By Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A government-run COVID-19 vaccine injury compensation program with nearly 10,000 pending claims faces the threat of a budget cut for the 2026 fiscal year<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Trump administration\u2019s proposed budget<\/a> would eliminate funding for the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP<\/a>), TrialSite News<\/a> reported last week. If approved, the program would be forced to operate on \u201ccarryover funds\u201d \u2014 or unspent funds from previous years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to TrialSite News:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWith no civil court recourse under the PREP Act, downgrading CICP funding leaves injured individuals with limited legal avenues and uncertain financial relief. This undermines public trust in vaccine policy<\/a>, risks fueling hesitancy, and may deter future claim filings altogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe decision to drop new CICP funding was hidden in budget pages \u2014 no public announcements or detailed breakdown of carryover metrics. How much carryover exists? How long will it last? What if claim volume increases?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n CICP was established under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act<\/a> (PREP Act) of 2005.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Under a PREP Act declaration, issued during an official public health emergency such as the COVID-19<\/a> pandemic, manufacturers of vaccines<\/a> and other countermeasures associated with a health emergency are exempt from liability for serious injuries or death caused by their products \u2014 except in cases of willful misconduct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That means people who believe they were injured by one of these products can\u2019t sue the manufacturer. Instead, they can apply to the CICP for compensation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, even if successful, claimants often receive limited compensation from CICP. By law, the program can reimburse only those medical expenses not compensated by insurance or other programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It can also reimburse for lost employment income (capped at $50,000 per year<\/a>) and a one-time benefit of $370,000 for deaths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The program does not reimburse legal fees or provide compensation for pain and suffering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the latest CICP data<\/a>, COVID-19<\/a> countermeasures account for 96% of the 14,413 total claims filed with CICP since 2010.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although the Biden administration declared the COVID-19 public health emergency over<\/a> in May 2023, Biden extended the liability shield<\/a> for COVID-19 countermeasures through the end of 2029.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More than 4,000 claims denied <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n For fiscal year 2025, CICP received $7 million. According to TrialSite News, CICP\u2019s existing carryover funds would allow the program to process an estimated 2,000 claims \u2014 about 22% of the current backlog \u2014 and pay out roughly $3 million in total compensation during the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In May, CICP paid<\/a> five COVID-19 vaccine<\/a> injury claims. But the program denied dozens of claims, and thousands more remained pending as of June 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to statistics released last week, the newly approved claims<\/a> total $68,529.95. They include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of the 13,836 claims related to COVID-19 countermeasures filed to date, 75 were found eligible for compensation. As of June 1, 39 of those have been compensated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The overwhelming majority of claims were denied (4,338) or are \u201cpending review or in review\u201d (9,423).<\/p>\n\n\n\n COVID compensation claims dropping<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n CICP\u2019s statistics show a decrease in COVID-19-related compensation claims being filed, according to Wayne Rohde, author of \u201cThe Vaccine Court<\/a>: The Dark Truth of America\u2019s Vaccine Injury Compensation Program\u201d and \u201cThe Vaccine Court 2.0<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rohde wrote on Substack<\/a> that 42 claims were filed between May 1 and June 1. Of those, 98.3% were denied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMost have given up hope that the CICP will compensate,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rohde told The Defender<\/a> that declining public uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine<\/a> and CICP\u2019s strict one-year statute of limitations also contributed to the decline in new claims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rohde said CICP has compensated only one COVID-19-related death benefit<\/a> and has disbursed only three death benefits since the program was established. Earlier this year, CICP paid over $2.5 million<\/a> for a COVID-19 vaccine-related injury claim associated with thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome<\/a>, a blood-clotting disorder linked to COVID-19 vaccines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In May, CICP reimbursed only its second claim involving Guillain-Barr\u00e9 syndrome<\/a> (GBS) \u2014 an autoimmune condition that occurs when the immune system attacks the peripheral nerves \u2014 even though \u201cGBS is a common alleged injury,\u201d Rohde noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not all COVID-19-related claims filed with CICP involve vaccine injuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As of June 1, 3,119 petitions alleged injury from COVID-19 countermeasures, involving the use of \u201cventilators<\/a>, anti-viral drugs<\/a> or other medical devices,\u201d Rohde said. \u201cAnd not one petition has been deemed compensable. They are just sitting in a backlog.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D. A government-run COVID-19 vaccine injury compensation program with nearly 10,000 pending claims faces the threat of a budget cut for the 2026 fiscal year. The Trump administration\u2019s proposed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[761,445,446,973,974,608],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-concerns","category-policies-politics","category-policy","category-vaccine-failure","category-vaccine-long-term-safety","category-vaccine-safety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13954"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13955,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13954\/revisions\/13955"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n