U.S. House of Representatives lawmakers on Tuesday introduced bipartisan legislation to overhaul the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP), proposing to move pending COVID-19 vaccine injury claims into the program.
The Vaccine Injury Compensation Modernization Act would transfer covered COVID-19 vaccine injury claims from the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP) into the VICP.
The bill would also update compensation limits, expand vaccine coverage and increase the number of officials who decide claims.
React19, a nonprofit that advocates for people injured by COVID-19 vaccines, called the proposal the “most significant effort in decades to restore fairness to America’s vaccine injury compensation system.”
“For React19’s community, the bill represents far more than a policy proposal,” the organization said. “It represents hope.”
React19 co-founder Brianne Dressen said the legislation reflects years of advocacy by people who felt they had been forgotten.
“Today is the culmination of years of relentless advocacy by people who refused to let their injuries be ignored,” Dressen said. “This legislation sends an important message: every American deserves to be heard.”
House Ways and Means Committee members Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) and Lloyd Smucker (R-Penn.) introduced the bill.
‘Everybody knows someone who has been injured now’
Wayne Rohde, a longtime vaccine injury compensation advocate and author who has written extensively about the VICP, said the bill addresses an issue lawmakers can no longer ignore.
“We need to address the injuries caused by the COVID vaccine,” Rohde told The Defender. “If we’re going to have a viable vaccine policy in the U.S., if we do not compensate those who have been injured, [then in] the next pandemic, you will see a complete withdrawal from the public to accept any countermeasures because everybody knows someone who has been injured now.”
At the same time, Rohde said he has reservations about moving COVID-19 vaccines into the VICP because the legislation could bring additional vaccines developed with similar mRNA technology into the program.
“I have concerns about the technology used to develop it, and that it will allow traditional vaccine manufacturers to use that same technology for other vaccines covered in the program,” he said.
He also noted that the bill would expand VICP coverage to additional adult vaccines.
“If they add RSV, shingles and dengue, what that tells me is that the next vaccine down the pike will be swept into program, too,” Rohde said.
The VICP currently covers only those vaccines the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends for routine administration to children and pregnant women.
Hellbound and Down 