Tag: liability

Vaccine Excise Tax

The Vaccine Injury Compensation Trust Fund was set up by the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 as a source of funds to compensate people found to be injured by certain vaccines by the Vaccine Court.

Vaccine Excise Tax

Money for the Vaccine Injury Compensation Trust Fund comes from a $0.75 excise tax on each vaccine that kids routinely get as recommended by the CDC.

Who pays this vaccine tax?

Is it the drug companies or folks getting the vaccines?

The U.S. Department of the Treasury collects the tax from the vaccine manufacturers.

But like other manufacturing costs, they likely just add it to the price of the vaccine. They are still paying it though.

Vaccine Injury Compensation Trust Fund

How much does the IRS collect?

Between 2009 and 2013, it has averaged about $200 million a year.

The Vaccine Injury Compensation Trust Fund has a balance of over $3 billion, as in addition to the excise tax, it gains interest on investments. That balance has grown because the Fund’s income has outpaced its payments (about $3.5 billion) over the years.

For More Information on the Vaccine Excise Tax

Table Injuries and Vaccine Court

Vaccine injuries, while rare, are certainly real.

In fact, as most people are aware, since 1988, almost $3.5 billion dollars have been paid out by the Vaccine Court for 4,899 compensated awards under the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.

While most were settled and “cannot be characterized as a decision by HHS or by the Court that the vaccine caused an injury,” some of the claims were either compensated by a court decision or by concession and for which “it is more likely than not that the vaccine caused the injury or the evidence supports fulfillment of the criteria of the Vaccine Injury Table.”

History of the Vaccine Injury Table

The Vaccine Injury Table was created by the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 and includes “a table of vaccines, the injuries, disabilities, illnesses, conditions, and deaths resulting from the administration of such vaccines, and the time period in which the first symptom or manifestation of onset or of the significant aggravation of such injuries, disabilities, illnesses, conditions, and deaths is to occur after vaccine administration for purposes of receiving compensation under the Program.”

The Vaccine Injury Table:

“is a listing of covered vaccines and associated injuries,” although some covered vaccines, like Hib, hepatitis A, chicken pox, flu, HPV, Prevnar, and the meningococcal vaccines, are not on the table
“makes it easier for some people to get compensation,” since if a symptom of a table injury occurs within the time frame of getting a table vaccine, then unless another cause is found, “it is presumed that the vaccine was the cause of the injury”
“lists and explains injuries and/or conditions that are presumed to be caused by vaccines,” from anaphylaxis and encephalopathy to thrombocytopenic purpura
has been modified several times, most notably in 1995 (HHE and seizures from DTP were removed as table injuries and chronic arthritis from rubella was added), 1997 (thrombocytopenia (measles), brachial neuritis (tetanus), and anaphylaxis (hepatitis B) were added as table injuries), and 2002 (intussusception (rotavirus) added as a table injury).
is typically only modified if an Institute of Medicine report finds scientific evidence that a condition could be caused by a vaccine with guidance of the Advisory Commission on Childhood Vaccines

Some people, especially anti-vaccine folks who think it is too hard to get compensated under the NVICP, will be surprised that one of the main overarching guiding principles for making changes to the Vaccine Injury Table is that:

Where there is credible scientific and medical evidence both to support and to reject a proposed change (addition or deletion) to the Table, the change should, whenever possible, be made to the benefit of petitioners.

Guiding Principles for Recommending Changes to the Vaccine Injury Table

Changes to the Vaccine Injury Table were proposed last year.

Off Table Injuries

As you can imagine, since most new vaccines do not have table injuries, the VICP has shifted from Vaccine Injury Table to off-Table claims.

While that may change if last years proposed changes are adopted, off-Table claims can still be compensated, a vaccine is not just presumed as causing an injury in these cases.

For More Information on Table Injuries

Doctors Facing Disciplinary Actions Over Vaccines

mendelsohn — Dr. Mendelsohn was the Dr. Bob of his day.

There are many doctors and other health professionals who do and recommend things that are far out of the mainstream. They may tell their patients to skip or delay vaccines, that vaccine-preventable diseases aren’t that bad, or even that vaccines don’t work, etc.

And yet, many are surprised when some of them face disciplinary actions from their state’s medical boards, such as:

Dr. Ming Te Lin, the board certified pediatrician in Illinois who:

was preparing alternative vaccinations for children for more than a decade
gave patients modified vaccinations containing cat saliva and vodka
was signing state forms certifying he had given pediatric patients their conventional shots
used a WaveFront 2000 device to detoxify vaccines of mercury

Dr. Lin’s medical license has been suspended and he was supposed to have “a hearing before the Medical Disciplinary Board is set for Oct. 11 in Chicago.” That hearing didn’t happen though and he is now supposed to have a new hearing on November 21.

Dr. Bob Sears is also facing disciplinary action from his state’s medical board.

With a long history of recommending his own alternative immunization schedule to parents, Sears is accused of gross negligence for the way that he granted a medical exemption for vaccines to a child.

An anti-vaccine doctor in Arizona, Dr. Jack Wolfson, a holistic cardiologist, was also investigated by his state’s medical board following several complaints that were made during a recent measles outbreak.

