Does the Vaccine Court Violate America’s 7th Amendment?

With the upcoming 30th anniversary of the signing into law by President Ronald Reagan (Nov 14, 1986) of the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act (NCVIA), I want to start the conversation about several areas of injustice of this Act. The signing of the NCVIA in 1986 established the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVICP) or commonly known as the Vaccine Court. The law also established VAERS, requires the CDC to develop and distribute vaccine information statements (VIS) for each vaccine administered, established a committee within the Institute of Medicine to review the literature on vaccine reactions, and created the Vaccine Injury Trust Fund to provide compensation for injuries or death from childhood vaccines. When faced with the seriousness of a vaccine injury, one seeks the comforting voice of an experienced attorney from the vaccine bar. Most of us do not know that several attorneys associated with the vaccine bar have gone to great personal financial hardship and sacrificing their own family life. Our government is closing the door on those who have been injured seeking compensation from the Vaccine Court, and one subtle way is making it more difficult to be represented by legal counsel.

Vaccine Injury Compensation: Government’s Broken Social Contract with Parents

Three decades ago, Congress created a federal vaccine injury compensation program (VICP) and gave the pharmaceutical and medical trade industries a partial product liability shield under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986. The goal was simple: to restrict civil lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers and negligent doctors whenever government mandated vaccines injure and kill Americans. In the 21st century, Congress went further and directed federal agencies to develop a public-private business partnership with the pharmaceutical industry. Today, multi-national corporations marketing vaccines enjoy a $15 billion dollar U.S. and $30 billion dollar global vaccine market that will reach $100 billion in 10 years. At the same time, Congress appropriates billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars to federal agencies working with Big Pharma to develop hundreds of new vaccines, while vaccine licensing standards have been lowered so companies can fast-track experimental vaccines to market. Meaningful congressional oversight on vaccine regulation and policymaking is non-existent today, in part because the pharmaceutical industry is the number one wealthiest and most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. Parents, who file a claim today on behalf of a brain damaged vaccine injured child in the federal vaccine injury compensation program (VICP) under the 1986 Act, know that the odds of obtaining financial assistance from the government are not much better than the odds of winning a lottery. Department of Health and Justice officials fight almost every award in the U.S. Court of Claims so two out of three vaccine injury claims are denied.