HHS Proposes Ending Payouts for Vaccine Shoulder Injury Lawsuits
There is currently $4 billion in a pot of money that is financed by a $0.75 tax on the sale of every vaccine in the U.S. to provide cash compensation to people who are injured by vaccine side effects.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is quietly circulating a proposal (PDF) to deny compensation for shoulder injuries because they are caused by improperly-placed injections, rather than the vaccine itself.
Vaccine injury lawyers are pushing back against the proposal, arguing that it is unfair to deny payouts to people who have suffered a debilitating Shoulder Injury Related to Vaccine Administration (SIRVA).
Furthermore, lawyers say there is no reason why the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program shouldn’t compensate mechanical-type injuries as well as injuries related to components of the vaccine.
Vaccine court records show SIRVA payouts range from $50,000 to $123,000, resulting in a total of $119 million from 2016 through 2019.
The number of petitions involving shoulder injuries has dramatically increased, accounted for over 54% of the 2,520 petitions in the 2018 and 2018 fiscal year, mostly involving adults who got flu shots.
Source: United States wants to end most payouts for leading vaccination-related injury