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Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is pledging a major overhaul of the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, describing the system as fundamentally broken and failing its intended purpose.
What Happened: On Monday, in a post on X, Kennedy criticized the VICP for straying from its original Congressional mandate, saying that it has “devolved into a morass of inefficiency, favoritism, and outright corruption.”
Kennedy notes that the program was created alongside the Vaccine Act of 1986, with the sole intention of compensating those injured by vaccines “quickly and fairly,” but now the system prioritizes the “solvency of the HHS Trust Fund” over compensating victims, he says.
See Also: RFK Jr. Ponders Overhaul of Key Preventive Health Advisory Committee
Kennedy highlighted that Congress acknowledged vaccines are “unavoidably unsafe,” and expected the government to support children harmed by them.
He said this while quoting his uncle and former senator Edward Kennedy, who said, “when … children are the victims of an appropriate and rational national policy, a compassionate [g]overnment will assist them in their hour of need.”
The post also notes that it is the HHS, and not the vaccine makers, who are held accountable for vaccine-related injuries, adding that “the structure itself hobbles claimants.”
He then alleges that Special Masters, who serve as vaccine court judges, are “notoriously biased,” often making “punitive downward adjustments” to the fees of attorneys and expert witnesses, while “slow-walking payments” to the petitioners.
“The VICP is broken, and I intend to fix it,” Kennedy said in the end. “I will not allow the VICP to continue to ignore its mandate and fail its mission of quickly and fairly compensating vaccine-injured individuals.”
He says that he is currently working with Attorney General Pam Bondi and his staff at the Department of Health and Human Services to fix the VICP.
Why It Matters: Over a month ago, Kennedy decided to fire all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. He said the move was necessary to “re-establish public confidence in vaccine science.”
The panel was then reconstituted with members that included noted vaccine critics Robert Malone and Retsef Levi.
Kennedy himself has been a known and outspoken vaccine skeptic for decades, and just a year ago made a post on X, saying that “there is no evidence these vaccines will work, and they appear to be dangerous.”
In March, Peter Marks, the top vaccine official at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, resigned, citing concerns regarding Kennedy’s promotion of vaccine misinformation.
Despite sweeping changes to the vaccine mandates, immunization and compensation practices, most vaccine maker stocks remain unfazed.
| Stocks / ETFs | 1 Day | After Hours | Year-To-Date |
| Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) | -1.94% | +0.16% | -8.64% |
| Eli Lilly And Co. (NYSE:LLY) | -0.56% | -0.11% | +3.86% |
| Moderna Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) | -0.70% | +0.24% | -19.26% |
| BioNTech SE ADR (NASDAQ:BNTX) | -2.19% | +0.06% | -2.18% |
| iShares US Pharmaceuticals ETF (NYSE:IHE) | -0.90% | -0.69% | +4.61% |
Price Action: The iShares U.S. Pharmaceuticals ETF, which tracks several large biotech and pharma stocks, was down 0.90% on Monday, and another 0.69% after hours.
The fund scores low on Momentum, according to Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings, but has a favorable price trend in the short, medium and long terms. Click here for deeper insights into the fund and its constituents.
Photo Courtesy: Maxim Elramsisy on Shutterstock.com
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