Rare claims of vaccine injury steered to obscure US office
Though most people who protect themselves with a coronavirus vaccine will never develop serious side effects, such rare cases are barred from federal court and instead steered to an obscure program with a record of seldom paying claims.
The Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program, which wasset upspecifically to deal with vaccines under emergency authorization, has just four employees and few hallmarks of an ordinary court. Decisions are made in secret by government officials, claimants can’t appeal to a judge and payments in most death cases are capped at $370,376.
That stands in contrast to the much more established federal vaccine court, which decides cases of injury from most childhood vaccine sand other common inoculations.
George Washington University law professor Peter Meyers has followed the countermeasures program for years and bluntly calls it a “black hole,” obtaining federal documents this summer showing it has paid fewer than 1 in 10 claims in its 15-year history.
Vaccines historically provide broad protection with little risk but come with occasional side effects just as any other drugs. Massive coronavirus vaccine trials involving tens of thousands of participants have so far surfaced no signs of serious side effects, and few unexpected adverse reactions have been reported in the early days of COVID-19 vaccine distribution in the U.S.
But experts are concerned that with the sheer volume of people expected to get coronavirus vaccines in the U.S. — more than 200 million — even a successful rollout with relatively few ill effects could be enough to swamp the program. What’s more, such cases are complex and it’s often hard to prove a direct link between claims of illness and a vaccine.
The counter measures program was created by a 2005 law to allow pharmaceutical companies and government entities the freedom to develop and distribute vaccines to meeturgent public health needs without the threat of being overrun with expensive liability lawsuits. Under the program, drug makers can only be sued for “willful misconduct.”
The vast majority of the claims under the program have stemmed from the H 1 N 1 swine flu vaccine a decade ago. And the low number of people awarded money — 29 out of 499— reflects its design.
Most claims have to be filed within a year of getting a vaccine, regardless of when side effects show up, and the program does not pay fees for lawyers or expert witnesses. It provides little opportunity for those filing claims to participate. And the awards do not pay for suffering or damages.
By contrast, vaccine court allows for claims within three years, pays for lawyers and witnesses, grants awards for pain and suffering, and permits appeals all the way to the Supreme Court.