Lawsuit
antidote

Anyone watching the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services lately might believe the entire U.S. public is about to become wheezing, oozing zombies losing blood and clumps of hair with every step. Since Oct. 1, HHS has quietly declared a series of public health emergencies concerning anthrax, smallpox, botulism and radiation sickness caused by a nuclear attack. But though Americans aren’t actually at risk, the declaration of a national health crisis means pharmaceutical companies marketing meds to counter these as-yet-unrealized epidemics get a little vaccine of their own: one against liability suits.

Originally a gift from Bill Frist and Dennis Hastert, a clause slipped into a 2005 Defense Department appropriations bill grants HHS authority to hand liability protections to everyone involved in bringing a medication from concept to ingestion, just as long as there is a public health emergency, or chance one might someday exist. The HHS admits there’s no emergency right now, but insist if they “wait until the day of an event…people could die.”

Critics argue that, without liability, there’s little incentive for drug manufacturers to concern themselves with product safety. Thanks to the HHS, the pharmaceutical companies are off the hook until at least 2016—one year after the emergency status is to be lifted.

by SCOTT SAXON