Vaccine Injury Compensation Reform Could Be a Decade Away

The U.S. vaccine injury compensation system is in crisis. It is overwhelmed, inefficient, and opaque, and without major reforms, it could take nearly a decade to clear the backlog of COVID-19 vaccine injury claims, according to a House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic report in December.
At the center of the issue is the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP), a severely underfunded and restrictive program originally designed for small-scale emergencies, not a global mass vaccination campaign. Unlike the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP), which provides more transparency, broader coverage, and an appeals process, CICP offers limited benefits, no right to appeal, and little public accountability. The subcommittee has called for COVID-19 vaccine-related claims to be shifted to VICP, but such a transition is far from imminent.