WASHINGTON - U.S. Senate Republicans have reportedly abandoned a provision from a proposed $900 billion Covid-19 stimulus package that would shield health care providers and other employers, who have followed recommended safety guidelines, from virus exposure claims.
The immunity provision was one of the sticking points to completion of the economic relief package, the second since March, and lawmakers are up against a Friday at midnight deadline before a temporary funding bill runs out. Work to finalize the package is likely to spill over into the weekend.
Leading the opposition to the liability shield has been Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat and a “creation of and servant to the trial bar,” according to Chicago-based political analyst, Chris Robling.
“His principal interest on the Judiciary Committee [where he is seeking to succeed Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) as chair or ranking member] is increasing causes of action for money damages,” Robling told the Record.
“In the case of Covid, he is not satisfied with our devastated economy. He thinks businesses should pay more, even into bankruptcy — because it is the wish of his political patrons. Jobs, businesses and growth for regular people don’t count — only money to the trial bar does.”
Sixteen states have thus far approved immunity shields for businesses, schools, health care providers and other employers who face the prospect of predatory Covid lawsuits even if they have followed government safety guidelines.
Business defense lawyers say that a federal act, the PREP Act shields vaccine manufacturers, and it may cover other business and institutions from Covid claims in certain instances, but protection is not guaranteed.
“Businesses, schools, religious institutions and others need more assurance than the PREP Act offers,” said Cary Silverman, partner at Shook, Hardy & Bacon, for an earlier story.
“That is why there is strong interest in a straight-forward legislative solution at the federal or state level that removes the threat of liability when they do their best to follow public health guidance, which is continually evolving with science and conditions.”
In Illinois, health care workers, organized under Healthcare Heroes Illinois, are urging Gov. JB Pritzker to reinstate a level of protection from lawsuits that he granted at the outset of the pandemic. That protection expired in June.
“From the outset of this global health crisis, the first-responders in the field and the doctors and nurses in the ERs, ICUs and skilled nursing facilities didn’t flinch at responding to the call of duty to protect their patients, while opportunistic TV lawyers were already drawing up plans to turn the tragedies of this pandemic into their own personal profit centers,” Healthcare Heroes Illinois spokesman Paul Gaynor told The Center Square.