SUIT PUSHES VICP COVERAGE FOR COVID SHOTS — A law firm specializing in vaccine injury complaints has sued Xavier Becerra on behalf of Paul Brundage, who says he developed a blood-clotting disorder after being vaccinated against Covid-19. His lawyers argue that Becerra missed the deadline when he was HHS secretary to add Covid vaccines to the vaccine injury table, one of the steps necessary to ensure people who had serious reactions to the shots are compensated. While the lawsuit filed Thursday didn’t prompt any last-minute moves from HHS, one attorney behind it said she hopes the next secretary will reassess the status quo.
Background: The Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program, created by a George W. Bush-era pandemic law, is intended to award payments to those who experience serious injuries or death from a “countermeasure” — a vaccine or a drug, for example — created in response to a public health emergency. The program covers Covid vaccines and treatments like monoclonal antibodies. It’s separate from the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, a no-fault alternative to the traditional torts system for shots the CDC recommends for children and pregnant people.
That program, funded by a 75-cent excise tax on vaccine doses administered, has volume and staffing issues but is regarded as a necessary bulwark against vaccine hesitancy. Meanwhile, lawmakers and attorneys have criticized the CICP for compensating a fraction of the thousands of Covid claims filed. HHS and Congress: The CDC officially recommended Covid vaccines for inclusion in its annual immunization schedules beginning in 2023. By law, HHS had two years from that point to add any newly recommended shot to the VICP. But a recommendation also requires action by Congress to apply the excise tax to that product; until then, the vaccine won’t yet be eligible for claims.
Anne Carrión Toale, a partner at mctlaw who represents the plaintiff, said lawmakers “historically” enact the excise tax before HHS adds a vaccine to the injury table but noted that the order of actions shouldn’t matter. “If all these Covid [vaccine-]injured people don’t start getting compensated, that’s not going to help vaccine hesitancy at all,” she said. HHS didn’t respond to a request for comment.
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