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[Ben Kowitt/The Daily Pennsylvanian]

Two lawyers met at a cocktail party. "How's business?" inquired the first. "Rotten," said the second. "Yesterday I chased an ambulance for 20 miles. When I finally caught up to it, there was already another lawyer hanging onto the bumper."

Ah, lawyers, the butt of so many jokes we love to share. Really, who doesn't love a good lawyer joke every now and then? Yet as fun as they can be for a while, there comes a breaking point where the sequence of jokes transitions from amusing to disheartening, because we realize, to a large extent, that they're true. Perhaps we need lawyers, like our jokes, in moderation.

I'll be fair; he's only implicated indirectly this time. John Edwards is a lawyer. So, in fact, is John Kerry, along with many other politicians -- Republicans and Democrats alike. But John Edwards is a special kind of lawyer -- he's a personal injury lawyer, of the ilk that tends to shoot off some flares in the minds of Americans.

On a related note, there is something of a flu shot shortage in this country; maybe you're aware of it, maybe you've encountered problems because of it. That's because American pharmaceutical companies are not willing to undergo the costs and take the risk of producing the vaccines. Granted, trial lawyers aren't completely to blame for this dilemma, but they are part of the greater problem as a whole. One minor mishap, a defective vaccine out of millions, can demolish an enterprise from the lawsuits that engulf a corporation, chew it up and spit it out bankrupt. And the scary part is, lawyers don't even need a client to sue.

In that case, people won't just be without a flu shot for the season, but also a slew of other perennial prescription drugs that company produced, in addition to future medicines that could have been researched and developed for various illnesses. Thus the need to reform medical liability, colloquially known as tort reform, is of great concern and should ideally extend beyond party lines.

Thomas Bray of The Detroit News wrote, "In the name of safety and compassion, we have succeeded in creating a world that is actually more dangerous, not less dangerous ... and in the name of punishing the 'rich,' we have created a world where nobody can make a profit producing needed goods."

Going into the year, there were two makers of the vaccine. In early October, however, some 48 million vaccines were unable to arrive in the United States from Britain due to a bacterial contamination in some of the batches. The company producing this vaccine was American-based Chiron; now with its departure, there is only one major manufacturer remaining, French pharmaceutical Aventis Pasteur. Don't think that this issue is unrelated to all those lawyers I mention in this context.

John Edwards himself is not responsible for the vaccine shortage. The rumor circulating that he sued Chiron on behalf of a flu-stricken client is, alas, nothing more than an urban legend. But that still does not change the fact that, by and large, the fear of devastating lawsuits -- by those in Edwards' profession -- outweighs the incentives for companies to manufacture flu shots, regardless of how many it could help.

According to Newsweek, up to 56 million Americans contract the flu each year; in that number are 200,000 hospitalizations and as many as 36,000 deaths. It notes that, while routine vaccination is usually a safe bet to ward off the sickness, "profit-conscious drug companies have fled the business in droves in recent years, leaving the health system ever more vulnerable to shortages and interruptions in supply." The Washington Post points out that Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, an American company, manufactured flu shots up until two years ago, admitting that producing the vaccines was not worth the trouble.

Wyeth wasn't the only company holding that sentiment. William Tucker of the Discovery Institute offers a staggering figure. He states that, in 1967, there were 26 American companies making some kind of vaccine, not limited to flu; by 1999, that number had dwindled to four, none of which were making flu shots any longer.

Tucker argues that the relatively recent legal concept "liability without fault" is responsible for this shift. He states that previously one had to prove that the manufacturer was at fault, but now the manufacturer is liable for harm from its products when someone cries foul play, guilty or not. "Add that to the jackpot awards that come from pain-and-suffering and punitive damages," Tucker notes, "and you have a legal climate that no manufacturer wants to risk."

My friend Lloyd told me, "At least I'll sleep better at the possibility that I may wake up to fewer lawyers." I don't know how much he means that, and I can't say that that's a real solution to the tort reform crisis this nation faces. We need lawyers, and we need vaccines, but the two shouldn't negate each other. Like I said before, everything in moderation.

Michelle Dubert is a College sophomore from Closter, N.J. Department of Strategery appears on Thursdays.

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