Category: Covid-19 Vaccine

Attorney General Paxton has joined a Kentucky-led amicus brief filed in the Cincinnati-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, seeking judicial protection for members of the Air Force who are being coerced to take the Covid-19 vaccine against their will and in violation of their religious beliefs. A district court previously granted a narrow preliminary injunction protecting the Airmen seeking religious exemptions. The coalition is now asking the Sixth Circuit to affirm that decision.

Despite many of these Airmen fully exhausting every administrative outlet to receive an exemption, including providing a chaplains confirmation that the vaccine significantly burdened their religious beliefs, the Air Force has refused to grant exemptions. The brief also responds to some of the Air Forces defenses of these forced vaccinations, which stem from what was clearly a politically-motivated mandate from the Biden Administration.

Far from infringing on military decision-making, the courts decision to affirm would safeguard the religious freedom of those who are willing to sacrifice everything for our country. It would also likely boost morale and military recruitment by protecting the rights of not just current service members, but also future service members who may now decide not to join our military for fear of being forced to take a vaccine that violates their religious beliefs.

No doubt, each of those Airmen serves his country for various reasons. But likely one, perhaps common to all, is to help protect others rightsincluding those of religious liberty. Surely, the Airmen do not do that at the expense of their own such rights, the brief reads.

To read the full brief, click here.

This is one of several actions Attorney General Paxton has taken in recent months to defend the American heroes facing forced vaccination that violates their religious beliefs, including joining a similar amicus filed in late August.

See the original post here:

Paxton Joins Brief on Behalf of Airmen Seeking a Religious Exemption from Forced Covid-19 Vaccinations - Texas Attorney General (.gov)

(Precision Vaccinations)

Maryland-based Novavax Inc. recently announced new international authorizations for its U.S. FDA-approvedNuvaxovid(NVX-CoV2373) vaccine.

On October 10, 2022, the company announced that Switzerland's Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) had recommended Nuvaxovid as a heterologous and homologous booster for active immunization to prevent COVID-19caused by the SARS-CoV-2 in adults.

The FOPH now recommends using Nuvaxovid as an adult booster regardless of previous vaccine history.

AndNovavax announced yesterday that its partner, SK bioscience, has submitted a Post Approval Change Application to the Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (KMFDS) for Nuvaxovidfor use as a similar booster for adults.

KMFDS approved Nuvaxovid for use in adultsinJanuary 2022and for use in adolescents aged 12 through 17 inJuly 2022.

Separately,Stanley Erck, Presidentand CEO of Novavax, stated in a media releaseand commented to theEuropean Parliament COVI Committee Hearing on October 10, 2022, "We know that vaccines don't save lives, vaccinations do."

"To realize the benefits of vaccines, there must be robust uptake."

"Critical to uptake is both access and availability of COVID-19 vaccines, as well as public confidence in the safety and efficacy of these products. And to that end, Novavax is committed to transparency and accountability."

"Our company has been transparent around our clinical trial protocols and scientific data, which we believe is one of the best ways to ensure public confidence in any vaccine that is ultimately authorized and recommended for use."

"We also know that pandemics don't observe country borders."

"And although there is a worldwide surplus of COVID-19 vaccines, this will not always be the case."

"Novavax is committed to reasonable pricing, equitable distribution and allocation, and expansive vaccine access."

Nuvaxovid is also available in theEuropean Union,Japan,Australia,New Zealand, andIsraelas a booster and is actively under review in other countries.Nuvaxovid is the only protein-based COVID-19 vaccine currently available in the EU and the U.S.

Note:The trade name Nuvaxovid has not been approved by the U.S. FDA. And this news article was manually curated for mobile readers and is not paid content.

Read the original:

Maryland's COVID-19 Vaccine Boosts Adults in Korea and Switzerland - Precision Vaccinations

The new bivalent Covid-19 booster vaccine is available and is specifically targeted at the omicron variant. The ability to tweak a vaccine and mass produce it to a specific variant this quickly is truly groundbreaking.

Still, for the most part, Americans say, meh.

Americans are not showing great enthusiasm for the new bivalent Covid-19 booster vaccine if theyve even heard about it,

A recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey says about two-thirds of respondents say theyre not getting the booster vaccine anytime soon, if at all. Twelve percent said they definitely would not get the updated booster, 10% said theyd only get it if required, and 18% said theyd wait and see, the survey showed. Twenty-seven percent said they were not eligible to get the booster vaccine because they are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated.

