RFK Jr blasts 'broken' vaccine injury program and pledges 'fix' as public health overhaul continues
In a post on X, Kennedy, a long-time vaccine skeptic and former vaccine injury plaintiff lawyer, said he will work to 'fix' the program that compensates victims of vaccine injuries, the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP).
The VICP is a no-fault federal program designed to compensate individuals who are found to have been injured by vaccines.
Kennedy said that to date, the program has paid out $5.4 billion in government funds to 12,000 people who have filed claims, alleging they suffered from various injuries after receiving a vaccine dating back to 1986.
As of June 1, 2025, the VICP has compensated 12,019 claims that were deemed compensable from the 25,026 petitions that have been ruled on since its formation.
The VICP was created in the 1980s, after lawsuits against vaccine companies and health care providers threatened to cause vaccine shortages and reduce US vaccination rates, which could have caused a resurgence of vaccine preventable diseases.
Any individual, of any age, who received a covered vaccine and believes he or she was injured as a result can file a petition. Parents, legal guardians and legal representatives also can file on behalf of children, disabled adults, and individuals who are deceased.
But Kennedy complained that the VICP 'routinely dismisses meritorious cases outright or drags them out for years'.
As a longtime outspoken critic of the VICP, Kennedy went on to slam it and its 'Vaccine Court' for being corrupt and inefficient, referring to the nine voting members who make executive decisions on compensation cases.
'I will not allow the VICP to continue to ignore its mandate and fail its mission of quickly and fairly compensating vaccine-injured individuals,' he wrote, adding he was working with Attorney General Pam Bondi on the matter.
'Together, we will steer the Vaccine Court back to its original congressional intent.'
He continued: 'Instead of 'quickly and fairly' awarding compensation, Special Masters dismiss over half of the cases.
'Most of those that proceed typically take five-plus years to resolve, with many languishing for more than 10 years as parents struggle to care for children suffering with often extreme disabilities.'
He added, alleging: 'Expert witnesses for injured children complain that they suffer intimidation and even threats that they will lose professional status or NIH funding if they testify for injured children.
'The government pays its own medical expert witnesses promptly while simultaneously slow-walking payments for petitioners' experts—sometimes for years.'
RFK Jr said the VICP's structure works against claimants because the Department of Health and Human Services - which he now leads - stands as the accused, as opposed to makers of the vaccines at the center of the accusation.
And because of this, Kennedy claims that the VICP decisionmakers prioritize the financial health of the HHS Trust Fund, 'over their duty to compensate victims'.
He added: 'The structure itself hobbles claimants. The defendant is HHS, not the vaccine makers; and claimants are therefore facing the monumental power and bottomless pockets of the U.S. government represented by the Department of Justice.
'Furthermore, most of the Special Masters [judging panel] come from government, legal, or political posts, and typically display an extreme bias that favors the government side.'
Kennedy did not give specific details on how he would change the VICP.
His X post concluded: 'The VICP is broken, and I intend to fix it. I will not allow the VICP to continue to ignore its mandate and fail its mission of quickly and fairly compensating vaccine-injured individuals.
'I am grateful to be working with @AGPamBondi and HHS staff to fix the VISP. Together, we will steer the Vaccine Court back to its original Congressional intent.'
Changing the VICP would be the latest in a series of actions by Kennedy to reshape US regulation of vaccines, food and medicine.
In June, he fired all 17 members of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a panel of vaccine experts, replacing them with seven handpicked members, including known vaccine skeptics.
One of them earned thousands of dollars as an expert witness in litigation against Merck's, Gardasil vaccine, court records show.
Kennedy himself played an instrumental role in organizing mass litigation over the vaccine.
He also is planning to remove all the members of another advisory panel that determines what preventive health measures insurers must cover, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
An HHS spokesperson said Kennedy had not yet made a decision regarding the 16-member US Preventive Services Task Force.
RFK Jr has for years sown doubt about the safety and efficacy of vaccines, despite research determining the shots are safe.
He has a history of clashing with the medical establishment and spreading misinformation about vaccines, including promoting a debunked link between vaccines and autism despite scientific evidence to the contrary.
Recently it emerged that a major 20-year study of over 1million children found no association between aluminum in vaccines and conditions like autism and ADHD.
Findings in the sweeping investigation provide a rebuttal to oft-debunked claims about the use of aluminum salts in vaccines, which bolster the body's immune response, and purported ties to asthma, autoimmune diseases, and autism.
Danish researchers looked at 50 potential health effects in children taking a vaccine containing aluminum salts, including 36 immune system disorders like diabetes and celiac disease, nine allergy-related conditions, such as asthma and eczema, and five neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism and ADHD.
They found no increased risk of autism, ADHD, asthma, or autoimmune disorders from the small amounts of aluminum in vaccines.
In fact, vaccinated children showed slightly lower rates of neurodevelopmental conditions – a seven percent lower autism risk and a 10 percent lower ADHD risk – with no connection to allergic or immune problems.
Aluminum adjuvants are safely used in several common childhood vaccines, including those protecting against diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTaP/Tdap), hepatitis A and B, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), and pneumococcal disease.
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