June 13, 2010

Why were Merck's Lawyers at the Cedillo Appeal Last Week

Someone pointed out to me that Merck's lawyers were in the gallery listening to the Cedillo hearing last Thursday. This brings up a few questions for me.

What is Merck's interest here? (duh.) Is Merck helping out the DOJ in their defense? If so, what help are they offering?

And what of the rumors of Pharma payouts to families in the vaccine court? It is legend that on occasion, when a family has a slam dunk case, the pharmaceutical company that made the vaccine in question steps in privately, offers the family a shocking amount of money, and the case is quietly withdrawn from the VICP. Non-disclosures of course would be iron clad.

This of course protects companies like, let's say Merck, from having their product linked publicly to autism in a court ruling, and prevents precedent from being set.

Was Merck in DC to help out the DOJ? Or are they worried that this will get remanded back to the Special Master with instructions that read: "Do it again, this time with out corruption" and Michelle will win the case, so they are trying to figure out how big a check it would take to keep the Cedillos happy and quiet?

So... to the DOJ... are Merck's lawyers assisting you on this case?

And Merck (or any pharma willing to speak out) have you been paying families to leave the vaccine court to cover your billion dollar assets?

This is supposed to be a non-adversarial process. Is there anything on the planet more adversarial than a Pharma lawyer?

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