About a third of respondents had a favorable response, with 5% saying theyd gotten the booster and 27% saying theyd get it as soon as possible.

About half the survey respondents said they had little or no knowledge about the Covid-19 booster vaccine.

America is not rushing out to get the new booster, KFF President Drew Altman told The New York Times. Most are only dimly aware of it, which is not surprising in a country that seems to have mostly moved on.

So Whats Bedford Thinking? Have you heard about the new bivalent Covid-19 booster vaccine? Are you planning on getting one soon? For the purpose of this poll lets define soon as in the next month

Ready to be counted? Vote in the poll until noon next Saturday. Youll find the poll in the right-hand column on The Citizens main page, or by scrolling to the bottom of your phone or tablet

See the original post:

Bivalent Covid-19 vaccine booster - What's Bedford Thinking? - thebedfordcitizen.org

Other vaccine information

See Vaccine information in:

Content verified September 26, 2022

With the CDCs approval of a new Pfizer and Moderna booster on September 1, County-sponsored clinics must provide only the new boosters. People getting first or second doses are not affected.

Our booster clinics for ages 12+ have switched to the updated bivalent booster. Due to initialsupply, we currently recommend appointments for these boosters. Maryland's Vaccine Locatorprovides information on pharmacies and other providers who also have booster appointments.

Novavax vaccine is available by appointment to persons age 12 and over. Learn more about Novavax and make an appointment.

At County-run clinics: appointments recommended; drop-ins welcome but bivalent booster supply is limited and will depend on availability.

You may see this pop-up message: "Clinic appointments slots are currently being booked by others. Please check back later to see if any appointments have become available."It means that

If you need help making an appointment at a County-run clinic, or an in-home appointment, call 240-777-2982 or email c19vaccination@montgomerycountymd.gov.

For veteransenrolled in VA Healthcare: Washington DC VA Medical Center| Martinsburg VA Medical Center

For an online record of your COVID-19 vaccination, view your account in Maryland MyIR. MyIR is Maryland's online immunization record system. It is considered your official record of vaccination.

If you have trouble accessing your online record, use the MyIR Help. If your record does not show up on MyIR, request help for an "unmatched record".

If you were vaccinated at a County-operated clinic, we can email you a copy of your record. To request a copy, email c19vaccination@montgomerycountymd.gov or call 240-777-2982.

We cannot provide duplicate CDC vaccination cards.

See clinic maps, bus service options, and driving directions

See the Montgomery County Vaccine Distribution Dashboard.

Continue reading here:

COVID-19 Vaccine - Montgomery County, MD

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Read this article:

How Long After Having Covid-19 Should You Wait To Get The Booster Vaccine? - Forbes

1. How much commercial plan members could save if COVID-19 vaccine rates increase  FierceHealthcare
2. HHS report reaffirms COVID-19 vaccination prevents Medicare hospitalizations, save lives | AHA News  American Hospital Association
3. New HHS Report: COVID-19 Vaccinations in 2021 Linked to More than 650000 Fewer COVID-19 Hospitalizations and Over 300000 Fewer Deaths Among Medicare Beneficiaries, Underscoring Importance of Getting Updated COVID-19 Vaccines This Fall  HHS.gov
4. HHS: COVID vaccines saved lives of 300K Medicare recipients in '21  Spectrum News NY1
5. COVID-19 vaccines prevented more than 300K deaths among Medicare beneficiaries in 2021  Healio
6. View Full Coverage on Google News

Continued here:

How much commercial plan members could save if COVID-19 vaccine rates increase - FierceHealthcare

Partnership with trusted community organizations, a diverse bilingual workforce, and a grassroots communication and outreach strategy were key to a successful community based vaccination clinic aimed at expanding uptake and access among Latinos with limited English proficiency.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected minority groups including Latinos and especially among Latinos with limited English proficiency. Once vaccines became available, Latinos lagged behind in COVID-19 vaccination coverage, especially during the early phase of vaccination roll out. Latino migrants with irregular migrant status faced unique challenges to access vaccination, including language barriers, concerns about immigration status, and lack of familiarity navigating the US health care system. A nationally representative study in the US showed that in May, two thirds of undocumented Latinos reported uncertainty about their eligibility and concerns about social security or government ID requirements, and 43% did not know where to go. They also reported difficulty obtaining vaccine information in Spanish and registering through digital portals, and most were unaware that in the US the vaccine was available for free, regardless of immigration status.

