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Covid-19: Is the US compensation scheme for vaccine injuries fit for purpose?
... Some countries, such as South Africa, included no-fault compensation systems not only due to the nature of the risks and burdens on the people, but also due to the bilateral contracts between governments and pharmaceutical companies manufacturing the vaccines, wherein the companies wanted indemnity or protection against any legal claims relating to the risks from the use of the vaccine [20]. Thailand, too, provided no-fault compensation to about 14,000 vaccinees injured post-Covid-19 vaccination [27,28]. ...
In April 2024, in a class action suit for compensation to families of persons suffering injury or death after vaccination with AstraZeneca's (AZ) Covid-19 vaccine [1], the manufacturer admitted in a UK court that the Oxford-AZ Covid-19 vaccine could cause a rare and potentially fatal blood clotting disorder ("thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome" or TTS, which when triggered by a vaccine is called "vaccine induced thrombocytopenia and thrombosis, or VITT) [2]. The AZ Covid-19 vaccine is a chimpanzee adenovirus vectored vaccine encoding the SARS-CoV2 spike protein (ChAdOx1-S) marketed under the names Covishield and Vaxzevria.
... The experience of the vaccine injured has largely been one of gaslighting and being ignored, and only now are their concerns being heard [24]. Still, treatment is limited, and limited resources exit for injury compensation [27]. Treatment of long Covid is receiving some attention and research funds [28], while treatment of vaccine injury is limited. ...
Delineating the epidemic of vaccine injury from the coterminous condition long covid is a challenging prospect, but one with many implications not just for treatment, but also has important legal considerations for settlements of vaccine injury. The shared etiological factor of the spike protein in both vaccine injury and long covid make differentiation difficult, and while treatment is largely similar between vaccine injury and long covid, there are important distinctions. Furthermore, diagnostics are important for monitoring treatment progress and assessing the extent of subclinical vaccine injury in population having received a covid-19 vaccine. The development of rigorous diagnostics is an important step towards the recognition of both long covid and vaccine injury, as those suffering these conditions have faced immense challenges in having their conditions recognized, treated, and compensated by insurance companies or national health services.
Research on vaccines in the law and social sciences skews heavily toward an instrumentalist approach to knowledge in service of vaccine promotion. Overcoming hesitancy and promoting vaccine acceptance have been major goals, but successful levers for behavioral change remain elusive. Research with constructivist approaches to vaccines from feminist sociology and anthropology has uncovered ethnographic richness to describe how vaccine debates illuminate inequalities in parenting and re-entrench patterns of racism and colonialism. There is considerable potential in science and technology studies approaches that take seriously the materiality and movement of vaccines in networks of production, finance, and global politics, though there are considerable methodological challenges for these research designs. This review charts the lopsided bibliography of law and social science research on vaccines, asking why scholars rarely move away from instrumentalist conceptions of law in the service of public health and, when they do, explaining what theoretical tools enable it.
Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Law and Social Science, Volume 19 is October 2023. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
Office of the Secretary. Declaration under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act for medical countermeasures against covid-19
Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Secretary. Declaration under the Public
Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act for medical countermeasures against covid-19. Fed
Regist 2020;85:52. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2020-03-17/pdf/2020-05484.pdf.