Beats me. Sorry, just kidding. I’m just a little bleary from looking at the web sites about the definition of “design defect” related to vaccines as it applies to the Iowa bill to make vaccine manufacturers waive their immunity from lawsuits about vaccine related injuries.
I am sympathetic to anyone who in fact has suffered a vaccine related injury.
That term “design defect” has been bugging me for days now and I just found out that this has been the subject of states vs federal legal wrangling for years. I’m not up to explaining all the legalese but there is a really tangled trail of cases in Georgia and Pennsylvania roughly around 15 years ago that ultimately led to a U.S. Supreme Court decision saying, essentially, the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program and the federal Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of the 1980s preempts all state level vaccine design defect claims.
I think that explains why the Iowa bill says that vaccine manufacturers have to waive their immunity from suits if they want Iowans to get their vaccines.
I can hear the groans and shouts of dissent even as I write this. Hey, you can’t make this up. Talk to your legislator or lawyer about it.
I’m not sure why Iowa would want to repeat the grind that Georgia and Pennsylvania went through which led to the conclusion that you can file vaccine design defect claims at the state level and not have to repeat history which would likely lead to any decisions made there being reversed in federal court.
And I’m not sure why any vaccine manufacturer would want to fight that battle in Iowa either. They might just steer around us and take their vaccines elsewhere.
The beginning of the Georgia story.
The end of the Georgia story.
The beginning and the end of the Pennsylvania story.
Vaccines aren’t perfect. They are neither 100% safe nor 100% effective. However, I support having vaccines available to help keep us healthy and the right to choose getting a vaccine. That’s why I don’t support a bill that I believe would make them less accessible.
Go Retire Psychiatrist 
“Design defect” flies in the face of everything we know about medicine. Vaccines (like viruses and bacteria) are not islands unto themselves. They are active in very heterogeneous human organisms. It is that heterogeneity or more accurately biological diversity that accounts for adverse effects – many severe. That is why no medication or vaccine is 100% safe or effective. Political ideology and the trial lawyer lobby may be overriding factors.
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Well said, George.
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