2.19  The Cost of Side Effects

All vaccinations have side effects , nevertheless Elliman and Bedford (1998)  conclude that vaccination is safer than accepting the risk of the disease.  The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States reports 112,699 total vaccine adverse reactions up to 2000 on the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), yet revenues for two of the largest manufacturers of DPT and polio vaccines in the United States have increased by 300 per cent. since 1986, according to an international pharmaceutical analyst (Rock, 1996). 

The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 acknowledged that vaccines can injure and kill. Since 1988, 1477 vaccine injury claims have been heard in the United States Court of Federal Claims.  Of those, 638 have been judged compensatable, with more that $558 million paid out. In 2003, the average award to 59 petitioners was $1.2 million according to the NVIC (2004).

The British Government introduced the Vaccine Damage Payment Act in 1979 . The scheme was announced and enacted following publication and commission of the  Royal Commission report into civil liability and compensation for personal injury chaired by Lord Pearson. The Pearson report said “there is a special case for paying compensation for vaccine damage where vaccination is recommended by a public authority and is undertaken to protect the community.” 

The payment was designed to provide a measure of financial support for people who were severely disabled as a result of vaccination and to their families and others involved in looking after them. To qualify one had to prove one had been 80 per cent. brain damaged by the vaccine.  According to Alexander Harris (2003), since the scheme was introduced in 1979, there have been 4,217 claims by families – 416 of whom received a payment straightaway.  A further 482 were given a payment on appeal. (Daily Express, May 16th 2000).

 In June 2000, Alistair Darling, the then Secretary of State for Social Security, announced that several changes were to be made to the Vaccine Damage Payments scheme, to  increase the lump-sum payment made under the scheme from £40,000 to £100,000; and  a reduction in the disability threshold necessary to receive a payment.  These changes were expected to cost £3 million per year.