On February 23, 2021, Health and Human Services (HHS) published a rule on the Federal Register that effectively gives individuals that have experienced a shoulder injury or vasovagal syncope following vaccination, an additional two months, until April 23, 2021, to file a vaccine injury claim through the federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP).

Originally, the rule which would change the way these injuries are handled within the VICP, making it more difficult for many vaccine injured individuals to pursue their claims, was due to take effect on February 22, 2021. The two month pause in the rule’s effective date was announced by HHS due to a request by the Biden administration for time to review all administrative actions that occurred during the sunset of the previous administration.

We have previously covered the rule changes, and the likely outcomes for vaccine injured individuals, in prior blog posts which you can find here and here.

On February 4, 2021, USA Today published an article about the upcoming removal of Shoulder Injury Related to Vaccine Administration (“SIRVA”) from the vaccine injury table. We discussed this rule change, which goes into effect on February 22, 2021, in a previous blog post. You can find our blog discussing that issue here.

The USA Today article discusses not only the rule change impacting SIRVA, but also touches on additional rule changes put in place by Health & Human Services (HHS) at the same time, all pushed through at the very end of the Trump administration with at best, minimal support, (chiefly from HHS). There was substantial pushback from players in the vaccine injury program, including the Advisory Commission on Childhood Vaccines (ACCV), the Vaccine Injured Petitioners Bar Association, members of the general public, physicians, pharmaceutical chains, etc., and individuals that have taken their SIRVA cases through the vaccine injury program.

You can find the USA Today article here.

Last week, makers of the influenza vaccine began shipping their first doses of flu vaccine for the 2017 – 2018 flu season to healthcare providers, pharmacies, and immunizers. People will be able to begin getting immunized for the upcoming flu season beginning in late September. 

There are a small number of people who should take precautions when getting the flu vaccine, and a small number of people who should not get it at all. Suitability for the vaccine is determined by health status, age, and allergies to components of the flu vaccine. You should talk to your health care provider before getting immunized if you are concerned about your suitability for the influenza vaccine.

For the approximately 160 million people who will get the 2017-2018 flu vaccine, it a good time to learn or to review some tips how to protect yourself from Shoulder Injury Related to Vaccine Administration (SIRVA) injury. 

A quick survey of the news and media produces daily warnings that pertussis (whooping cough) is on the rise. These sources often blame low vaccination rates or under vaccination. However, that leaves out other important possible factors while stigmatizing parents that choose, for a variety of reasons, not to vaccinate their children.

For instance, researchers have recently found vaccine-resistant strains of bordatella pertussis (the bacteria that causes whooping cough) in the U.S. Researchers analyzed 30 samples of bordatella pertussis specimens from children hospitalized in Philadelphia and found 60% were a variant resistant to the vaccine. The current pertussis vaccine relies on pertactin (a protein on the outer membrane of the bacteria) as an antigen. Meanwhile, the study revealed the pertussis bacteria has developed at least two variants that halt the production of pertactin. This means the immune system, which has developed immunity from the pertussis vaccine, does not recognize the mutated pertussis strain. French studies of pertactin-negative mutated strains have shown that such strains are just as infectious as non-mutated strains.

Another cause of the uptick in cases of pertussis is related to the waning immunity provided by the DTaP vaccine administered to children. Studies have revealed that the protection from the fifth dose of DTaP (usually administered between 4 and 6 years old) decreases substantially during the five year period following vaccination.