The investigators of this study had a personal interest in expanding access to vaccination to this vulnerable group. Dr. Page is an infectious disease specialist from Uruguay and during the pandemic, she and co-author Ben Bigelow helped establish a coalition between the Johns Hopkins Health System, religious leaders, and community organizations to open a bilingual COVID-19 hotline and implement free SARS-CoV2 community-based testing to target disadvantaged Latinos in Baltimore City and surrounding areas. Leveraging this infrastructure, the trust gained through this initiative, and the expertise of bilingual and bicultural community health workers, the team implemented vaccination clinics at one of the local churches to facilitate access for Latinos with limited English proficiency.

What we did

Eighteen free community vaccination events with bilingual staff were conducted between February 26, 2021, and May 7, 2021. Between 150 and 200 first doses per week were allocated for this initiative.

A variety of outreach methods were used to increase vaccine uptake. The number for the bilingual COVID-19 hotline was distributed to vaccinated individuals to share with their networks and advertised through Spanish language local media outlets and community partners (passive outreach). In addition, the community health workers canvased Latino neighborhoods and laborer sites to offer appointments for vaccination (street outreach). Walk-up appointments became allowed as the pandemic progressed (walk-up).

What we found

Was this outreach successful? How should future groups aim to target disadvantaged communities?

Our free community-based vaccination initiative expanded access for Latinos with limited English proficiency at high risk for COVID-19 during the early phase of the immunization program in the United States. However, this was a small scale intervention and more work needs to be done nationwide to minimize disparities in COVID-19 and other health outcomes. What should future groups do to insure high-uptake of community programs?

1. Partners with trusted community organizations and structures.

As pent-up demand for vaccination nationwide has subsided, community-based initiatives that can leverage social networks and build community trust. This can both increase access to and normalize vaccination for marginalized or vaccine-hesitant individuals.

2. Have a bilingual and bicultural workforce with flexible appointment scheduling.

The coalition participated in more than 40 Spanish language community informational forums, and the clinical director was designated a bilingual Maryland GoVAX COVID-19 vaccine ambassador. These combined efforts helped mitigate language barriers, concerns about immigration status, and lack of understanding about the healthcare system.

3. Increase the use of high-touch and low-tech approaches.

Our outreach methods overcame technical barriers by focusing on low-tech approaches. These methods included in-person outreach, hotline access, Spanish language media, and word of mouth that were easy to navigate and did not rely on advanced digital or health literacy.

To learn more, read our article in the November 2022 issue of the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice.

Dr. Kathleen Page is an infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She is originally from Uruguay and her work focuses on promoting health equity for Latinos immigrants with limited English proficiency through community-engaged program development, implementation and evaluation.

Related

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Expanding Access to COVID-19 Vaccines to Latinos with Limited English Proficiency During the Early Phases of Vaccination - JPHMP Direct

Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, does not mince words when describing the scientific legacy of the Covid-19 vaccines: The mRNA shots, he said, are the greatest scientific achievement in my lifetime.

Yet as the weather starts to turn cold and as officials push for more people to get their new booster shot before an expected winter coronavirus surge, public health leaders are battling skepticism and apathy toward the vaccines. Worse, experts fear the politicized backlash to the Covid-19 vaccines is already fostering skepticism about routine vaccinations generally, from childhood immunizations to flu shots.

Across the country, Republican lawmakers have drafted a pile of anti-vaccine mandate bills this year, chipping away at a foundational health practice for the last half-century. More than 80 anti-vaccine bills have been introduced in state legislatures, according to academics tracking the phenomenon, dwarfing the number of countervailing pro-vaccine bills. Public health experts are preparing for an all-out war on school mandates and other vaccine measures in states like Texas.

Childhood vaccination rates fell during the 2020-21 school year, the equivalent of 35,000 kids not being up to date on their shots. Although that might be an effect of missed checkups during the worst of the pandemic, there are other signs that faith in vaccines might be falling: Fewer Americans said this year and last year that they will get the flu shot compared to the few years before, according to a new poll from the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. The fear among experts is that these drops are not a pandemic-driven blip but an accelerating trend, following a decades-long drift in trust in childhood vaccines; we should get updated numbers early next year.

