RFK Jr. wants to overhaul the country’s ‘vaccine court.’ Here’s what stands in his way.
For almost 40 years, people who have suspected that they have been injured by a vaccine were able to turn to a little -known system called Vaccination injury compensation program – Often simply called the vaccine court.
The Secretary of Health and Social Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has long been critical of the vaccine court, call him “biased” against compensating, slow and unjust people. He said he wanted “revolutionize” Or “fix” This system.
I am a Law, health and medicine researcher. I investigated history, policy and debates on the vaccine injury compensation program in my book “Vaccine Court: Law and injury policy. “”
Although vaccines are Tested and watched widelyand are Both extremely safe for the vast majority of people and extremely profitableSome people will undergo a harmful reaction to a vaccine. The vaccine court establishes a way to understand who these people are and to do them justice.
Having studied the vaccine court for 15 years, I agree with which it could use some fixing. But changing it spectacular will be difficult and potentially harmful to public health.
Decipher vaccine injuries
The vaccination injury compensation program is essentially a process that allows doctors, lawyers, patients, parents and government officials to determine who deserves compensation for a legitimate vaccine injury.
It was Created in 1986 by an act of congress To solve a specific social problem: possible vaccine injuries to children in the darling vaccine of whole cells. This vaccine, which was abandoned in the United States in the 1990s,, could cause alarming side effects like prolonged crying and convulsions. Parents continued vaccine manufacturersAnd some have ceased to produce vaccines.
The Congress feared that the prosecution will collapse from the supply of the country’s vaccines, allowing diseases to make a return. THE National 1986 law on childhood vaccines of childhood has created the vaccine court process and protected vaccine manufacturers from these prosecution.
Here’s how it works: A person who feels having suffered a vaccine -related injury submit a complaint be heard by a legal official called A special master Before the American court of federal complaints. The Secretary of Health and Social Services is appointed defendant and is represented by Lawyers from the Ministry of Justice.
Doctors who work for HHS assess medical records and make a recommendation to know if they think that the vaccine has caused the person’s medical problem. Some agreed vaccine injuries are listed for automatic compensationWhile other results that are scientifically disputed go through an audience to determine if the vaccine has caused the problem.
The prices come from a trust fund, accumulated by an excise tax of 75 cents on each dose of covered vaccine sold. Petitioners’ lawyers specialize in complaints against vaccines are paid by the trust fund, which they win or lose.
Some updates are necessary
Many has changed During the decades that followed the congress which wrote the law, but the Congress did not promulgate updates to follow.
For example, the law provides only eight special masters to hear all cases, but The workload has increased spectacularly Because more and more vaccines have been covered by law. He set a damage ceiling of US $ 250,000 in 1986 but did not take into account inflation. THE The limitation period for an injury is three yearsBut in my research, I found that a lot of people drop off too late and are missing their luck.
When the law was written, it only covered the vaccines recommended for children. In 2023, the program extended Include vaccines for pregnant women. Vaccines just for adults, as shingles are not covered. The claims of the COVID-19 vaccine go to Another system of emergency countermeasures vaccines was widely criticized. These vaccines could be added to the program, as lawyers who carry complaints there have recommended.
These reform ideas are “Friendly amendments” with bipartite support. Kennedy mentioned some of themAlso.
A complex system is difficult to revolutionize
Kennedy has not publicly declared enough details on his plan for the vaccine court to reveal the changes he intends to make. The first and least disruptive driving would be to ask the congress to pass the bipartite reforms noted above.
But some of his comments suggest He can try to dismantle itDo not fix it. However, none of its options are simple and the consequences are difficult to foresee.
The change in structure of the vaccination court would probably be the most difficult path. He obliges the Congress to modify the 1986 law which set it up and President Donald Trump to sign the legislation. Passage the bill to dismantle it requires the same process. One or the other direction implies all the difficulties of obtaining a bill controversial by the Congress. Even “friendly amendments” are difficult – a bill of 2021 to repair the vaccine court has been introduced but failed to move forward.
However, there are several less direct possibilities.
Adding autism to the list of injuries
Kennedy has a long time supported discredited complaints on vaccine damageBut the vaccine court was a rampart against allegations that lack the consumer scientific support. For example, the vaccine court held a year’s legal process From 2002 to 2010 and found that autism was not a vaccine injury. THE Autism tests DREW on 50 expert reports, 939 medical articles and 28 experts testifying to the file. The special masters deciding cases revealed that None of the causal hypotheses Put forward to connect autism and vaccines were reliable as medical or scientific theories.
A large part of Kennedy’s anger is directed against special masterswhich he claims to “prioritize the solvency” of the system “on their obligation to compensate the victims”. But the special masters do not work for him. They are rather appointed by the majority of judges of the Federal complaints For four -year -old mandates – and these judges themselves have 15 -year -old mandates. Kennedy cannot legally withdraw any of them in the middle of their service to install new judges who share his opinions.
Given, he can seek to put conditions such as autism on the list of alleged injuries against vaccines, in fact reversing the decisions of the special masters. Revise the list of recognized injuries To add those without medical evidence is in Kennedy’s powers, but it would always be difficult. This requires a long administrative process with the comments of an advisory committee and the public. Such revisions have historically been controversial and are generally linked to the main scientific journals of their validity.
Public and medical health groups are already mobilized against the movements of Kennedy’s vaccination policy. If he did not follow the legally required procedures when adding new injuries to the list, he could be continued to stop the changes.
Vaccine manufacturers targeting
Kennedy could also rely Its newly reconstructed advisory committee on vaccination practices To withdraw recommendations for certain vaccines, which would also withdraw them from eligibility from the vaccine compensation court. Prosecutions against manufacturers could then go directly to the regular courts. On August 14, 2025, the Ministry of Health and Social Services may have taken a step in this direction by Announce the rebirth of a working group on the safety of infant vaccines in response to A trial by anti-vaccine activists.
Kennedy also has sustained legislation This would allow complaints currently heard before the vaccination court to go to regular courts. These drastic reforms could mainly dismantle the vaccine court.
People claiming vaccine injuries could hope to earn damages through injury in the civil justice system instead of a vaccination court, perhaps by convincing a jury or obtaining a regulation. These types of colonies were what prompted the creation of the vaccine court First. But these proceedings could be difficult to win. There is a higher bar for scientific evidence In regular courts that in the vaccination court, and the complainants should pursue large companies rather than file a government complaint.
Raise the idea of reforming the vaccine court caused strong reactions In the many groups with interest in the program. It is a complex system with several constituents, and Kennedy’s approaches have so far drawn in different directions. The push to revolutionize will be tested the strength of its complex conception, but the vaccine court could still resist.
This published article is republished from The conversation Under a creative communs license. Read it original article.
