More than 4,000 other claims await decision by the U.S. government compensation program
For the first time amid the pandemic, the U.S. government compensation program will pay out one of the 4,751 claims alleging injuries or death arising from the administration of a covered countermeasure used to diagnose, treat, or prevent COVID-19.
Countermeasures may include emergency authorized or federally approved vaccines, drugs, and medical devices that the Food and Drug Administration allows for use during a public health emergency.
“One COVID-19 claim has been determined eligible for compensation and is pending a review of eligible expenses,” the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP) reported.
No additional information on the eligible claim was available. However, David Bowman, Public Affairs Specialist at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) told The Epoch Times via email that the CICP was “working to process claims as expeditiously as possible.”
The compensation program is run by the HRSA, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Established in 2010 through the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act of 2005, the CICP not only provides benefits to people who’ve suffered serious injuries or death as a result of being given a countermeasure, but it also protects individuals and companies involved in producing or administering the countermeasures from lawsuits, unless it can be shown that there was willful misconduct.
Under the CICP, people may be compensated for medical expenses not fully reimbursed or paid by insurance or government programs like Medicaid, lost wages from not being able to work for more than five days, and a death benefit for someone who has died.
The CICP, historically, has a low rate of compensating claims and some vaccine lawyers are not optimistic that many of the COVID-19 claims will be approved for payment.
A total of 5,242 claims have been filed with the CICP from 2010 to Nov. 1, 2021, of which 4,751 claims are related to injuries or death from COVID-19 countermeasures, specifically 2,297 claims are for COVID-19 vaccines and 2,454 for other countermeasures.
By Meiling Lee