Joseph Mercola, D.O. is another anti-vaccine doctor who has faced trouble in the past. A frequent guest on the Dr. Oz show, he has gotten several warnings from the FDA for marketing a thermal camera as a cancer screening device and making false and misleading claims about natural supplemental products he markets.

Even Dr. Oz has gotten into some trouble in recent years, testifying before Congress about weight loss scams.

For More Information On Doctors Facing Disciplinary Actions Over Vaccines:

Hot Lots

That there are hot lots of vaccines that cause more side effects or vaccine injuries than other vaccine lots is a common vaccine myth.

Like most other things, vaccines are made in batches or lots.

These lots are then tested “to ensure safety, purity, and potency.”

Vaccine lots aren’t all the same size though. A small lot is going to appear to be a “hot lot,” having more reports of side effects than a much larger vaccine lot. And a report of a vaccine injury in VAERS, where most reports of hot lots come from, doesn’t mean that the vaccine actually caused the injury or side effect.

Interestingly, the first edition of the National Vaccine Information Center’s newsletter published a list of “especially toxic” DPT vaccine lots. Their DPT vaccine Hot Lot list was compiled by finding lot numbers “which are associated with the highest numbers of deaths, injuries and hospitalizations reported to the government’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System.”

Again, VAERS is a passive reporting system. Since anyone can report a reaction, simply being in VAERS doesn’t mean that that the reaction was caused by a vaccine.

For more information:

Vaccine Court

The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) was created as “a no-fault alternative to the traditional legal system for resolving vaccine injury petitions.”

Those who think they have suffered a vaccine injury can file a petition with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims – the Vaccine Court. A court-appointed special master eventually decides if the claim should be compensated or dismissed.

From 2006 to 2014, National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program claims have included:

2,265 claims that were compensated
1,850 compensated claims that were settled and which “cannot be characterized as a decision by HHS or by the Court that the vaccine caused an injury.”
only 193 claims that were compensated by court decision and for which “the evidence is legally sufficient to show that the vaccine more likely than not caused (or significantly aggravated) the injury; or the injury is listed on, and meets all of the requirements of, the Vaccine Injury Table, and HHS has not proven that a factor unrelated to the vaccine more likely than not caused or significantly aggravated the injury.”
only 223 claims that were compensated by concession and for which “it is more likely than not that the vaccine caused the injury or the evidence supports fulfillment of the criteria of the Vaccine Injury Table.”
1,329 claims that were dismissed
$1,513,056,840 that was paid

During this same time, over 2.5 billion doses of vaccines were given!

Since the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program began, in 1988, almost $3.5 billion dollars have been paid out for 4,899 compensated awards.

Again, “over 80 percent of all compensations awarded by the VICP comes as a result of a negotiated settlement between the parties in which the HHS has not concluded, based upon review of the evidence, that the alleged vaccine(s) caused the alleged injury.”

Although $3.5 billion sounds like a lot, the most important thing to remember is that the small number of real vaccine injuries are dwarfed by the billions of doses of vaccines given and deaths from vaccine-preventable disease prevented.

For more information:

Vaccine Laws

These days, when we think of vaccine laws, we often think of vaccine exemptions.

Once upon a time though, vaccine laws actually helped kids getting vaccinated and protected against vaccine preventable diseases.

So in addition to state vaccine laws, we also have the:

Polio Vaccination Assistance Act
Vaccination Assistance Act
Section 317 immunization programs
National Childhood Immunization Initiative of 1977
National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act (NCVIA)
immunization action plan of 1991
Childhood Immunization Initiative in 1993
Comprehensive Childhood Immunization Act of 1993
Affordable Care Act

For more information:

Package Inserts for Vaccines

The package inserts for vaccines are not as useful as many parents believe, especially if you are trying to do research about vaccines.

No, it is not because your pediatrician won’t let you read them, after all, package inserts for each and every vaccine are easy to find.

And it certainly isn’t because package inserts are hiding information that would keep you from getting your kids vaccinated if you were more aware of it.

Again, vaccine package inserts are easy to find.

It is that some of the information in the vaccine package insert is not what you think it is. For example, in addition to Data from Clinical Studies, the Adverse Reactions section includes side effects that are voluntarily reported and for which “it may not be possible to reliably estimate their frequency or establish a causal relationship to vaccine exposure.”

What does that mean?

Just because a side effect is in the package insert, depending on the section, it doesn’t automatically mean that it was caused by the vaccine. That is why autism and SIDS are listed as adverse events for the Tripedia vaccine.

Adverse events reported during post-approval use of Tripedia vaccine include idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, SIDS, anaphylactic reaction, cellulitis, autism, convulsion/grand mal convulsion, encephalopathy, hypotonia, neuropathy, somnolence and apnea. Events were included in this list because of the seriousness or frequency of reporting. Because these events are reported voluntarily from a population of uncertain size, it is not always possible to reliably estimate their frequencies or to establish a causal relationship to components of Tripedia vaccine.

In fact, many studies have shown that there is no causal relation between vaccines and autism or vaccines and SIDS.

Package inserts are useful, but you should understand why and how they were written if you are going to add them to your vaccine research.

For more information: