VICP
Vaccine court, autism, and vaccine safety concerns
The current ruling from the vaccine court denying families of autistic children their right to compensation made headlines this week. Most of the headlines and comments show that most people really do not understand the “vaccine court” or the ruling. I understand the vaccine court very, very well. I want to share my perspective on this controversial topic.
The Vaccine Immunization Compensation Program (VICP) is the actual name for “vaccine court”. “Vaccine court” is a term created by the media. This program was created by Congress in the mid-80’s as a response to the overwhelming number of children injured by the DPT vaccine (mine being one of these children). The pharmaceutical companies told Congress that if they were at risk of being sued in civil court by these families they would simply stop making vaccines. With the overwhelming threat of a renewed emergence of infectious disease, Congress created the VICP to provide liability protection for pharmaceutical companies as well as compensation to families whose children suffered vaccine injury.
The court is not really a court…it is a system designed in which the government is represented by a league of Department of Justice attorney’s, who are paid regularly and who have full access to expert witnesses. The judges aren’t judges at all, but Special Masters who preside over the case. Any family making a claim must have their own counsel (referred to as petitioners and not plaintiffs as in a regular court system). Their counsel and their expenses are not paid immediately, but sometimes several years after the outcome of the case is decided.
One significant difference to this Program versus the civil court is that a ruling in favor of the petitioners is determined by a preponderance of the evidence (or, as attorney’s would say it’s 50% and a feather). The families only have to show that it was more likely than not that the vaccine caused the injury. This is a much looser standard than in civil court.
So, that is the VICP 101. Congresses intent with this program was two-fold. As I mentioned earlier to provide liability protection to pharmaceutical companies. The other goal was to provide quick, generous compensation to injured children. It was not intended to be the scientific proving ground for every single vaccine event. That is what clinical trials and scientific studies are for. It is not to be a political arena that uses injured children as pawns in a game to shield the government or the manufacturers from taking responsibility for inadequate research and science.
The ruling was a sad day for many. I, like many, believe that vaccines have caused a great deal of harm. I do not know the science well enough to explain this, but I believe parents who tell me that one day their children were fine, they got vaccinated and the next day they were sick. It happened to Quincy (this has not been disputed) and it happens all the time. These families struggle to raise their children and endure immense medical costs. They need help. They do not need a big, public and political battle that protects the greedy and the corrupt.
Parents aren’t stupid. We are smart enough to know when we’ve been played. The government and the pharmaceutical companies took care of themselves and covered their asses while those with the least amount of political power, money or influence…every day folks like you and I…just got hung out to dry. This shouldn’t have been about making a scientific statement about vaccines and autism…everyone on all sides of this debate are a long, long way from being able to do that, despite what they might tell you. This should have been about deciding whether it was “more likely than not” that the vaccines caused some neurological injury to these kids. The system is so broken that they couldn’t even get to the heart of the matter.
I know so many of the players in this drama…program directors at HHS and CDC, DOJ attorneys, Special Masters. Individually most are all good people, but collectively they disappointed me last week. I also know the players for the families, the attorneys who have been working on these cases for nearly seven years without being paid and the families who so desperately need help raising their children and my heart breaks for them.
If the government and the pharmaceutical companies think this issue has been put to rest, they are sadly mistaken. Bad rulings like the ones last week only fuel the flames of distrust among the public. Families are asking for answers to the questions about whether vaccines are really keeping our communities safe or whether they are the reason why we are raising the sickest generation of children in history. Until the government is willing to conduct independent research that is not influenced or funded by the pharmaceutical companies and their deep, powerful pockets, I am afraid we will never know.
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National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC)
