Recent public remarks by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have renewed national attention on the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP), the federal system designed to provide compensation to individuals injured by vaccines. In his statements, Secretary Kennedy has characterized the VICP as “corrupt and inefficient,” arguing that the Department of Health and Human Services should no longer defend cases and calling for broader structural changes to the system. These comments were reported in both [The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/health/kennedy-vaccine-injury-court.html) and [CNN](https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/28/health/vaccine-injury-compensation-program-rfk) (The New York Times, July 28, 2025; CNN, July 28, 2025), and reflect a broader conversation about how the VICP might be modernized to better serve the public.
As the [senior partner in charge of Green & Schafle’s vaccine injury litigation department](https://www.greenlegalteam.com/david-carney/) and as President of the Vaccine Injured Petitioners Bar Association (VIP Bar), I welcome Secretary Kennedy’s willingness to engage in dialogue about how to improve the Program. While we may differ in approach, we share the goal of ensuring that vaccine-injured individuals receive prompt, fair, and accessible compensation.
The VICP, established in 1986 under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, was created to protect both public health and the rights of individuals who experience rare but serious vaccine-related injuries. The program is administered by the U.S. Court of Federal Claims and is intended to be a non-adversarial, no-fault alternative to traditional litigation. Since its inception, it has paid out over $4.6 billion in compensation to more than 9,000 individuals.
While the VICP is in urgent need of reform, modernization, and additional resources, it remains the most effective forum to handle vaccine injury claims for five key reasons:
1. **Specialized Expertise:** The Court of Federal Claims has developed deep institutional knowledge over decades, with Special Masters who understand the complex medical, scientific, and legal issues that arise in vaccine injury cases. This familiarity enables the system to handle claims with a level of sophistication and nuance that would be lost in general civil courts.
2. **Lower Burden of Proof:** The VICP requires petitioners to demonstrate that a vaccine caused the injury—not that the vaccine was defective or negligently manufactured. In the traditional tort system, injured parties must often meet a much higher burden of proof, including showing that a vaccine was unreasonably dangerous or improperly designed—claims that are nearly impossible to sustain given that most vaccines are rigorously tested and FDA-approved.
3. **Access to Compensation Without Blame:** The no-fault nature of the VICP allows injured individuals to seek justice without needing to assign blame or engage in prolonged, combative litigation. This preserves judicial resources and reduces emotional strain on families.
4. **Avoiding Imbalanced Litigation:** Taking vaccine injury claims to civil court would mean litigating against global pharmaceutical companies—Sanofi, Merck, Pfizer, Seqirus, GSK—with virtually unlimited legal and financial resources. For injured individuals and their counsel, this would be a daunting and uneven playing field, likely to result in delays and denials of relief.
5. **Potential for Real Reform:** Meaningful reform of the VICP is not only possible—it’s already in progress. H.R. 5142, a bipartisan bill introduced in Congress, would substantially modernize the program. This legislation includes several critical improvements:
- Increasing the cap on pain and suffering from the current $250,000 (unchanged since 1986) to a more realistic and humane amount.
- Extending the statute of limitations from three years to five years, ensuring claimants have adequate time to seek medical evaluation and legal counsel.
- Expanding the Vaccine Injury Table to include COVID-19 vaccines and other vaccines that have been widely administered since the pandemic.
- Adding more Special Masters and support staff to reduce backlogs and accelerate resolution times.
- Mandating public reporting and oversight metrics to hold HHS and DOJ accountable for timely responses and processing.
“H.R. 5142 is the most meaningful step Congress can take right now to modernize the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program and ensure it works for the families it was designed to protect,” said David Carney, Senior Partner at Green & Schafle and chair of the vaccine litigation department, and President of the Vaccine Injured Petitioners Bar Association. “By raising outdated compensation limits, expanding the Vaccine Injury Table, and adding more Special Masters to handle the growing caseload, this legislation will help ensure that future vaccine-injured petitioners receive fair and timely justice. It’s a practical, bipartisan solution that strengthens the court’s capacity while restoring public faith in the system.”
“The Vaccine Act has not been updated since 1986 and is still based on archaic compensation principles,” Carney added. “It must be modernized to reflect the realities of 2025 and beyond so that families are treated with fairness, dignity, and the timely support they deserve.”
Rather than discarding the VICP or transforming it into a purely civil litigation model, the better path forward is one that builds on the program’s strengths and addresses its flaws through targeted reform. H.R. 5142 offers a clear and achievable roadmap to do just that.
At Green & Schafle, and through the work of the Vaccine Injured Petitioners Bar Association, we are committed to that vision. We invite Secretary Kennedy and other public health leaders to join us in supporting this legislation and working collaboratively toward a stronger, more responsive VICP for the next generation.
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