Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Newsmax on Monday that fixing the broken Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) is a vital step in rebuilding public trust in the vaccine program altogether.
Kennedy joined "Rob Schmitt Tonight" hours after his announcement that he is going to fix and restore the program that compensates victims of vaccine injuries.
Kennedy said although the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 has paid out $5.4 billion to date, it has "devolved" over the years and become a "quagmire" for the vaccine injured.
"The trust fund was endowed by a 75-cent surcharge on every vaccine, and it was supposed to, under the statute, to compensate people quickly, to compensate them generously. And the tie goes to the runner," RFK Jr. said. "In other words, if there was a doubt about whether or not it was an authentic vaccine injury, the patient was supposed to get compensation.
"What has happened over the past 30 years is the whole system has devolved, and it's become a quagmire for parents and children and the parents of children who are vaccine injured. These parents are desperate," Kennedy said. "In many cases, their kids are very needy. Some of these injuries are absolutely debilitating."
Further, Kennedy said "impediments" were put in place "to make sure that people do not get compensated."
"So half the cases are dismissed. The average case takes five years to reach judgment. Some of these families are waiting for 10 years. … And the system just simply doesn't work. And we are now fixing it so that people are compensated. They're compensated quickly and generously, as the original statute intended," Kennedy added.
Kennedy said he has secondary motives for fixing the program.
"If we're going to rebuild faith, public trust in the vaccine program, we need to be honest with the American people. We need to compensate people who are injured," he said.
Vaccines aren't going to get any safer, Kennedy said, because "the companies have no incentive to make vaccines safer because they can't be sued," thanks to the 1986 White House and Congress.
Further, "there's no market-based incentives," he said.
"If you get injured by a by a Hostess Twinkie, right, you can say, 'I'm not going to eat it anymore.' And the public can say that. But with vaccines, you're mandated to take them. … There's 76 million kids a year are getting them, and many of the cases, whether they like it or not," RFK Jr. said.
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Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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