National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program
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The Office of Special Masters of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, popularly known as "vaccine court", administers a
The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP or NVICP) was established by the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act (NCVIA), passed by the United States Congress in response to a threat to the vaccine supply due to a 1980s scare over the DPT vaccine. Despite the belief of most public health officials that claims of side effects were unfounded, large jury awards had been given to some plaintiffs, most DPT vaccine makers had ceased production, and officials feared the loss of herd immunity.[1]
Since its inception to May 2023, it has awarded a total of $4.6 billion, with the average award amount between 2006 and 2020 being $450,000, and the award rate (which varies by vaccine) being 1.2 awards per million doses administered. The Health Resources and Services Administration reported in July 2022 that "approximately 60 percent of all compensation awarded by the VICP comes as result of a negotiated settlement between the parties in which HHS has not concluded, based upon review of the evidence, that the alleged vaccine(s) caused the alleged injury".[2] Cases are settled to minimize the risk of loss for both parties, to minimize the time and expense of litigation, and to resolve petitions quickly.[2]
National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act
The U.S.
The VICP covers all vaccines listed on the Vaccine Injury Table maintained by the Secretary of Health and Human Services; in 2007 the list included vaccines against
As of December 2020[update], filing a claim with the Court of Federal Claims requires a $402.00 filing fee,[8] which can be waived for those unable to pay. Medical records such as prenatal, birth, pre-vaccination, vaccination, and post-vaccination records are strongly suggested, as medical review and claim processing may be delayed without them. Because this is a legal process most people use a lawyer, though this is not required.[4] By 1999 the average claim took two years to resolve, and 42% of resolved claims were awarded compensation, as compared with 23% for medical malpractice claims through the tort system.[9] There is a three-year statute of limitations for filing a claim, timed from the first manifestation of the medical problem.[10]
Autism claims
More than 5,300 petitions alleging autism caused by vaccines have been filed in the vaccine court. In 2002, the court instituted the Omnibus Autism Proceeding in which plaintiffs were allowed to proceed with the three cases they considered to be the strongest before a panel of special masters. In each of the cases, the panel found that the plaintiffs had failed to demonstrate a causal effect between the MMR vaccine and autism.[11] Following this determination, the vaccine court has routinely dismissed such suits, finding no causal effect between the MMR vaccine and autism.[12]
Many studies have failed to conclude that there is a causal link between
Several claimants have attempted to bypass the VICP process with claims that thimerosal in vaccines had caused autism, but these were ultimately not successful. They have demanded medical monitoring for vaccinated children who do not show signs of autism and have filed class-action suits on behalf of parents.
The
Compensation awards
As of May 2023, nearly $4.6 Billion in compensation and $450 Million in attorneys’ fees have been awarded.[3]
The following table shows the awards by main classes of vaccines made to victims in the years 2006-2017. [23] This shows that on average 1.2 awards were made per million vaccine doses. It also shows that multiple vaccines such as MMR do not have an abnormal award rate.
Disease | Vaccinations | Compensations | Comp/m vacc |
---|---|---|---|
Diphtheria+Tetanus+A.pertussis * | 503,068,145 | 601 | 1.2 |
DTaP-Hep B-IPV | 68,764,777 | 42 | 0.6 |
HepA+HepB, HepB+HIB | 20,614,142 | 21 | 1.0 |
Hepatitis A | 176,194,118 | 55 | 0.3 |
Hepatitis B | 185,428,393 | 81 | 0.4 |
HIB (Haemophilus influenzae) | 119,947,400 | 12 | 0.1 |
HPV | 111,677,552 | 134 | 1.2 |
Influenza | 1,518,400,000 | 2,833 | 1.9 |
IPV (Inactivated poliovirus vaccine) | 72,962,512 | 4 | 0.1 |
Measles | 135,660 | 1 | 7.4 |
Meningococcal | 94,113,218 | 43 | 0.5 |
MMR (Measles, mumps, rubella) | 101,501,714 | 120 | 1.2 |
MMR-Varicella | 24,798,297 | 20 | 0.8 |
Mumps | 110,749 | 0 | 0.0 |
Pneumococcal Conjugate | 228,588,846 | 48 | 0.2 |
Rotavirus | 107,678,219 | 40 | 0.4 |
Rubella | 422,548 | 1 | 2.4 |
Tetanus | 3,836,052 | 52 | 13.6 |
Varicella | 116,063,014 | 45 | 0.4 |
Total | 3,454,305,356 | 4,153 | 1.2 |
* This covers the vaccinations known by the abbreviations DT, DTaP, DTaP-HIB, DTaP-IPV, DTap-IPV-HIB, Td, Tdap
Fiscal year | Number of awards | Petitioners’ award | Average amount |
---|---|---|---|
2006 | 68 | $48,746,162.74 | $716,855.33 |
2007 | 82 | $91,449,433.89 | $1,115,237.00 |
2008 | 141 | $75,716,552.06 | $536,996.82 |
2009 | 131 | $74,142,490.58 | $565,973.21 |
2010 | 173 | $179,387,341.30 | $1,036,921.05 |
2011 | 251 | $216,319,428.47 | $861,830.39 |
2012 | 249 | $163,491,998.82 | $656,594.37 |
2013 | 375 | $254,666,326.70 | $679,110.20 |
2014 | 365 | $202,084,196.12 | $553,655.33 |
2015 | 508 | $204,137,880.22 | $401,846.22 |
2016 | 689 | $230,140,251.20 | $334,020.68 |
2017 | 706 | $252,245,932.78 | $357,288.86 |
2018 | 521 | $199,588,007.04 | $383,086.39 |
2019 | 653 | $196,217,707.64 | $300,486.54 |
2020 | 734 | $186,885,677.55 | $254,612.64 |
Total | 5,646 | $2,575,219,387.11 | $456,113.95 |
Attorneys fees and costs
Homeland Security Act
The
Petitioner's burden of proof
Notably, the Health Resources and Services Administration reported in July 2022 that "approximately 60 percent of all compensation awarded by the VICP comes as result of a negotiated settlement between the parties in which HHS has not concluded, based upon review of the evidence, that the alleged vaccine(s) caused the alleged injury".[2] Cases are settled to minimize the risk of loss for both parties, to minimize the time and expense of litigation, and to resolve petitions quickly.[2]
Of the remaining cases, in the vaccine court, as in civil tort cases, the burden of proof is a preponderance of evidence, but while in tort cases this is met by expert testimony based on epidemiology or rigorous scientific studies showing both general and specific causation, in the vaccine court, the burden is met with a three prong test established in Althen,[27] a 2005 United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruling.[28] Althen held that an award should be granted if a petitioner either establishes a "Tabled Injury" or proves "causation in fact" by proving three prongs:
- a medical theory causally connecting the vaccination and the injury;
- a logical sequence of cause and effect showing that the vaccination was the reason for the injury; and
- a showing of a proximate temporal relationship between vaccination and injury.