This Covid-19 booster is likely the last time the government will offer a free shot to all Americans. We are moving away from a pandemic footing and into an age when reformulated Covid boosters are part of the routine vaccination schedule. That should be a cause for celebration: They are miracles of scientific ingenuity, delivered faster and proving more effective than most experts believed possible at the start of the pandemic. They have helped avert tens of millions of deaths worldwide, by some estimates.

And yet many Americans dont trust them. If anything, the controversies around the vaccines driven by a mix of political opportunism, polarization, and misinformation may ultimately undermine faith in vaccines broadly among certain pockets of the population for years to come.

Information gets you so far, but only so far. Its not a knowledge deficit but a trust deficit, Offit said. Its a level of denialism thats hard to grasp.

Its befuddling in part because the life-and-death stakes should already be clear. A new study from a group of Yale University scholars found that Republicans experienced a meaningfully higher death rate from Covid-19 than Democrats and the difference was almost entirely concentrated in the period after the vaccine became available.

These effects will continue to be felt this winter and beyond. According to new survey data from the Pew Research Center, just 4 percent of Americans say they have gotten the updated bivalent booster shot targeted to the omicron variant of Covid-19. Combined with those who say they will probably get another booster dose (44 percent), less than half of Americans are expecting to stay current with their Covid vaccinations, despite the urging of public health officials.

New projections from the Commonwealth Fund estimated that, if vaccination rates were to remain unchanged in the next few months, the US will be averaging about 1,200 deaths from Covid-19 every day by March, three times the number of daily deaths being reported right now.

If, on the other hand, 80 percent of eligible Americans were to receive the latest boosters, as many as 90,000 lives could be saved over that period.

Experts are also bracing for a severe flu season, in part because of the lagging vaccination rates, which are usually below 50 percent annually.

But what is clear by now is projections like these, or all the pleading of public health leaders, cannot overcome the rampant anti-vaccine skepticism that has taken hold in the US, particularly on the right. As Dorit Reiss, a UC Hastings law professor who is tracking anti-vaccine legislation in the states, put it to me, the pandemic turbocharged things that were already happening.

Weve seen increasing politicization of vaccine mandates before the pandemic, she said. But not to the degree were seeing now.

And with the anti-vaccine movement growing stronger, experts expect its adherents to grow only more ambitious, targeting the school vaccine mandates that have been critical up to now in eradicating diseases like measles, mumps, and polio.

Eventually, Covid will start to dissipate. But its not like this whole ecosystem that was put in place is going to fold up the tent and go home, said Peter Hotez, co-director of Texas Childrens Hospital Center for Vaccine Development and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. They have their sights set on childhood vaccinations.

Vaccine skepticism remains a minority position in the US. Nearly 70 percent of eligible Americans have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19. More than 8 in 10 continue to say that getting childhood vaccinations is important. But that consensus is not quite as strong as it once was.

In 2001, according to Gallups polling, 94 percent of Americans said it was extremely or very important for parents to get their children vaccinated. In 2019, that figure had dropped to 84 percent. Gallup hasnt asked that survey question again in a while, but the Kaiser Family Foundation asked something similar in July. They found 89 percent of parents or guardians said they kept their children up to date on vaccines. But 1 in 10 said they had skipped some or all of the scheduled vaccines for their kids.

People with doubts are often finding support from their political representatives. Both Hotez and Offit said that anti-vaccine sentiments have gained more of a foothold on the right in recent years. Once upon a time, vaccine hesitancy did not have a clear political bent: Some people on the left were doubtful of vaccines for what Offit called purity reasons (they dont want to put unnatural products in their body) and some people on the right were making arguments based on liberty and freedom.

But over the last decade, Hotez said, an alliance between anti-vaccine activists and right-wing political groups has driven much more skepticism among Republican voters. In Gallups 2019 poll, the share of Republicans who said getting childhood vaccinations was important had plummeted to 79 percent, from 93 percent in 2001. The drop among Democrats, meanwhile, was much more modest, from 97 percent in 2001 to 92 percent in 2019, and even prior pockets of left-wing vaccine skepticism have become more supportive of vaccines during the pandemic.

