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	news bulletins january 2003

• National Vaccine Information Center Calls Liability Protection With No Compensation for the Vaccine Injured 'Heartless'
• Center for Nonviolent Communication Parenting Project
• The First Mother-Friendly Childbirth Forum
• Positive Toy Action Guide

National Vaccine Information Center Calls Liability Protection With No Compensation for the Vaccine Injured 'Heartless'
This bulletin is taken from a press release from the National Vaccine Information Center

The nation's largest and oldest vaccine safety organization, the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC),called the Bush Administration's plan to protect drug companies, hospitals and medical workers from liability for smallpox vaccine injuries and deaths, while leaving smallpox vaccine victims without any help, a "heartless" public policy.

"It is heartless to leave the victims of a government-sponsored mass vaccination program without any recourse to either civil litigation or federal compensation for the vaccine injuries they sustain. It is wrong for the US government to tell Americans to take the smallpox vaccine and then, when someone dies or is injured because of that public policy, nobody takes responsibility," said NVIC President and Co-founder Barbara Loe Fisher.

The National Vaccine Information Center represents more than 40,000 parents of vaccine-injured children, health care professionals and those who advocate reform of the mass vaccination system. Fisher and other parent co-founders of NVIC worked with Congress in the early 1980s on the historic National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, which created the federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) to provide financial support for victims of federally recommended childhood vaccinations.

"We are very concerned that the attitude that the Department of Justice is taking toward smallpox vaccine victims is the same attitude that will prevail as Congress prepares to go back into the VICP to fix the many problems with it. Big drug company lobbyists and public health officials have always tried to discount the extent of vaccine injuries, and it is clear that an attempt will be made to shield drug companies from all liability while leaving most vaccine victims out in the cold," said Fisher.

The federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) was created under the 1986 law in response to a threat by drug companies that if Congress did not protect them from liability for vaccine injuries and deaths, they would stop producing vaccines. Since the VICP has been in operation, there have been 7,580 applications by victims of childhood vaccinations and 1,783 awards for a total of $1.4 billion. In 1995, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice changed the Table of Compensable Events and raised the standards to prove causation in order to limit the number of awards. As a result, nearly two out of three children who apply for financial help with their vaccine injuries are turned away.

The 1986 law protected access to the civil tort system to sue vaccine manufacturers or negligent doctors if the child was turned down for compensation. Only a handful of vaccine injury lawsuits had been brought against manufacturers since the 1986 law was passed until the recent threat of lawsuits by parents who believe their children developed autism because of the mercury preservative in many vaccines. In response to the mercury lawsuits, a clause was inserted into the Homeland Security Act to shield vaccine manufacturers from liability for components of vaccines, like mercury, that can cause brain and immune system injuries.

Both Democrat and Republican legislators have vowed to remove the liability shield clause but have indicated that vaccine manufacturers will be granted added liability protection when legislation is introduced to reform the federal vaccine injury compensation program. "In reality, no amount of money can compensate anyone for the loss of their life through vaccine injury or death. But cutting off the threat of lawsuits will cut off all incentive for the government and industry to make the compensation program work properly. It will remove the financial incentive for the drug companies to continually improve the safety of their vaccines. If you combine mandated vaccines with no liability and no accountability for anyone involved, it is a prescription for injustice and abuse of the public trust," said Fisher.

SOURCE National Vaccine Information Center Web Site: www.909shot.com

Center for Nonviolent Communication Parenting Project

The Center for Nonviolent Communication (CNVC) has created a list of valuable resources specifically for parents. The idea, coordinated by Inbal Kashtan, stems from the belief that "The ways we raise our children arise from and affect our view of human beings, our social systems, and the challenges we face as a species. By transforming our parenting we can embody the values we want in our world and contribute to our collective ability to live peacefully."

The project focuses on two main goals:

• To contribute to meeting parents' need for finding life-serving modes of communication with their children, each other, and themselves, thereby supporting the nurturing of a generation of people who grow up with life-serving paradigms.
• To support and enhance, through bringing NVC to parents, CNVC's mission of contributing toward a world in which everyone's needs are met and conflicts are resolved peacefully. Key activities of the project include writing and publishing articles on Nonviolent Communications (NVC) in several different media venues, developing a curriculum for an NVC workshop for parents, increasing the availability of workshops and resources for parents, and creating an email group for parents who want to live NVC within their families.

The First Mother-Friendly Childbirth Forum
Presented by the Coalition for Improving Maternity Services

The Coalition for Improving Maternity Services (CIMS) is a representative group from a broad spectrum of maternity care professional organizations. Members include midwives, physicians, nurses, childbirth educators, doulas and lactation consultants. In an effort to promote a wellness model of maternity care, the group created the Mother-Friendly Childbirth Initiative (MFCI), a document providing guidelines to assist hospitals, birth centers, and home birth services to provide culturally-competent evidence based maternity services. More than 50 organizations have endorsed the MFCI.

CIMS has developed a process through which hospitals, free-standing birth centers and home birth services can be designated as "Mother Friendly." Institutions and services achieving this designation would be assured of providing women with:

• Accurate information to make informed decisions
• Access to a full range of evidence based practices for their care
• Continuous support and referral services
• Access to midwifery care and baby-friendly breastfeeding support as defined by the World Health Organization's infant feeding guidelines

Positive Toy Action Guide
This time of year, many parents are disheartened by the quality of toys their children received as gifts from well-meaning friends and relatives. Toys that promote mindless consumerism, sexism and violence, and only interest children for a short period are abundant. To help adults chose positive toys for children that promote creative play, the nonprofit Teachers Resisting Unhealthy Children's Entertainment (TRUCE) has released the new 2002-2003 Toy Action Guide. TRUCE prepares the guide each year to help adults make thoughtful toy choices and promote healthy play throughout the year.

In addition to a detailed checklist of what adults can do to help promote positive play, the guide also provides guidelines for choosing toys of value and what kinds of toys to avoid. Specific examples of popular toys are given in each category, as well as a host of ideas for creative things you can do for free with your kids.

TRUCE recommends that adults choose toys that promote:

• Dramatic Play
• Manipulative Play with Small Objects
• Creative Arts
• Physical Play
• Game Playing

• Make electronic technology the focus of play
• Lure young girls into focusing on appearance
• Link non-nutritious food to play
• Glorify violence, including military and war toys
• Turn children into media and action figure characters using dress-up kits
• Are linked to TV programs, movies, and video games with content rated as appropriate for older audiences
• Undermine good parenting practices