This ruling held that
In 2008 the federal government settled a case brought to the vaccine court by the family of
With the commencement of hearings in the case of Cedillo v. Secretary of Health and Human Services (Case #98-916V), the argument over whether autism is a vaccine injury moved into the vaccine court. A panel of three special masters began hearing the first cases of the historic
On March 13, 2010, the court ruled in three test cases that
See also
- Vaccine Damage Payment
- National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act
- Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program
References
- ^ PMID 17898095. Archived from the originalon June 27, 2019. Retrieved September 3, 2020.
- ^ a b c d "HRSA Data & Statistics" (PDF). Health Resources and Services Administration. July 1, 2022.
- ^ PMID 17692778.
- ^ a b "Filing a claim with the VICP". Health Resources and Services Administration. Archived from the original on February 28, 2013. Retrieved August 19, 2013.
- ^ "Vaccine Injury Table". Health Resources and Services Administration. 2007. Archived from the original on February 7, 2015. Retrieved January 22, 2008.
- ^ a b "National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program statistics reports". Health Resources and Services Administration. January 8, 2008. Archived from the original on September 23, 2011. Retrieved January 22, 2008.
- ^ "National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program Monthly Statistics Report". Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. October 2019.
- ^ "Updated Fee Schedule". United States Court of Federal Claims. Retrieved January 28, 2022.
- ^ Balbier TE Jr (September 28, 1999). "Statement on National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program". U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Archived from the original on July 22, 2001. Retrieved January 22, 2008.
- ^ "Who Can File". www.hrsa.gov. Last Reviewed: February 2016: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration. Retrieved October 12, 2016.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: location (link) - ^ Brian Dean Abramson, Vaccine, Vaccination, and Immunization Law (2018), p. 9-22 to 9–23.
- ^ a b c Maugh TH II, Zajac A (March 13, 2010). "'Vaccines court' rejects mercury–autism link in 3 test cases". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 16, 2019.
- ^ PMID 17168158.
- 5th Cir.2006).
- ^ Davis WN (2006). "No longer immune". ABA Journal. 92 (7): 19, 43.
- ^ "Vaccines Do Not Cause Autism". www.cdc.gov. Retrieved November 29, 2015.
- S2CID 12872702.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-309-09237-1.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - ^ World Health Organization (2006). "Thiomersal and vaccines: questions and answers". Archived from the original on October 12, 2003. Retrieved May 19, 2009.
- ^ WHO. "Statement on thiomersal". www.who.int. Archived from the original on October 29, 2012. Retrieved April 3, 2018.
- ^ "Thimerosal in vaccines". Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, U.S. Food and Drug Administration. June 3, 2008. Retrieved July 25, 2008.
- ^ Centers for Disease Control (February 8, 2008). "Mercury and vaccines (thimerosal)". Retrieved May 19, 2009.
- ^ "Data and Statistics" (PDF). Health Resources & Services Administration. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 19, 2019. Retrieved February 18, 2019.
- ^ "How to File a Petition". Health Resources & Services Administration. June 2019. Retrieved December 19, 2019.
- ^ US Court of Federal Claims (August 22, 2019). "Guidelines for Practice Under the National Vaccine Injury Program" (PDF). United States Court of Federal Claims. Retrieved October 22, 2019.
- ^ Pear R (December 14, 2002). "Threats and responses: legal risks; for victims of vaccine, winning case will be hard". New York Times. Retrieved January 22, 2008.
- PMID 21940934.
- ^ Althen v. Secretary of Health and Human Services (Fed. Cir. July 29, 2005), Text. This decision, which is binding upon the United States Court of Federal Claims, clarified the standing for proving "causation in fact" absent a "Table Injury" under 42 U.S.C. 300aa-11(c)(1)(C)
- ^ PMID 18480200.
- ^ PMID 21940934.
- ^ Rovner J (March 7, 2008). "Case stokes debate about autism, vaccines". NPR. Retrieved March 7, 2008.
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- PMID 18451989.
- S2CID 1798838.
- ^ "Omnibus Autism Proceeding". US Court of Federal Claims. Retrieved October 12, 2016.
- ^ Bridges A (June 12, 2007). "Children with autism get day in court". USA Today. Retrieved October 14, 2007.
- ^ Freking K, Neergaard L (February 12, 2009). "Court says vaccine not to blame for autism". Associated Press. Retrieved February 12, 2009.