That alliance was born as the anti-vaccine movement began to deemphasize debunked links to autism and instead embraced the concept of medical freedom a message, especially in the wake of the Tea Party and the Obamacare debate, that appealed to conservative activists and their voters. Politicos Arthur Allen wrote in 2019 that that libertarian demand for medical freedom has displaced the traditional GOP view that its a civic responsibility to immunize your kids to prevent the spread of disease for a growing number of Republican officials and their supporters.

Then Covid-19 happened. First, the Trump administration and many of its political allies downplayed the threat of the virus and then, even after their own program helped develop lifesaving vaccines in record time, largely framed the question of whether to get this shot that could help end the pandemic as a matter of personal choice.

The Trump administration made [the pandemic] a partisan issue. I think were paying the price for that, Reiss said. It was a missed opportunity because, pandemic failures aside, the vaccines were a bipartisan effort. One administration started them and another distributed them. It could have been a come-together moment.

Its not very hard to imagine an alternate universe where the successful development and deployment of Covid-19 vaccines engendered renewed faith in vaccines generally. Instead, the campaign against all vaccinations seems to be gaining steam.

Hotez said that, in Texas, he is anticipating a full-throttle assault against childhood vaccination requirements in schools during the upcoming legislative session. According to Reisss review of the public health legislation database at the National Conference of State Legislatures, at least 88 bills have been introduced in state legislatures in 2022 that would roll back school vaccine requirements or eliminate the right of a minor to make their own decisions about getting vaccinated. She counted just 10 pro-vaccine bills. And nearly half of the anti-vaccine bills extended beyond the Covid-19 shots, she said, to block schools from requiring other kinds of vaccinations as well.

Even if they dont pass, legislators think this is an area they should focus on and there is political capital to be gained, Reiss said. Theres a real risk that, in some places, attitudes toward vaccines will be harmed in the long term.

School mandates do drive up vaccination rates; the science on that is clear. And the occasional measles outbreak in areas with low local vaccination rates has shown how quickly these diseases can recover and spread when given the opportunity.

Yet the US seems to be coming out of the pandemic not only lagging in seasonal Covid-19 and flu shots but also with many politicians eager to roll back the measures that had once made routine vaccinations the rare issue to have more than 90 percent approval from the American public.

Do that, Offit warned, and we will take a giant step backward in controlling these diseases.

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Vaccine skepticism about Covid-19 could spread to other shots - Vox.com

MOH said it would also roll out bivalent vaccines for booster jabs later this month.

"This updated bivalent vaccine will provide better protection against newer COVID-19 variants," it said.

"MOH will therefore replace the original Moderna/Spikevax vaccines with the updated bivalent version from Oct 17, 2022, for all vaccinations using the Moderna/Spikevax vaccine, for all adults aged 18 years and above.

"Hence, for persons aged 50 and above, or for persons yet to achieve minimum protection, as they are at higher risk of severe illness from COVID-19 infection, they should take the bivalent vaccines."

The Pfizer/Comirnaty bivalent vaccine is undergoing evaluation and is expected to be available by the end of this year, the ministry added.

It also announced a transition away from the current system of counting jabs.

"Instead of counting the number of shots and boosters we receive, we will transit to a new definition of up-to-date vaccination," the ministry said.

"This is similar to influenza vaccination, where individuals are advised to take them periodically, so as to protect ourselves against new strains of the endemic influenza virus as they arise."

Under this regime, MOH said it would recommend that those aged five years and above complete three mRNA or Novavax/Nuvaxovid doses, or four Sinovac-CoronaVac doses, to achieve minimum protection.

"After achieving minimum protection, persons aged 50 years and above should receive an additional booster dose between five months to one year from their last dose, to keep up-to-date with their COVID-19 vaccination," said the ministry, adding that it recommended taking the bivalent vaccine for this booster.

"Individuals will be considered up-to-date with their COVID-19 vaccination if they have received at least the minimum protection and their last vaccine dose was received within the past one year."

See the original post:

COVID-19 vaccination for children aged 6 months to 4 years to start from Oct 25 - CNA

The Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP) provides some benefits to Americans who have experienced injuries or deaths as a result of a COVID-19 shot and other countermeasures recommended to prevent, diagnose, or treat the disease.

But without the development of a vaccine injury table by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the burden of proof lies with the petitioner and not the government to prove causation in order to establish eligibility.

