Congress Hears Testimony on SARS; Gregg says U.S. Needs More Vaccine Development
WASHINGTON, D.C.—A day after the Senate heard testimony from health experts on the growing threat of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg joined Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., at a press conference Tuesday where immunization advocates supported a bill that would encourage manufacturers to develop vaccines for 21st century health threats.
Both the House and Senate earmarked $16 million in the emergency supplemental spending bill for SARS research at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee-which Gregg chairs-assured the experts Monday that Congress would do all they could to help public health agencies fight the spread of the virus in the United States.
Dr. Julie Gerberding, executive director of the CDC, told the committee that health officials worldwide are trying to contain the virus as it continues to spread throughout Asia, Canada and the United States.
“Cases of SARS continue to be reported from around the world,” Gerberding said. “The disease is still primarily limited to travelers to Hong Kong, Singapore and mainland China, to health care personnel who have taken care of SARS patients and to close contacts of SARS patients.”
Gerberding told the committee that officials believe the virus is primarily being transmitted through droplet spread from infected people coughing and sneezing, but they also are concerned about airborne transmission and the possibility that objects that become contaminated in the environment could serve as modes of spread.
The committee also heard from World Health Organization executive director Dr. David Heymann, who testified live via satellite from Geneva about efforts around the world to prevent the spread of the disease. Heymann said the United States is the only country doing work to develop a vaccine for SARS, which has no known treatment.
There have been no known SARS related deaths in the United States, but 89 have died worldwide including seven in Canada.
Gregg said the American people are growing increasingly alarmed about the highly contagious virus, and expressed concern at the hearing Monday and at the press conference Tuesday that there is not enough incentive for researchers to develop and manufacture vaccines for new diseases, such as SARS.
Gregg said Tuesday that vaccine developers face a huge liability if people are injured by the immunizations because of a loophole in the current Vaccine Injury Compensation Program that allows families to sue vaccine manufacturers for billions of dollars.
“If the vaccine industry was half as lucrative as being a trial lawyer, we’d have vaccines for the common cold by now,” Gregg said.
The Improved Vaccine Affordability and Availability Act, introduced last week by Frist, would expand the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program of 1986 by extending the statute of limitations under which individuals can apply for compensation if they believe they were injured by a vaccine. The law would also close the loophole for major lawsuits and encourage researchers to develop more vaccines.
“We’re in desperate shape relative to producing vaccines in this country and we have to put in a regime that’s going to allow us to produce vaccines and still be fair to those who feel they’ve been injured,” Gregg said. “That’s why we have the vaccine injury compensation fund that’s been set up. It’s effective, and unfortunately it’s being skirted by various procedures.”
The bill is facing opposition, however, from several senators, including Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., the HELP Committee’s senior democratic member. Kennedy’s press secretary Jim Manley said Tuesday, however, that Frist was working with fellow HELP committee member Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., “try to make some improvements to the bill,” with the help of Kennedy, before the bill is discussed in committee Wednesday.
“There is a genuine desire to try to reach an agreement tonight (Tuesday) to make it a more bipartisan” so the committee hearing will run smoothly Wednesday Manley said.
In a statement released last week that Kennedy never actually delivered, the senator said the bill, as it was introduced, would deny parents and children their day in court, grant special protection to manufacturers and would nullify the pending claims of millions of families. While Gregg and Frist presented the names of dozens of health organizations Tuesday that support the bill, Kennedy said in the statement that there are many national parent groups who oppose the legislation.
Published in The Manchester Union Leader, in New Hampshire.
