Drug & Device News

The three claimants who a year ago were denied compensation from the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP)(See 42 U.S.C. ' 300aa-10, et. seq.) because they could not prove a cause-and-effect connection between childhood vaccinations and their development of autism have lost their bids to have those decisions overturned. In order to collect from the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, the claimants had to show that: 1) their child received a vaccine covered by VICP; 2) the vaccine was given in the United States; 3) the child suffered a serious and long-term injury because of the vaccination; and 4) there has been no previous award or settlement concerning that injury. In the rulings in the three cases, issued on the same day in March by three different judges, claimants learned the judges had rejected their proffered evidence, finding it inadequate for a showing that the mercury-containing preservative thimerosal used in vaccines harmed their children.