A federal lawsuit filed this week alleges that the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) has failed to meet the deadline required by federal law to include the COVID-19 vaccine in the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP). The suit seeks to compel the HHS Secretary to comply with federal law and provide a legal mechanism to compensate vaccine injured people.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 17, 2025 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- A federal lawsuit filed today alleges that the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) has failed to meet the deadline required by federal law to include the COVID-19 vaccine in the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP). The lawsuit was filed in Federal District Court for the District of Columbia on behalf of Paul Brundage. Mr. Brundage suffered a severe blood-clotting disorder after getting a COVID-19 vaccination (Case No: 25-119). The suit seeks to compel the HHS Secretary to comply with federal law and provide a legal mechanism to compensate vaccine injured people.
The lawsuit alleges Secretary Xavier Becerra failed to amend the Vaccine Injury Table as required by federal law within two years of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommending the COVID-19 vaccine for routine administration to those age 18 and under. Until the COVID vaccine is covered by the VICP, people like Mr. Brundage cannot seek payment of medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering, and other compensation granted by the Vaccine Act.
After the Secretary adds the COVID vaccine to the Vaccine Injury Table, Congress will then need to authorize a payment of 75-cents from vaccine manufacturers to the VICP for each future COVID vaccine dose sold. Once Congress authorizes the 75-cent payment, Americans who have suffered severe COVID adverse vaccine reactions will be eligible to seek compensation from the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, or VICP.
Although similar sounding in name to the VICP, the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP) is presently the only source of compensation for COVID vaccine injuries. The complaint points out that the CICP provides no real recourse or compensation to people suffering serious COVID vaccine injuries.
According to data complied by HHS, 13,555 people in the United States have filed compensation claims in the CICP for severe injuries caused by the COVID vaccine, as of December 1, 2024. Only 20 out of more than 13-thousand have been awarded compensation. The average award to these people for their severe injuries is approximately $4-thousand dollars each, with the exception of compensation in one death case.
Vaccine adverse reaction claims under the VICP are brought in the United States Court of Federal Claims, a federal court of national jurisdiction. In contrast, CICP claims never see a courtroom or judge. Instead, they are decided in a secretive internal process by HHS.
"We have so far failed to honor our obligation to those Americans seriously injured by adverse reactions to the COVID vaccine," says Anne Toale, an mctlaw partner who has represented clients in the VICP for over two decades. "The Secretary needs to immediately comply with federal law and add the COVID vaccine to the Vaccine Injury Table, Congress must authorize the 75-cent payment, and then we can compensate these people for their injuries."
"The only option right now for people injured by the COVID vaccine is the CICP, which for most is worse than nothing," says Altom Maglio, the mctlaw attorney representing Mr. Brundage in the citizen suit. "The sooner the COVID vaccine is covered by the VICP, the sooner we can work to get injured folks their medical expenses, lost wages, and other money they urgently need."
For more information visit https://www.mctlaw.com/vaccine-injury/
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Gilda Dennis, mctlaw, 1 (941) 879-9913, [email protected], https://www.mctlaw.com
SOURCE mctlaw
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