Trump Administration Considers Including Autism Symptoms in National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program

RFK has consistently focused on the alleged connection between autism and vaccines throughout his career.

According to an adviser, the Trump administration is evaluating options to allow individuals with autism to seek compensation through a government vaccine injury program, a change that could potentially disrupt the entire system.

The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program protects companies from most lawsuits and maintains a fund that compensates individuals who experience serious reactions to covered vaccines. Since its inception in 1988, it has distributed approximately $5 billion.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has criticized the program for being too restrictive and difficult for people with vaccine injuries to navigate. As Secretary, he has the authority to modify which conditions qualify for compensation claims, though implementing such changes could take several months.

If Kennedy proceeds with these modifications, it could fundamentally transform a federal program that was originally established after a surge of lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers in the 1980s forced companies to withdraw their products from the market, resulting in shortages.

"We have a team looking at it," stated Andrew Downing, an attorney specializing in vaccine injury cases and adviser to Kennedy, during a Washington event on Thursday. "We have to figure out a way to capture these kids," he added, referring to children with autism.

Kennedy has long been concerned with the purported link between autism and vaccines. He previously chaired Children's Health Defense, an anti-vaccine nonprofit organization that initiates lawsuits. Changes to the VICP would represent his latest effort to establish a connection between vaccines and autism.

If Kennedy moves forward, the VICP program could become overwhelmed, leading to a significant backlog of cases. In the early 2000s, more than 5,000 cases were filed by families claiming that vaccines had caused their children's autism. The enormous volume of claims necessitated the creation of a special program to adjudicate all cases, which were ultimately rejected by the courts.

"This would break the program," remarked Paul Offit, a vaccine researcher at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, referring to the potential cost of providing compensation for autism, which affects approximately 1 in 31 US children. The program typically covers medical and related expenses, lost future income, and up to $250,000 for pain and suffering.

"Where is the evidence? The claim that the MMR vaccine causes autism has been disproven, the claims about thimerosal have been disproven," Offit said, referencing the mercury-based preservative historically used in some vaccines that has been falsely associated with autism. "This is a decision without any evidence."

Kennedy and Offit have a history of public disagreement over vaccine policy, and Offit was recently removed from a panel of vaccine experts that advises the Food and Drug Administration.

Downing indicated that Kennedy may not intend to explicitly add autism to the list of compensable injuries. Instead, HHS officials are considering expanding the list of symptoms to include those commonly experienced by people with autism, thereby creating an indirect pathway for them to access funds.

"You know, if you don't want to use the 'a' word, whatever, that's fine," Downing stated. "How do we capture them... do we broaden the definition of encephalopathic events? Do we broaden neurological injuries? How do we do that?"

Other politicians, including both Democrats and Republicans, have proposed reforms to vaccine injury programs. They have suggested changes to a separate program covering vaccines developed in response to public health emergencies like Covid-19. The programs have a complex structure and exclude some vaccines recommended by public health agencies.

Lawmakers from both parties have designed legislation to address delays in reviewing claims and complaints that the programs offer inadequate compensation.

The VICP program is funded by a 75-cent tax on each dose of vaccines recommended for routine use in children and has approximately a three-year statute of limitations.

A spokesperson for HHS declined to comment.

Kennedy's plan could potentially benefit vaccine manufacturers by further protecting them from direct lawsuits, according to Renee Gentry, director of the Vaccine Injury Litigation Clinic at the George Washington University Law School.

Expanding the program to offer compensation for a wider range of injuries may reduce incentives to sue manufacturers, she explained. "That's what the program was designed to do."

However, Kennedy's plan might further undermine trust in vaccines by supporting the debunked notion that they can cause autism, Gentry cautioned.

"People cast it in a different light to serve their agendas," she said. "And that's when things get dangerous."