Thought of the Day - June 17 2021 - Vaccination Compensation

The national vaccine injury compensation program, first announced in December 2020, has been officially launched. This allows Canadians who have experienced severe adverse reactions to an approved COVID-19 vaccine to apply for compensation.

Anyone who experiences a severe adverse reaction to a COVID-19 vaccine will be eligible for compensation under the Vaccine Support program by submitting a claim, but only if you experienced “life-threatening or life-altering injuries that may require in-person hospitalization or a prolongation of existing hospitalization and results in persistent or significant disability or incapacity, or where the outcome is a congenital malformation, or death.” Also, you need to have been vaccinated by an approved vaccine in Canada after December 7 2020 (I guess this is when non-trial COVID-19 vaccinations first started).

According to the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), financial support will also be available to the dependents of those who have died after receiving a vaccination.

Although the compensation program is designed to cover all current and future Health Canada authorized vaccines, details around the program have remained sparse until now, prompting outrage from those already adversely affected by COVID-19 vaccines. Moreover, due to our government's hold-harmless vaccine supply contracts, lawsuits against the manufacturers are a very unlikely avenue.

While serious reactions to vaccines are extremely rare (less than one in a million, according to PHAC), they have happened. As of the beginning of June, there have been 6,864 reports of significant adverse COVID vaccination events in Canada, of these, 1,391 have been recorded as serious, and there have been 104 deaths.

While I am sure there will be much more to come on this subject, at least this is a start.

Cheers

Cliff