U.S. Secretary for Health & Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. declared that he wants to “fix” the federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) to better serve those who suffer adverse events but has yet to elaborate on how.
On July 28, Kennedy posted to X about the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, which grants vaccine manufacturers general immunity from liability for injuries from their products and instead establishes the VICP through which affected individuals can seek financial compensation under certain circumstances.
“To date, the Vaccine Court has paid out $5.4 billion to 12,000 petitioners. But the VICP no longer functions to achieve its Congressional intent. Instead, the VICP has devolved into a morass of inefficiency, favoritism, and outright corruption as government lawyers and the Special Masters who serve as Vaccine Court judges prioritize the solvency of the HHS Trust Fund, over their duty to compensate victims,” he said.
“The structure itself hobbles claimants. The defendant is HHS, not the vaccine makers; and claimants are therefore facing the monumental power and bottomless pockets of the U.S. government represented by the Department of Justice. Furthermore, most of the Special Masters come from government, legal, or political posts, and typically display an extreme bias that favors the government side. There is no discovery, and the rules of evidence do not apply,” Kennedy added.
“Instead of ‘quickly and fairly’ awarding compensation, Special Masters dismiss over half of the cases. Most of those that proceed typically take 5+ years to resolve, with many languishing for more than 10 years as parents struggle to care for children suffering with often extreme disabilities,” he said.
Hellbound and Down 