While the valuations of Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson and Johnson have gone up by hundreds of billions of dollars because of the pandemic, Americans who were injured by the Covid-19 vaccine continue to get the shaft.
Under The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, vaccine manufacturers and the parties that administer vaccines have tort immunity. In exchange for immunity, vaccine manufacturers pay a seventy-five-cent excise tax on every vaccine they sell. These funds are held in the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVICP). If a person is injured by a vaccine covered by the NVICP, they can seek compensation by filing a claim in The Federal Court of Claims.
Under the NVICP, a person can recover their out-of-pocket expenses, medical bills, costs associated with rehabilitation and recovery services, future medical costs, current and future lost wages and up to $250,000.00 in pain, suffering, and emotional damages. Since its inception, the fund has paid out over $4.6 Billion dollars.
Unfortunately, the Covid-19 vaccine is currently considered a “countermeasure” and therefore it is not covered by the NVICP. Vaccine manufacturers, while still holding on to their immunity, have not had to pay a single dollar into the fund. Not that they couldn’t afford it. From March 30, 2020, to present, Pfizer’s valuation as a company has gone up $103.91 Billion, Moderna’s $95.87 Billion, and Johnson and Johnson’s $83.63 Billion. That’s a grand total of $284.41B. Mind you, that’s not the value of those companies. That’s how much the value of those companies has increased in the last twenty months.
To put into perspective how much money that is, according to the World Bank, the gross domestic product of 173 of the world’s 213 countries is less than $283B. Countries like Greece, Peru, New Zealand, Portugal, Czech Republic, Columbia, Vietnam, South Africa, and my ancestral Finland have GDP’s less than the three vaccine manufacturers increased market caps in the last twenty months.
Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson and Johnson should come up with the dough that would have been paid into the vaccine injury fund if the $0.75 tax had been applied to the approximately 567 million doses they’ve delivered. It’s a paltry $425M. Less than one quarter of one percent of their $283B windfall. Instead of their valuations being increased by $283.41B in less than two years they’d only be up $282.98B. Maybe they can pass a hat or something.
Our government has also bought and given away over $8B worth of vaccines to developing countries. I’m all for helping others but they could have bought $7.5B worth of vaccines for other countries and thrown $500M into the NVICP to help the Americans who’ve been injured. Maybe if Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson can’t find their checkbooks the government will, but I’d much rather big pharma foot the bill instead of the taxpayers.
Our country has administered over 451 million vaccines. It’s time our leaders admit that there are some people with legitimate injuries and provide those people an avenue of recourse. Our government already readily admits that in rare occasions people are injured by every other vaccine. Admitting that there have been people who have been harmed by the Covid-19 vaccine doesn’t mean the vaccine isn’t safe. Every vaccine, drug, or medication has side effects and people who have a bad reaction to it. We don’t need to pretend the Covid-19 vaccine is any different.
There is no greater example of the disparity of justice regarding the Covid-19 vaccine than the treatment of people who have SIRVA. SIRVA which stands for Shoulder Injury Related to Vaccine Administration is the most common vaccine related injury. It has nothing to do with the vaccine itself, rather it is an injury that occurs when the vaccine is administered too high up on a person’s arm causing the vaccine to go into the individual’s bursa instead of their deltoid muscle. If a person gets SIRVA from the flu vaccine or another NVICP covered vaccine they will be able to file a claim that might be worth a hundred thousand dollars. If you get SIRVA from the Covid-19 vaccine you get nothing. It makes no sense. It’s arbitrary. It’s not fair.
Our country’s leaders called upon the American people to get the vaccine. They said it was the patriotic thing to do. It’s only fair to take care of those people who have been injured now. If the only thing holding the government back is money, I think we know where we can find some of that.
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Daniel Alholm is a vaccine injury attorney who represents individuals nationwide. If you or a loved one has SIRVA or another injury from any vaccine, please feel free to contact him for a free no obligation consultation. He can be reached at his office toll free at (844) 642-3400 or via call/text at (773) 412-3320 or e-mail at dan@sirvainjury.com