Court hears cases on vaccine ‘ injuries’

In Maura Urchek’s April 5 letter, “Vaccines are harmful to some,” an assertion is made that the very existence of the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program demonstrates that vaccines are not safe.

The program is run by the federal government. It consists of a “vaccine court” that pays plaintiffs claiming vaccine injuries if their claims meet certain requirements.

The court was founded in the 1980s in the interest of public health. At that time, vaccine makers were under a barrage of lawsuits relating to the “whole cell” pertussis vaccine (which is no longer in production). They were threatening to cease production of many vaccines. Companies make little money off of them, not enough to pay for those lawsuits. The court sought to hear cases on vaccine “injuries,” allowing the vaccine makers to stay open. Funds for the court come from a tax on vaccines.

In the vaccine court, the evidence required to win a payout is lower than that required in civil trials. In fact, Jennifer Keelan, Dalla Lana and Dr. Kumanan Wilson wrote in the American Journal of Public Health that the vaccine court is “designed to err on the side of compensating injury cases when an evidence-based analysis or consensus medical opinion would reject a causal relationship.”

In plain English: Lawyers and judges diagnose vaccine injuries in those that the medical and scientific communities would not. Vaccines are safe.

Dr. Sean Gallagher Pediatric resident Nationwide Children’s Hospital Columbus