US Vaccine compensation: COVID method is worse in 12+ ways
Table of US Vaccine Compensation methods
| Feature | VICP (National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program) | CICP (Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program) |
|---|---|---|
| Created by | National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, 1986 | PREP Act, 2005 (§319F-4 of the PHS Act); claims accepted from 2010 |
| Covers | Vaccines on the Vaccine Injury Table that carry the $0.75/antigen excise tax (routine childhood + many adult vaccines) | "Covered countermeasures" named in an HHS PREP Act declaration — COVID-19 vaccines, antivirals, ventilators, anthrax/smallpox countermeasures |
| Who decides | Special Masters in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims — a judicial process | HRSA staff inside HHS — a purely administrative process |
| Filing deadline | 3 years from first symptom or manifestation of injury (2 years from death) | 1 year from administration of the countermeasure |
| Causation presumption | Yes — listed injury within the listed time window shifts the burden to the government | No injury table exists for COVID-19 vaccines; every claimant must prove causation from scratch |
| Standard of proof | Preponderance of the evidence (off-table claims use the Althen three-prong test) | "Compelling, reliable, valid, medical and scientific evidence" of direct causation; temporal association alone is explicitly insufficient |
| Attorney fees | Paid by the program even when the claim loses, if filed in good faith with a reasonable basis | None. Claimants pay out of pocket or self-represent |
| Pain and suffering | Yes, capped at $250,000 (same cap for death benefit; unchanged since 1986) | Excluded entirely |
| Lost income | Yes, calculated on actual loss | Yes, but capped at $50,000/year and only for permanent disability or death |
| Medical expenses | Paid, including projected lifetime care | Payer of last resort — only what insurance, Medicare/Medicaid, and other sources don't cover |
| Appeal | Special Master's decision → Court of Federal Claims → Federal Circuit | Reconsideration by the same agency. No judicial review of the final decision |
| Right to sue afterward | Yes — reject the judgment and file in civil court (though Bruesewitz v. Wyeth, 2011, bars design-defect claims) | No, except a "willful misconduct" suit in the D.C. federal district court, which has never succeeded |
| Funding | Vaccine Injury Compensation Trust Fund, from a $0.75 excise tax per disease prevented per dose | Annual congressional appropriations |
| Transparency | Decisions published; case law accumulates | Individual decisions and reasoning not published; only aggregate tables |
| Speed | Averages 2–3 years to adjudicate | Highly variable; large backlog since COVID |
| Track record | Since 1988, over 29,822 petitions filed, 26,310 adjudicated, 13,018 compensated (~49%), ~$5.5B paid | As of March 1, 2026: 135 of 7,423 decided claims found eligible (1.8%); for COVID-19 specifically, 95 of 6,827 decisions (0.9%) |
Sources
Three caveats that don't fit neatly in cells:
The 49% vs 1.8% gap is real but not a clean apples-to-apples measure of fairness. About 60% of VICP compensation comes from negotiated settlements in which HHS did not conclude the vaccine caused the injury — settling is cheaper than litigating, an option CICP's structure doesn't create. And on the CICP side, of 7,288 denials, 2,712 were for failure to submit required medical records and 2,617 for missing the filing deadline — meaning roughly 73% of denials never reached a causation judgment at all. That's still an indictment of the design (the one-year clock and the no-attorney-fee rule cause those failures), but it's a different indictment than "the evidence was weighed and rejected."
COVID-19 vaccines remain in CICP. Moving them to VICP would take an act of Congress plus an excise tax, since VICP compensation may only be paid for injuries from vaccines subject to the $0.75 excise tax.
The $0.75-per-antigen figure has been flat since 1997 (the 1986 statute set vaccine-specific rates; the flat per-disease rate came in the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997), so the trust fund's real value per dose has roughly halved. The Malone piece says both "since 1997" and "since 1986" in different paragraphs — 1997 is the correct date.
Dr. Malone comparison in Substack - cursive writing, 32 minute audio
Congress Gave Big Pharma Immunity. Vaccine Victims Got the Bill
Related in VitaminDWiki
- COVID-19 vaccine – no compensation if the problem occurred after 1 year (new US law)
- COVID long-haul: 1 million in US too sick to work, many cannot get compensation
- COVID-19 “Vaccines” Are Likely One of the Largest Carcinogenic Exposures in History
with no Cancer compensation, as it occurs > 1 year after vaccination - UK Vaccine: 50 years 6,500 claims, 944 awards - 4 years of COVID 16,000 claims, 180 awards (14% vs 1%)
- Long-COVID can hide in the body for years in scores of locations
No US compensation if > 12 months after vaccination - Each death within 90 days of COVID vaccination paid 22,400 dollars (S. Korea)