The Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREPA) was tacked onto defense appropriations bill HR 2863 in the middle of the night and passed the House (398-19) on Dec.30, 2005. Members of Congress likely did not read the amended bill before casting a vote.

PREPA, part of P.L. 109-148, authorizes the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary to declare an emergency over any disease outbreak and order mass vaccination and drug intervention.

The act fails to specify any criteria for determining what constitutes an emergency or establish a compensation mechanism should people be killed or injured by interventions ordered by the HHS secretary. According to the Congressional Research Service analysis of PREPA, if deaths, disabilities or injuries occur from interventions covered under the act, even if there is evidence of deliberate misconduct by government employees, people will be prohibited from filing suit.

It should also be noted that interventions covered under PREPA do not require FDA approval.

In a news release issued after the bill passed, Senator Bill Frist (R-TN) said the measure "extends limited protections to manufacturers, distributors, and first responders, so that life-saving countermeasures, such as an H5N1 avian flu vaccine, will be developed, deployed and administered."

Several Democratic Senators introduced a new bill to supersede PREPA in February 2006, but it never passed.

PREPA surfaced publicly for the first time since it was into law almost three years ago. On Sept. 23, 2008, U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Mike Leavitt announced his willingness to invoke PREPA in case of a biological attack using anthrax and declared a non-specific, seven-year anthrax emergency through Dec. 31, 2015.

Leavitt’s "emergency" appears to be without cause. In a memo dated Sept. 23, 2008, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff stated, "There is not currently a domestic emergency involving anthrax. Additionally, there is not currently a heightened risk of an anthrax attack. We have no credible information indicating an imminent threat of an attack involving Bacillus anthracis."

Regardless, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), an advisory committee to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), is scheduled to convene October 22, 2008, to "recommend" anthrax vaccine be used for all first responders. The vaccine is currently administered almost exclusively to military personnel.

The most recent CDC-sponsored anthrax vaccine safety study, consisting of 1,564 subjects, was published October 1, 2008, in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study concludes that the vaccine is "safe" even though 229 severe adverse events and seven deaths were documented during this trial.

Additional information on serious adverse events associated with the anthrax vaccine can be found in the package insert or online at

http://bioport.com/pdf/emergent_biothrax_us.pdf

An anthrax emergency under PREPA was declared to force the anthrax vaccine onto an unsuspecting public while performing tort reform for the anthrax vaccine in the absence of legislative approval, indicating Leavitt knows there will be vaccine-induced injuries and deaths.

The anthrax emergency may be disastrous for Americans, but it is a boon for vaccine manufacturer Emergent Biosolutions (EB, formerly Bioport). Secretary Leavitt contracted to buy an additional $400 million worth of anthrax vaccine to add to the current $500 million currently in the nation’s stockpile. EB’s stock traded at a 52-week high the day after its PREPA immunity and seven-year HHS contact were announced.

It is unclear whether or not the current stockpile is still valid. The General Accounting Office reported recently that $100 million worth of vaccine was discarded 12 months ago due to expiration.

The most disturbing aspect of PREPA is the blanket immunity it provides government and industry. One article stated that "...Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA), and some other Democrats, along with consumer groups such as Public Citizen, derided the liability provision [of PREPA] as a giveaway to the drug industry. Kennedy said the bill makes it ‘essentially impossible’ for injured parties to sue for damages. He also argued that the measure allows the HHS secretary to use many common diseases as a reason to activate the liability shield."

In a Dec 21, 2005 news release issued by senators Kennedy, Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Chris Dodd (D-CT), it was stated, "Without a real compensation program, the liability protection in the defense bill provides a Christmas present to the drug industry and bag of coal to everyday Americans."

It is unclear under PREPA what would happen if individuals refuse to receive ordered countermeasures. However, under various other federal, state and local emergency plans, quarantines and forced compliance during a declared state of medical martial law are already on the books.

Communicate this information to your circles of friends and family. Go online to get more familiar with the subject and write letters to your local newspaper editor. For more information, go to www.AnthraxVaccine.blogspot.com, www.AnthraxVaccine.org and www.military-biodefensevaccines.org