Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System

If you or someone you love has been diagnosed with a vaccine-related illness or injury, it will be important to learn about your legal rights under the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP). The VICP pays financial compensation to eligible vaccine recipients and their family members—and it covers most (but not all) CDC-recommended vaccines.

Attorney Leah Durant represents dozens of clients in VICP claims annually. She also publishes numerous articles on topics related to vaccine injuries and VICP claims each year. Here is a look back at some of the key insights she shared in 2023:

Understanding the Causes of Vaccine-Related Injuries and Illnesses

The causes of

The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) is a federal program that serves as a source of financial recovery for individuals and families coping with the effects of vaccine injuries. While Congress established the VICP in 1988, the program remains relatively unknown, and over the past 34 years, less than 10,000 claimants have obtained compensation despite the hundreds of millions of vaccines administered in the U.S. annually.

While vaccine injuries are relatively rare, the number of successful VICP claims filed is far below the estimated number of vaccine injuries over the relevant time period.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the United States

How common are vaccine-related injuries and illnesses? While there are several ways to answer this question, perhaps the most straightforward answer is that these injuries and illnesses are extremely rare in comparison to the number of vaccines administered in the United States each year. In this article, vaccine attorney Leah V. Durant discusses some key statistics and highlights the most-common vaccine-related injuries and illnesses based on data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP).