Who Can File A Vaccine Injury Claim
Anyone who believes a vaccine has injured him or her, the parent or legal guardian of an injured child, or the representative of the estate of someone who wrongfully died from a vaccine can file a claim with the U.S. Court. The plaintiff will need to prove that the vaccine in question caused the injuries. Retaining a lawyer can help those with vaccine injuries prove their cases and get the maximum amount possible for their claims, through funding from the VICP or from other means.
Successful claims can result in compensation for past and future medical costs relating to the vaccine injury, up to what is reasonable for the particular injury or illness. The plaintiff could also receive damages for physical pain and emotional suffering up to $250,000, as well as reimbursement for lost wages, attorneys fees, and court costs. If you believe you have grounds for a claim, talk to a personal injury attorney to make sure you dont miss a filing deadline.
The Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program
If you experience a side effect from the COVID-19 vaccine, your legal situation isn’t hopeless. If you follow the procedural hoops ââ¬â and you will want a lawyer’s help with this ââ¬â you may be able to recover at least some money through CICP.
CICP is an administrative program administered by HHS that is funded by emergency federal appropriations . To be eligible, you must be able to prove that:
- You suffered death or serious physical injury
- Your injuries were directly caused by the use of a covered countermeasure .
If you can prove this, you may be reimbursed for reasonable medical expenses, loss of employment income, and, if you die, survivor benefits.
You only have one year from the date of vaccination in which to bring a CICP claim. If you disagree with the determination, you need to bring it up with HHS you cannot get a judge to review it.
Injured Party Files A Petition
The first step in filing a claim with the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program is to file a petition with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, the court that handles vaccine injury claims. The court then notifies the Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Justice , which represents HHS in the vaccine court process.
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Moderna Could Be Sued Over Vaccines As Court Upholds Arbutus Patents
A vial and a syringe are seen in front of a displayed Moderna logo, in this illustration taken, November 27, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
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Dec 1 – Moderna Inc could face a patent infringement lawsuit over its COVID-19 vaccine after a federal appeals court on Wednesday rejected its challenge to patents belonging to Arbutus Biopharma Corp .
Arbutus shares nearly doubled following the ruling, up 95% at $6.25. Moderna shares were off more than 10% at $316.43.
The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals let stand an administrative panel’s findings that Arbutus’ patents – which may cover technology used in the vaccines – are valid, as the science involved was not previously known.
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Moderna and Arbutus did not respond to requests for comment.
Moderna previously said in court filings that it believes Arbutus could bring a lawsuit demanding royalties from its COVID-19 vaccine if the patents were upheld.
The company last month forecast 2021 sales of between $15 billion and $18 billion, and 2022 sales of between $17 billion and $22 billion, for its COVID-19 vaccine.
Jefferies analyst Dennis Ding said an infringement lawsuit was possible, but could drag for years, adding that Arbutus will likely settle for a small royalty.
Moderna is also embroiled in a months-long patent conflict over its COVID-19 vaccine with the U.S. National Institutes of Health . read more
Can I Sue For Vaccine Injury
With all the recent debate over vaccines, theres one point you may have heard from anti-vaccination proponents to back up their decision to not vaccine themselves or children: That you cant sue vaccine manufacturers for vaccine injuries.
In 1986, congress created a separate no-fault court to handle complaints and claims from those who suffered harm due
to vaccines. The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program is funded by vaccine manufacturers and is administered by the Department of Health and Human Services. When a claim is made against a vaccine manufacturer, the HHS determines if the claim is valid and what its worth. Compensation for valid claims is limited to $250,000.
Prior to 2011, if your vaccine claim was denied by HHS, you were still able to file a personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit and sue the vaccine manufacturer in court. However, after the 2011 Supreme Court ruling in a vaccine injury case against vaccine manufacturer Wyeth, parents are no longer allowed to bring personal injury lawsuits in vaccine injury cases.
The Court decided in a 6-2 decision that the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program was designed to handle all vaccine complaints and protect vaccine manufacturers from claims. In the decision, Justice Antonin Scalia said that when a vaccine is properly prepared and accompanied by proper directions and warnings, lawsuits over side effects are not allowed.
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Can You Sue If You Get Sick From The Covid Vaccine
Are pharmaceutical companies or businesses that mandate employee vaccinations liable if someone gets sick from adverse reactions to the COVID-19 vaccine? What if a business does not mandate vaccines and a third party contracts COVID from its employees? What recourse is available? Professor Dorit Reiss, leading vaccine law scholar, explains these and other questions on liability and remedies.
Dorit Reiss is Professor of Law and the James Edgar Hervey ’50 Chair of Litigation at UC Hastings College of the Law.
Related Briefs
The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act
Congress stepped in with the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 as a way to ensure that the injured would receive compensation, but also to protect drugmakers from open-ended liability.
In 2011, an important United States Supreme Court ruling clarified the type of lawsuits vaccine manufacturers are protected from under the Vaccine Act. In a 6-2 decision, the Court ruled that the federal law protects drugmakers from design-defect claims as long as the vaccine was properly manufactured and carried adequate warnings labels.
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Vaccines Can Have Side Effects
But vaccines carry risks. Some people experience side effects. The United States Food and Drug Administration , which is the regulator of vaccine manufacturers, calls these “adverse events.” Let’s call them side effects.
For some, side effects can be mild . Serious side effects are rare. But sometimes vaccines are associated with deaths.
Vaccine Injury Compensation Programs: Rationale And An Overview Of The Qubec Program
Eve Dubé1,2, Dominique Gagnon1, Noni E MacDonald3, Shawn Harmon3, Sandani Hapuhennedige4
1 Institut national de santé publique du Québec, QC
2 Centre de recherche du CHU de Québec Université Laval, QC
3 Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS
4 University of Toronto, Toronto, ON
Dubé E, Gagnon D, MacDonald NE, Harmon SHE, Hapuhennedige S. Vaccine Injury Compensation Programs: Rationale and an overview of the Québec program. Can Commun Dis Rep 2020 46:3058. https://doi.org/10.14745/ccdr.v46i09a09
Keywords: vaccine injury, compensation, no-fault insurance, ethical considerations
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A Vaccine Injury Can Happen To Anyone
| Bob Martin, a resident of Victoria, BC, experienced a severe vaccine injury following a flu shot in 2009. The vaccine caused Guillain Barre Syndrome, a rare autoimmune disease which can lead to progressive paralysis and death.Bob was an extremely healthy man, and a fitness instructor at the Oak Bay recreation centre.He became completely paralyzed and ended up on a ventilator in the ICU for three and a half months and in a rehabilitation centre for another four and a half months.During and after this time he learned that there was no such thing as a vaccine injury compensation program for Canadians and set out to create one by contacting polititians and by starting a petition. He received hundreds of replies from other injured Canadians. You can see his petition and the comments here. |
Concerns With Vaccine Injury Compensation Programs
Arguments against VIC Programs are often grounded on the costs of these programs, the difficulties with causality assessment and the concern that these programs can decrease public trust in vaccines and fuel anti-vaccination movementsFootnote 4.
Some of these concerns regarding VIC Programs have been addressed. The experience in the 19 jurisdictions where such programs have been implemented indicates that costs are both manageable and predictableFootnote 7. One caveat, however, is that 17 of these 19 countries are high-income countries, which means that, on the whole, they can bear the costs and have the capacity to manage the program.
Similarly, the difficulties with causality assessment appear to be resource dependent, as the countries who have adopted VIC Programs have had the expertise to assess vaccine quality and causality of injuries. Finally, to date, there is insufficient evidence to assess the concern regarding the potential to decrease public trust in vaccines. The absence of a VIC Program has not been identified as a major concern amongst those who are hesitant. There is no evidence to show that having VIC Programs support vaccine acceptance however, when a VIC Program is adopted there could be a communication strategy that reassures the public that, much like accident insurance, if it does occur, they will be covered.
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In The Rare Event A Person Experiences An Adverse Reaction From A Vaccine Program Will Offer Support
People who are vaccinated to protect themselves against COVID-19 and experience an adverse event after the immunization will be eligible for compensation, the federal government says.
The announcement of the no-fault program is part of Canada’s preparations to roll out coronavirus vaccines, beginning with the Pfizer-BioNtech version that will start to be administered next week.
Health Canada says it approves vaccines after its thorough review of scientific evidence shows that the benefits outweigh the risks.
“Canadians can have confidence in the rigour of the vaccine approvals system, however, in the rare event that a person experiences an adverse reaction, this program will help ensure they get the support they need,” Health Minister Patty Hajdu said in a statement on Thursday.
The Issue Of Punitive Damages
If the Johnson punitive damage verdict is affirmed on appeal, it could significantly affect future vaccine litigation. Prior to the Johnson verdict, punitive damages were not a prominent factor in vaccine cases. Most plaintiffs’ complaints did not even ask for punitive damages . If the verdict is affirmed, claims for punitive damages may become more prevalent.
Affirmation of the punitive damage verdict in Johnson could be interpreted as a determination by a powerful regulatory body that Sabin vaccine should not be administered in the United States unless preceded by an administration of Salk vaccine to unimmunized contacts, and perhaps to the child as well. However, society generally has deemed it desirable to delegate decisions on such health policy issues to specialist groups, such as those advising the FDA and CDCâan approach viewed as appropriate by the committee.
Punitive damage awards would greatly increase the magnitude of financial risk for manufacturers because such damages can be almost unlimited in amount and can be duplicative.
The Johnson verdict again shows that the manner in which courts rule on questions involving a manufacturer’s responsibility is highly unpredictable.
Summary of the Legal Situation
This review demonstrates that the limits of a manufacturer’s responsibilities are unclear. Some decisions appear to suggest that the manufacturer can be held strictly liable in all cases.
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How Does The Vaccine Injury Compensation Program Work
Because the program is not fault-based, people claiming vaccine injuries do not have to prove that the vaccine actually caused the injury. Instead, they only have to show that the injury occurred immediately after the vaccine was given.
Additionally, the vaccine-related injury has to be included on the vaccine court’s list of side effects, called the Vaccine Injury Table. The vaccine involved must also be covered by the program. All routinely administered vaccines are included:
- Diphtheria and Tetanus vaccines
- Pertussis vaccines
- Measles, Mumps, and Rubella vaccines
- Polio vaccines
- Hepatitis A vaccines
- Hepatitis B vaccines
- Haemophilus influenza type b vaccines
- Varicella vaccines
- Rotavirus vaccines
- Pneumococcal conjugate vaccines
- Seasonal flu vaccines
- Human Papillomavirus vaccines
- Meningococcal vaccines
When parents believe their child has been injured by a vaccine and the above requirements have been met, they can file a claim with the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. The process typically looks like this:
The False Claim That The Fully
The little trick that they have done here: They have issued two separate letters for two separate vaccines. The Pfizer vaccine which is currently available is still under emergency use authorization and it still has the liability shield The product thats licensed its called Comirnaty. thats the one that liability waiver will no longer apply to.
Robert Malone, interview on Bannons War Room, Aug. 24
Malone, a physician who bills himself as having played a key role in creation of mRNA vaccines, is a prominent skeptic of the coronavirus vaccines that have been crafted using the technology. Shortly after the Food and Drug Administration fully authorized the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, he appeared on a program hosted by Stephen K. Bannon, a one-time adviser to former president Donald Trump, and claimed that the full authorization was a bait-and-switch game played by the FDA.
One again the mainstream media has lied to you, he said. Sorry to say that. I know its a shock to this viewership.
In essence, his argument was that the approved vaccine would no longer have liability protections so Pfizer would simply keep distributing in the United States the product that had been authorized for emergency use.
A similar claim was made by Robert F. Kennedy, a leading anti-vaccine campaigner.
These claims are false, based on a misunderstanding of the law, as Malone acknowledged after we contacted him.
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Medical Malpractice And Improper Vaccine Handling
A medical malpractice claim related to the COVID-19 vaccine would likely only be feasible if based on improper administration or storage. For example, if the health care provider gave the wrong dosage or reused a syringe, a patient might have a viable malpractice claim. But potential malpractice claims covered under CICP would likely be preempted by the federal government.
Another area of concern with COVID-19 vaccines is the ultra-cold temperatures at which they must be stored . Although the Moderna vaccine can be stored at normal freezer temperature, the Pfizer vaccine must be stored at -70 degrees Celsius. While Pfizer monitors in-transit vaccine temperatures, once the medication is delivered, the recipient is charged with temperature control. Pfizer’s insistence that the government take responsibility for temperature monitoring after delivery will likely only promote the good public relations Pfizer has fostered with its quick vaccine rollout. Ultimately, legal liability for improperly handled vaccines is preempted by the PREP Act.
Consumer advocates are urging the government to direct COVID-19 vaccine claims to the VICP. Until the COVID-19 vaccine is approved for use in children and pregnant women, a move to vaccine court is unlikely.
For in-depth discussion of key legal issues related to the coronavirus pandemic, check out Nolo’s special coverage: The Law and Your Legal Rights During the Coronavirus Outbreak.
Side Effects Of Covid
The FDA has approved three COVID-19 vaccines in the United States for emergency use. Pfizer, Moderna, and Janssen/Johnson & Johnson make them.
COVID-19 vaccines have been associated with certain, mostly mild, side effects. They include:
- Fever
- Easy bruising
- Red spots on the skin beyond the injection site.
There have also been rare reports of people developing a nerve disorder or severe blood clotting after getting the Janssen/Johnson & Johnson vaccine. We discuss these reports and possible legal relief here.
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What Are Vicp’s Objectives
- ensure an adequate supply of vaccines
- stabilize vaccine costs and
- establish and maintain an accessible and efficient forum for individuals found to be injured by certain vaccines.
The 21st Century Cures Act , enacted on December 13, 2016, made several amendments to the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986.
About The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program
The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 , as amended, created the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program , a no-fault alternative to the traditional tort system. It provides compensation to people found to be injured by certain vaccines. Even in cases in which such a finding is not made, petitioners may receive compensation through a settlement.
The VICP was established after lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers and healthcare providers threatened to cause vaccine shortages and reduce vaccination rates. The Program began accepting petitions in 1988.
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Can I Sue Vaccine Manufacturers
By Kellie Pantekoek, Esq. | Reviewed by Bridget Molitor, J.D. | Last updated September 02, 2020
If you believe that your child has been injured as a result of vaccination, can you sue the manufacturer of the vaccine for damages?
The short answer is, no, you likely cannot sue the vaccine manufacturer. However, you may still be able to be compensated for your child’s injuries through another process called the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.
Why Can’t Drug Companies Be Sued For Vaccine Injuries
When most drugs cause harm, the pharmaceutical companies that make them can be sued in product liability lawsuits. But that isn’t the case with vaccines. In 1986, Congress passed a law that protects vaccine manufacturers from being sued in civil personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits resulting from vaccine injuries.
Both drugmakers and federal government officials admit that although vaccines are created with the purpose of keeping the public safe, they can cause rare but serious, and sometimes fatal, side effects.
In the 1970s and 80s, drugmakers paid out millions to plaintiffs in hundreds of vaccine-related injury lawsuits. The litigation was complex and expensive because of how difficult it is to show epidemiological cause and effect in these cases.
Eventually, some drugmakers decided to stop making vaccines altogether. This drew alarm from public health officials, who worried about sustaining existing vaccines and also the development of new vaccines.
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