IMMUNIZATION PROGRAMS
In the 1950s, medical breakthroughs resulted in
new vaccines to combat such diseases as polio
and measles. States responded by requiring
mandatory immunization for schoolchildren.
One result was the near eradication of diseases
that had previously been crippling or fatal. A
second, unforeseen result was adverse side
effects of the vaccines, which led to lawsuits
against drug companies. Between the 1960s and
late 1980s,millions of dollars in litigation forced
drug manufacturers to retreat from the market
and prompted government action to help pro-
tect companies and ensure their presence in the
vaccine market. Concern has also been raised
over this problem’s effect on the development of
a vaccine against AIDS.
The 1950s saw great successes in the battle
against childhood diseases. For example, pio-
neering researchers Drs. Jonas E. Salk and Albert
B. Sabin developed vaccines that brought the
dreaded virus poliomyelitis under control. This
revolutionary work meant that a once rampant
disease now could be stopped with a simple
inoculation. In 1952 alone, more than 57,000
cases of polio in the United States left approxi-
mately 21,000 people crippled; in 1985, only
four cases of polio were reported in the nation.
Measles was also effectively halted: it killed over
2,000 people in 1941 but only two in 1985. And
by the end of the 1970s, smallpox was virtually
eliminated around the world.
Not only the vaccines accomplished this suc-
cess. Government action helped, by enabling the
widespread inoculation of children. By the
1960s, states had begun administering vaccines
to school-age children, and their programs ulti-
mately became mandatory. As of 2003, each
state requires parents to submit a proof of
immunization before enrolling their child in
school; thus, the majority of young children in
the United States are inoculated against such
diseases as measles, polio, mumps, meningitis,
and diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, and whoop-
ing cough.
Vaccines are never entirely safe. Side effects
range from mild to serious—from swelling and
fever to brain damage and death. These dangers
were recognized early on. Between 1961 and
1963, federal agencies noted occasional serious
side effects from polio vaccines. By 1964, the
surgeon general’s Special Advisory Committee
on Oral Poliomyelitis Vaccine found that 53
cases of polio could apparently be linked to the
three types of the vaccine.
Public health authorities have nevertheless
consistently urged the continuation of vaccine
programs, arguing that the extremely minor
incidence of adverse side effects is far out-
weighed by the health and lives they preserve.
The Centers for Disease Control estimates, for
example, that 1 in 310,000 children is adversely
affected by the diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus
(DPT) vaccine. According to the AMERICAN
MEDICAL ASSOCIATION, one in 3.2 million doses
of polio vaccine will cause paralysis, and one in
1 million doses of measles vaccine will cause
brain damage.
Beginning in the 1960s, vaccine-related
injuries produced expensive litigation.
Aggrieved families brought suit against drug
manufacturers, sometimes winning large dam-
ages awards. These suits proceeded on a number
of theories: NEGLIGENCE, failure to warn, design
defect, production defect, breach of WARRANTY,
and STRICT LIABILITY. In 1970, for instance,
Epifanio Reyes, the father of eight-month-old
Anita Reyes, filed suit against Wyeth Laborato-
ries, charging that the company’s vaccine had
transmitted paralytic polio to his daughter. He
claimed strict PRODUCT LIABILITY,breach of
warranty, and negligence. The jury returned an
award of $200,000, and the verdict was upheld
on appeal in Reyes v. Wyeth Laboratories, 498
F.2d 1264 (5th Cir., 1974), cert. denied, 419 U.S.
1096, 95 S. Ct. 687, 42 L. Ed. 2d 688 (1974).
The lawsuits increased costs for drug com-
panies, which, even when successful in court,
faced increased expenses in liability insurance.
Fearing greater losses in court, manufacturers
fled the vaccine market. Between the mid-1960s
