Vaccine court
The VICP covers all vaccines listed on the Vaccine Injury Table maintained by the Secretary of Health and Human Services; in 2007 the list included vaccines against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough), measles, mumps, rubella (German measles), polio, hepatitis B, varicella (chicken pox), "Haemophilus influenzae" type b, rotavirus, and pneumonia. From 1988 until 8 January 2008, 5,263 claims relating to autism, and 2,865 non-autism claims, were made to the VICP. 925 of these claims, one autism-related (see previous rulings), were compensated, with 1,158 non-autism and 350 autism claims dismissed; awards (including attorney's fees) totaled $847 million. The VICP also applies to claims for injuries suffered before 1988; there were 4,264 of these claims of which 1,189 were compensated with awards totaling $903 million.
Seth Lederman
TNX-801 is a new potential vaccine for smallpox. TNX-801 is a synthetic form of horsepox, which is an otherwise extinct virus. Evolutionary analysis of modern vaccines indicates that the vaccine isolated and used by Edward Jenner to vaccinate against smallpox was either horsepox or something quite similar. A 1902 sample of vaccinia smallpox vaccine was characterized and found to be 99.7% similar to horsepox, further supporting the connection with Jenner's vaccine. The synthesis of horsepox was a collaboration with David Evans and Ryan Noyce at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. TNX-801 or horsepox is the first poxvirus, or poxviridae, to be synthesized and provides a platform for developing new vaccines against infectious disease and cancer. The finding that a horsepox vaccine was in clinical use in the U.S. in 1902 to protect against smallpox provides strong support for the efficacy of TNX-801 horsepox vaccine to protect against smallpox.