Vaccine Court Myth

Myth: The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act (NCVIA) provides for arbitration of vaccine related claims. The goal is to save the parties money (the traditional legal system is very expensive). However, a court still hears and weighs the relevant evidence and assigns liability based on its findings.

Truth: In the ’70s and ’80s, manufacturers sought protection from lawsuits of vaccines. They threatened that they would stop making vaccines without legal protection, so Congress passed NCVIA. This is not to save in legal fees (what a joke!) It’s to save manufacturers from all the vaccine injury lawsuits.

After Vioxx was approved by FDA it went on the market, ended up killing some people, their relatives sued and Merck paid, and had to pull the drug.

THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN WITH VACCINES.

After a vaccine is approved by the FDA, and it goes to market, there are injuries and the people want compensation they file in the federal vaccine court, which is handled, not by a judge or jury of peers but by a special master or special masters appointed by the court. It’s really in place to protect the vaccine program, not the patients.

The court has paid out over $4 billion in damages. Granted there are multiple vaccines at fault in these cases but Merck only had to pay our $950 million in Vioxx cases before it became obvious that it caused more harm than good. Again, this will never happen for vaccines because they are shielded from direct lawsuit.

You compound this with the fact that reports of vaccine adverse events are less than 1% of actual events and you have an enormous problem. It’s not being addressed because of the legal double standard. And that’s not being scrutinized because people like you defend it without even knowing about it because “safe and effective”.