Thats because an injury table is the standard of proof in determining compensation, according to Wayne Rohde, an author who has written extensively on the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVICP) that covers injuries from the recommended vaccines routinely administered to children and/or pregnant women.

The standard of proof is a way to determine whether the petition measures up to a certain standard to award compensation, Rohde told The Epoch Times.

HRSA, an agency under the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), is in charge of the CICP.

A vaccine injury table lists the injuries and conditions caused by the vaccine and the time periods in which the first symptom of these injuries and conditions must occur after receiving the vaccine, the Centers for Disease and Prevention (CDC) explains (pdf). If both the injury or condition and the specified timeframe are met, it is presumed that the vaccine was the cause and compensation would be awarded.

However, if an individual does not meet the requirements listed on the injury table, it then falls on the person filing the claim to prove that the vaccine caused the injury or condition.

Such a table eliminates the extra burden put on petitioners who are already suffering severe adverse reactions or have lost a loved one, according to Mark Sadaka, a vaccine lawyer whos helped more than 60 people file a COVID-19 injury claim.

If theres a vaccine injury table, that burden shifts from the person to the other side, Sadaka, told The Epoch Times, adding that the purpose of the table is thegovernment acknowledging that this vaccine can cause the injury and then puts the burden on the other party to disprove it.

All four COVID-19 injections administered in the United States under emergency use authorization, and the federally approved Pfizer (Comirnaty) and Moderna (Spikevax) shots, are covered under the CICP.

The federal agency did not reply to queries about the injury table. But in August and December 2021,HRSA spokespersons told The Epoch Times in an email that the CICP has not yet developed an injury table for COVID-19 countermeasures and that an injury table for COVID-19 medical countermeasures will be developed when there is sufficient data to meet the compelling, reliable, valid, medical, and scientific evidence standard.

The compensation program has received over 9,000 complaints in the two years since COVID-19 appeared compared to the 500 claims filed between 2010 and 2020, where 30 claims were compensated, totaling over $6 million.

Yet none of the 7,084 claims alleging injury or death from the vaccines or the 2,804 claims related to drugs and devices have been paid compensation. Three claims have been found eligible for compensation but are still awaiting a medical benefits review, according to HRSA.

One eligible claim is the result of anaphylaxis, and two claims are the result of myocarditis, the federal agency wroteon Sept. 1.

Sadaka said that many of the claims hes helped file have still not been assigned to someone in the agency although its been over a year since the necessary paperwork was submitted.

So far, theyve gone nowhere. Theyre not even assigned to anybody. Theres some sort of procedural hellhole and that no one knows whats happening with it, Sadaka said.

Rohde said he began submitting Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to HHS and HRSA at the beginning of the year to find out whether the agency had developed or planned to develop a COVID-19 vaccine injury table.

HRSA states that they do not have any records or documents of any existing injury table specific to the COVID-19 jab nor have any plans to develop one, Rohde wrote in an article.

In a Sept. 14 email reply to Rohdes FOIA request for copies of discussions regarding the COVID-19 vaccine table, or development of the table, the HHS said, Upon receipt, your request was sent to HRSAs Division of Injury Compensation Programs who informed our office that they do not have records responsive to your request.

Without a specific injury table, then how will the petitions be measured regarding if the jab could have induced or created a specific medical condition? Rohde asked, adding that is what is called a standard of proof.

John Howie, a trial lawyer focused on vaccine and personal injuries, told The Epoch Times in anearlier interview that the compensation program is only a feel good program where there is no transparency like a true judicial process nor a provision for attorneys fees, thus making it difficult for any injured individual to even retain a lawyer. Furthermore, any appeals are handled by [three] people hand-selected by HHS to review the claim.

The CICP is the payer of last resort, meaning only medical expenses that have not been paid by insurance, lost wages, and a death benefit for people whove died are compensated. The program doesnt allow payment for pain and suffering, or attorneys fees like in a traditional compensation program, regardless if an individual is severely disabled following the administration of a vaccine or other countermeasures.

Unlike a traditional program, people only have one year from the date that the covered countermeasure was received to file and there is no public disclosure of decisions, according to Rohde.

On Aug. 16, 2021, it was announced in the Federal Register (pdf) that the HHS had established and adopted a smallpox countermeasures injury table even though the last naturally occurring case of smallpox was reported in 1977 and monkeypox was not declared a public health emergencyuntil August 2022.

