Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2002 03:41:02 -0500 (EST)
From: belmonte@MIT.EDU (Matthew Belmonte)
To: senator@kennedy.senate.gov
Subject: support the Lieberman-Daschle amendment to the Homeland Security bill

Dear Senator Kennedy

I write in support of the Lieberman-Daschle amendment to the Homeland Security
bill, and in opposition to the Homeland Security bill as a whole.  By removing
from the Homeland Security bill language that protects vaccine manufacturers
against lawsuits, the Lieberman-Daschle amendment would separate two utterly
unrelated issues that should not be addressed in the same piece of legislation.

Recently, vaccine manufacturers in the United States removed the mercury-based
preservative thimerosal from multiple-dose vaccines, amid speculation that
exposure to thimerosal may have contributed to developmental disorders such as
autism.  Whilst is is too early to tell whether or not this hypothesis will be
supported by epidaemiological evidence, suits against some vaccine
manufacturers have already been filed, and more are likely.  Rather than
short-circuiting this legal and scientific process by making the vaccine
manufacturers immune to suit, Congress should allow the evidence-gathering on
this issue to proceed.

As for the Homeland Security bill in general, as I wrote to you on 25 July,
this proposal would needlessly expand the federal bureaucracy and reify the
United States' recent, impulsive moves towards expanded police powers and
gutted civil liberties.

Again, I urge you to support the Lieberman-Daschle amendment to the Homeland
Security bill, and to oppose the Homeland Security bill as a whole.

Matthew Belmonte
[address]