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SickofLawsuits.Org Health Hazard Alert: Flu Vaccine Shortage is Nothing to Sneeze At

Posted on: Thursday, 8 December 2005, 18:00 CST

WASHINGTON, Dec. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- The flu vaccine shortage is just one of many symptoms of a healthcare system in crisis. "Get rich" lawsuits filed by some greedy personal injury lawyers have driven our vaccine makers out of business.

For example, all U.S. flu vaccines are made by two companies, neither of which is based in the United States. A few decades ago, 26 companies made vaccines here, and now only four remain and none make the flu vaccine.

Unfortunately greedy personal injury lawyers haven't stopped with vaccines. Our doctors, lawyers and the makers of our medicines may be as scarce as the flu vaccine if frivolous lawsuits and irresponsible personal injury lawyers are allowed to plague our civil justice system.

Consider the following: * Because of litigation fears, 79 percent of doctors surveyed recently said they had ordered more tests on patients than they would have if their decision were based soley on their professional judgment of what is medically needed. * Almost half of the money spent by physician insurers goes toward defending cases that ultimately are closed without any compensation paid to the claimant. In other words, the cases lacked sufficient merit to result in an award to the person bringing the suit. * More than 70 percent of patients believe it is likely that product liability litigation or fear of it has caused pharmaceutical companies to avoid research and development in certain product areas. (Pharmaceutical Liability Survey, Harris Interactive, July 15, 2003)

The lawsuit problem in America makes personal injury lawyers rich, but literally makes the rest of us sick. Persons wanting to join the fight against lawsuit abuse to help save our healthcare system can join Sick of Lawsuits at http://www.sickoflawsuits.org/.

Sick of Lawsuits is a nonpartisan, grassroots campaign of Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse. We have more than 165,000 supporters across the country from every walk of life, including doctors, healthcare professionals, small business owners, workers, homemakers and retirees.

SickofLawsuits.org

CONTACT: Dr. Evelyn Tobias Merrill of SickofLawsuits.org,+1-800-476-1442

Web site: http://www.sickoflawsuits.org/

Source: PRNewswire

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