The injury table includes a list of covered smallpox countermeasures, required time intervals for the first symptom or manifestation of onset of injuries, and the accompanying Qualifications and Aids to Interpretation (QAI), which set forth definitions and other requirements necessary to establish Table injuries, the HHS wrote.

The Table informs the public about serious physical injuries known to be directly caused by covered countermeasures and creates a rebuttable presumption of causation for eligible individuals whose injuries are listed on the Table and meet the Tables requirements, the agency added.

Rohde said that HRSA sent him the smallpox injury table in a response to a FOIA requesting true and accurate copies of the records, documents relating to the definition and decision-making process for the standard of proof on all countermeasures injury petitions.

In a Sept. 21, 2022,email reply, HRSA said its Division of Injury Compensation Programs (DICP) hadlocated 34 pages containing a copy of The Federal Registry Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program, Final Rule, that explains the standard of proof that DICP uses, released in its entirety.

The federal government had quietly snuck the table in without letting the public know, Rohde said.

There was no announcement, he added. I looked everywhere, if there was an announcement in August of 2021. There was no press, no press release, theres nothing in the HRSA website, the CICP website, nothing!

The injuries and conditions listed on the smallpox injury table, according to Sadaka have similarities between this document and whats seen in the literature for COVID-19 adverse events.

Some of the conditions listed on the table include anaphylaxis, syncope, and myocarditis, pericarditis, or myopericarditis.

Emails to HRSA inquiring about the reason for adopting the smallpox countermeasure injury table went unanswered, so The Epoch Times could not verify whether the table is being used to measure and decide on claims related to the COVID-19 injection.

The CICP was set up in 2010 to provide compensation for any injuries and deaths that resulted from the use of a covered countermeasure under the 2005 Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act (pdf).

Under the PREP Act, COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers, providers, distributors, and program planners are immune from lawsuits related to vaccine injuries and death, unless it can be shown that there was willful misconduct in the production of the vaccine by the company.

The CICP was not really designed as a national compensation program, Rohde said, as it was more of a regional program focused on disasters such as from hurricanes the avian flu scare, anthrax, and regional emergencies.

Rohde said the compensation program lacks adequate funding to pay all of the claims filed so far. It doesnt have a funding mechanism or a trust fund like the traditional compensation program that is funded by anexcise tax of $0.75 per dose or disease that is prevented. For example, the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine is taxed at $2.25 because it prevents three diseases. The excise tax thengoes into a trust fund that is managed by the Department of Treasury.

In a response to a different FOIA that Rohde submitted asking for the total compensation budget for fiscal year 2020 to 2024, HRSA revealed how underfunded the CICP is.

In 2021 and 2022, over $931,000 was budgeted for compensation under the CICP, with the budget increasing to $5 million for 2023. No estimate has been completed for 2024. Whereas, the traditional compensation program has $3.9 billion in the vaccine injury trust fund.

The 2021 and 2022 budget would only be able to pay out two claims of death each year before running out of funds since the CICP pays a one-time maximum death benefit of over $370,000 (pdf). For lost wages, the annual compensation is capped at $50,000 per year.

How can this be? Our government, more precisely, HRSA is planning to compensate only one possibly up to three petitions this year, Rohde wrote in August 2022.In the NVICP, the estimated dollar amount for compensation in FY 2022 could be around $225 million for a projected 850 damage awards.

Authors of a study published in the Journal of Law and the Biosciences calling for a reform to the CICP, said that the program lacks accountability, transparency, and cost-effectiveness efficiency, with 94% of its total costs spent on administration rather than compensation. CICPs ability to compensate is also questionable.

They added, If COVID-19 claims were compensated at its historical rate, CICP would face around $21.16 million in compensation outlays and $317.94 million in total outlays, 72.1 times its current balance.

To ensure just compensation for injured petitioners during COVID-19 and future public health emergencies, we recommend Congress (1) initiate a major reform by relocating CICP from DHHS to the Claims Court or (2) keep CICP within DHHS and make incremental changes by permitting judicial review of DHHS administrative adjudication of CICP claims. We further recommend Congress audit and adjust budgets for CICP and DHHS promptly propose an injury table for COVID-19 claims.

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Americans Injured by the COVID-19 Vaccine Have to Prove Causation to Receive Compensation - The Epoch Times