jon: new information on a story that sparked outrage across the country, testimony is set to begin and opening arguments are underway in the trial of the former president of a compounding pharmacy known for meningitis outbreak that killed dozens of people in 2012. here s what we know so far. 15 jurors will hear the case. he stands accused of murdering 25 people, and he could face life in prison if convicted. 64 people in 20 different states died as a result of the outbreak, another 700 were sickened. the illness traced to tainted steroid injections manufactured by the pharmacy that he ran at that time. he has pleaded not guilty. joining us now, jonas fillmore, criminal defense attorney, and heather hansen, trial attorney. heather, i will start with you. you are something of an expert on medical malpractice. i am surprised at the murder charges in a case like this.
actually make their ideas, their plans, their companies happen. what they don t have this experience. 250,000 veterans are small business owners in california. jon that leads the nation. jon: and the military have been criticized for not doing a better job of preparing veterans for getting out there in the civilian world, so it is great to see these people picking up some of that slack. will carr, thank you. jenna: right now, a former executive at a massachusetts compound and pharmacy is on trial in federal court blame for a deadly meningitis outbreak peered you probably remember the horrible story. he is charged with 25 counts of second-degree murder. he faces a number of federal racketeering charges as well. 64 people died in 2012 because of this outbreak that was caused by tainted steroid injections made by the new england compound and pharmacy. another 750 people across 28 states got sick. prosecutors blamed the tainted
not just the measles. we had a meningitis outbreak in california and when the immunity is below 90% that other children can get the diseases very easily. and in los angeles, literally, some of those pockets in beverly hills have immunization rates less than 30%. less than developing world. we have to do something about this. and it s going to be done. doctor, good to see you. thank you, sir. thanks thomas. all right. as we have been telling you this hour waiting for remarks of president obama set to speak in just a few minutes in tennessee. talk about the affordable care act. also, we lernled that the president stopped by a private residence to collect a letter writer to bring to the event. we re going to carry the president s remarks live. we ask you to stick around and we ll be right back. years ago. like our van. yeah. we need to sell it.
for more dr. cory aber. what is your professional conclusion? is there risk in vaccines to the level where it has people have to be concerned about it being mandatory? well honestly, after doing research for the last 20 years in this field, at this point there are no scientifically-based studies to say that there is anymore risk in vaccination that would cause you to not want to vaccinate your child because of the risks of the actual diseases that are out there in the united states right now. for example, we re talking about the measles vaccine. measles vaccine is very important. but in california we also had a measles outbreak. we also had a meningitis outbreak. we also had a pertussis outbreak. and let s be very clear here.
it was only 131 cases in the state of california. only 24 of those were among school-aged children and they were not none of them contracted it in school or gave it to anyone in school. we actuallies i would proclaim 131 cases of measles as a victory for our quarantine and isolation procedures. doctor should parents be afraid to vaccinate their children? you know it s 2015 and i m concerned that we are still having this debate. we can try to minimalize the measles outbreak at disneyland but we shouldn t try to minimalize the pertussis outbreak in california which has killed kids as well as the meningitis outbreak at santa barbara. so we have to make sure that we don t get into emotion when we talk about vaccination. emotion has no place in the paradigm so you think california did the right thing, you think california did the right thing?