COVID Vaccine Injury Program Paid for One Death in March, But Denials Still Top 98%

The U.S. government-run COVID-19 vaccine injury compensation program in March paid out benefits for seven injuries, including one death.

Overall, as of April 1, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) has compensated just 51 of 6,944 claims decided with the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP). The program has denied 6,847 claims.

The death benefit paid in March was only the second death benefit CICP has paid out since the start of the pandemic, researcher Wayne Rohde, author of two books on the federal vaccine injury compensation program, reported on Substack.

The program has “a staggering denial rate exceeding 98%,” Dr. Joel Wallskog, React19 co-chair and a Wisconsin orthopedic surgeon injured by the COVID-19 vaccine, told The Defender.

“These are not isolated administrative issues,” Wallskog said. “They are evidence of a system designed to fail the very people it was created to help.”

The CICP was established under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP Act) of 2005.

Under a PREP Act declaration, issued during an official public health emergency such as the COVID-19 pandemic, manufacturers of vaccines and other countermeasures associated with a health emergency are exempt from liability for serious injuries or death caused by their products — except in cases of willful misconduct.

That means people who believe they were injured by one of these products can’t sue the manufacturer in a regular court. Instead, they can apply to the CICP for compensation — but they must file the claim within 12 months of being injured.