National Childhood Vaccine Injury Compensation Act

The past four decades have been years of phenomenal progress in all of medicine, yet in terms of numbers of lives saved or in years of productive lives spared, nothing has equaled the record of preventative pediatrics, specifically, our national immunization program. In the past several years, however, this immunization program has almost fallen into shambles. The sources of this reversal would have been from vaccine liability leading to exorbitant costs or loss of supply of vaccines. In the 1970s and 1980s, a series of crises that were only narrowly averted threatened interruption of the national immunization program. It is now worthwhile to trace the events of the past several years so that we can review the continuity of the course of events through those years to understand the necessity for the specific resolution of these problems in the form of the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Compensation Act. The American Academy of Pediatrics played a leading and pivotal role in the long struggle to enact this legislation. It is expected that the act should be the means of avoiding any future threats to our national immunization program through loss of supply. Furthermore, and of equal importance, after time for stabilization and experience with its administration, the act should reduce the cost of vaccines. The courts have dealt with the matter of vaccine injury in an irregular and sometimes unpredictable manner. This legislation should provide a more predictable and just outcome for those few who suffer vaccine injuries. Because this is the first major legislation the Academy has undertaken, the membership should be informed of the time involved in promoting passage of this legislation: the costs in hours by the members, officers, and staff, as well as the monetary costs to the Academy.