The countermeasures program puts a higher financial burden on people applying for compensation, and doesn’t allow for expert witnesses, hearings or appeals, said Toale, who believes coronavirus vaccine injuries should be handled through the vaccine court instead. The vaccine court also pays for victims’ lawyers while the countermeasures program doesn’t.
Not everyone agrees the programs benefit victims.
They amount to a “get out of jail free card” for drugmakers, said Hunter Shkolnik, of Napoli Shkolnik, who has represented many clients in pharmaceutical product liability cases and says the government only pays lost earnings and medical costs.
Efforts are underway to prevent potential harm from Covid vaccines, said Martin Kulldorff, a biostatistician and professor at Harvard Medical School, who is part of a CDC group that analyzes weekly patient reports.
“If the first vaccine comes out and it turns out there’s a serious adverse reaction and we didn’t pick it up until there’s been millions of doses, that’s going to reduce trust, not just in any subsequent Covid-19 vaccine but also vaccines in general,” Kulldorff said.
Ultimately, a small fraction of people will ever be harmed by any vaccine, and that likely includes those developed to prevent Covid-19.
“The concern is that when a Covid vaccine becomes available after this huge investment in money and time, people won’t take them,” Meissner said. Providing compensation “will give assurance to people who are concerned about an adverse reaction.”
--With assistance from David Yaffe-Bellany.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.