much less the requirement to submit reports to it.
3. In 30+ years, no safety studies have been submitted to HHS, a lawsuit found.

Also speaking at the press conference was MN Attorney Randall Knutson, who handles anywhere from 35–50 cases at a time, representing people suffering vaccine injury.

Knutson said “Vaccine Court” is pretty much “Secret Court” since so few know about it.

He added that many of the people he represents die of their injuries before they get to compensation.

Knutson also pointed out:

Because the vaccine manufacturers cannot be sued, there is no motivation for them to test [their vaccines] for safety. There’s no reason for them to do it.”

Main Media Outlets Largely Ignored This

I watched for coverage of the event on Tuesday, planning to write a follow up piece here like I did on What Really Happened at the Minnesota Freedom Rally.

But few mainstream outlets touched it.

So instead of a “Here’s what they left out” post, I can report that 6 days later, most seem to have left it out entirely, and some, well…they just left!

I’ll let you draw your own conclusions from that.

I do want to give the reporters who stayed some benefit of the doubt, since there was a lot happening at the State Capitol that day (like stalemate budget talks and committee meetings before the legislative session ends) and other major news dominating the evening news cycle. (More on that below.)

Or maybe they just didn’t know what to do with a common-sense bipartisan vaccine topic that didn’t fit into the mainstream news’ dichotomized and polarizing frame that only sees two colors: pro-vaccine vs. anti-vaccine.

But despite the lack of mainstream media coverage, word of this Resolution quickly spread online on multiple local and national social media pages. 

Locally, Megan Olson with Alpha News reported on it.

Nancy Hokkanen wrote in depth on it, too. (Including how a Star Tribune reporter essentially tried to hijack the conversation.)

I’d encourage you to read their excellent reporting, as I don’t need to recap their articles here.

Radio Host Sue Jeffers discussed the press conference 3 days before the event, interviewing Sarah Copeland, a nurse and mother of a vaccine-injured child, about her experiences and involvement in this issue.

Capitol Report included key points from the press conference as well, starting at the 8:50 mark.

The question I ask now: Are Republicans correcting a 30+ year mistake here?

While some may see this Resolution as only a Republican-supported topic, there were some smart DFL signers as well, who can see beyond the two colors of pro- or anti-vaccine.

The way I see it, it seems appropriate for GOP lawmakers to take a lead on this Resolution. It was their party, after all, that allowed this 33-year mistake in the first place.

It was Republican President Ronald Reagan who reluctantly signed the 1986 law, under heavy pressure from lobbyists.

And in 2011, it was largely “conservative” Supreme Court justices that ruled in favor of protecting pharmaceutical corporations and removed the public’s ability to sue in civil court in SCOTUS’ Bruesewitz v. Wyeth case (Only “liberal” justices Sotomayor and Ginsburg dissented).

We all make mistakes. But wise are those who recognize it and seek to correct it.

So kudos to our MN GOP lawmakers for standing up now to take responsibility for what their party’s predecessors did not have the guts to do.

A True Tuesday News Day for Medical Freedom and Accountability

Also on Tuesday, May 14th, several thousand people, including Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Del Big Tree, gathered for a rally in Albany, New York to stand up for the vaccine injured and support vaccine rights.

MN Survivors Suing the Vatican … a parallel for vaccine-injured survivors?

Lastly, one of the main stories that dominated Minnesota news on Tuesday was Minnesota survivors of clergy abuse suing the Vatican, asking for information on thousands of sexual abuse cases that they say were kept secret by the church.

We’re willing to hear their stories and believe them now. But it wasn’t that long ago no one was willing to talk about that reality.

For decades the church and media kept a lid on it.

Individuals and children who were harmed by predatory priests were silenced, marginalized, bullied and/or excommunicated for speaking up about their experiences and asking for justice.

Sound familiar?

There is truly nothing new under the sun.

In one of the scenes of one of my favorite films, Best Picture-winner Spotlight, Attorney Mitchell Garabedian (played by the amazing of Stanley Tucci) talks to Mike Rezendes, one of the Boston Globe reporters, about how the Catholic Church covered up the sexual abuse of children for decades.

Mark my words, Mr. Rezendes. If it takes a village to raise a child. It takes a village to abuse one.”

Mark those words, dear reader. Mark those words.

That’s why this Resolution matters.

What are your thoughts? Do you support this Resolution? Should manufacturers be held liable for design defects?