COVID Vaccine Manufacturers Hit By New Bombshell

This article originally appeared on The Epoch Times and was republished with permission.

Guest post by Zachary Stieber

Proposed legislation introduced on March 5 would strip COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers of liability protections, enabling U.S. residents injured by the vaccines 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 reads.

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. 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 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.”

“The American people deserve justice for the infringement on their personal medical freedom and those medically harmed deserve restitution,” Mr. Roy said.

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 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 proposed 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 respond by press time to requests by The Epoch Times for comment on the bill and have not appeared to comment publicly on it.

Read the full article at The Epoch Times.