Well being and Human Providers Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been implementing an anti-vaccine technique that features concentrating on a federal program that pays cash to sufferers injured by immunizations, individuals accustomed to the planning instructed KFF Well being Information.
The plan includes increasing the sorts of accidents eligible for compensation, doubtlessly overwhelming the fund with claims that would bankrupt this system. Different parts of the technique embrace a possible mandate that vaccine makers cease utilizing a typical additive, forcing them to make costly reformulations or exit the market altogether.
The Vaccine Damage Compensation Program has paid out greater than $5 billion since its inception in 1988 with funds from a small tax on vaccines. This system was established to compensate sufferers for accidents whereas stopping lawsuits that would imperil pharmaceutical firms and vaccine provides.
Earlier than submitting in courtroom, injured people should convey their claims to this system’s nonjury vaccine courtroom to find out what, if any, compensation must be supplied.
To broaden the listing of eligible accidents, Kennedy is seeking to hyperlink vaccines to allergy symptoms or autism regardless that no scientific knowledge confirms a connection. HHS has already launched a probe into the causes of autism that’s anticipated to implicate vaccines.
“Given the speed of autism, if a whole lot of instances are introduced, that would bankrupt this system,” stated Dorit Reiss, a professor at College of California Regulation San Francisco.
Kennedy has weighed having a vaccine advisory group study aluminum, which is utilized in some vaccines. In July he linked aluminum to allergy symptoms, though a latest examine within the Annals of Inside Drugs discovered no connection.
Some public well being leaders derided the technique as dangerous.
“It’s a radical agenda,” stated Angela Rasmussen, a virologist on the Vaccine and Infectious Illness Group on the College of Saskatchewan in Canada. “He’s utilizing a bunch of various mechanisms and there actually are not any guardrails. Persons are going to catch on but it surely’s not going to be sufficient to cease the waves of deaths, and deaths of kids.”
HHS says Kennedy just isn’t towards vaccines.
“Secretary Kennedy just isn’t anti-vaccine – he’s pro-safety, pro-transparency, and pro-accountability,” Vianca Rodriguez Feliciano, an HHS spokesperson, stated in an e mail.
Kennedy has stated he needs to change the vaccine damage fund, writing July 28 on the social platform X that it’s “damaged, and I intend to repair it.” HHS is working with the Division of Justice to revamp this system.