Gregg Moves Smallpox Compensation Bill to Senate Floor Despite Heavy Criticism
WASHINGTON—Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) successfully moved his smallpox vaccine compensation package through the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Wednesday by a vote of 11-10, despite scathing criticism led by the committee’s senior Democrat Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.).
Gregg’s bill would encourage health-care workers and other first responders to get smallpox vaccines by ensuring them compensation for any injuries or side effects. The smallpox vaccine, said Gregg, is one of the most reliable ways to protect the United States from the threat of a biological terror attack.
“This is not a legal issue. This is not a health issue. This is a national security issue,” Gregg said. “We are at war. We have a fundamental obligation as members of the Senate to put our differences aside and work together to make sure the American people are protected from the worst our enemies can do. The passage of this legislation is vital to the safety of the American people.”
Kennedy blasted Gregg’s plan, saying the flat compensation payment of $262,000 a year is “heartlessly inadequate.” He said there should be no caps on compensation for lost wages and medical expenses. and said Gregg’s bill failed to adequately compensate victims of minor injuries.
Kennedy said some states already have ended vaccination programs because the current system is “a disaster.” The White House has urged thousands of health-care workers and other first responders, including firefighters and police officers, to get the vaccines.
“This is a ‘tin cup’ response to a major health threat and I think it insults the first responders in this country,” Kennedy said.
Gregg fired back, calling Kennedy’s statistics “flawed,” and saying that his plan was “a genuine attempt to address the issue.”
“Today, anybody who gets vaccinated … gets nothing,” he said. “And that’s the way it’s going to be until we pass this bill.”
Smallpox vaccination programs have come under harsh criticism since they began in early February. . Both Illinois and New York halted the vaccines after three people suffered fatal heart attacks soon after being inoculated. Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon is one of the latest health facilities to stop giving the vaccines.
The House of Representatives killed a similar bill Monday, as 21 Republicans sided with Democrats to vote against it. Both of New Hampshire’s Republican Reps., Jeb Bradley and Charlie Bass, voted in favor of the bill.
Published in Foster’s Daily Democrat, in New Hampshire.
