Open letter from 14 US state Attorney Generals addressed to:
- Xavier Becerra, HHS Secretary
- Carole Johnson, HHS Administrator
cc: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., nominee, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services
"We, the Attorneys General of Utah, Kansas, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Texas, write to express our serious concerns with how individuals harmed by COVID-19 vaccines are being treated by the federal government. We seek answers to questions about the administration of the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP)...
The data so far shows that the CICP fails to address the very real harms that have been suffered by individuals injured by COVID-19 vaccines. Of the over 10,473 COVID-19 vaccine–related claims that the CICP has received, most remain unadjudicated. And of those claims that have been decided, only 65 were found eligible for compensation, and only 20 of those have actually received any compensation. And but for one extreme outlier (a $370,376 award–likely a myocarditis fatality), the average COVID-19 vaccine-related award comes in well below $5,000...
We have heard from numerous constituents who suffered serious injuries following administration of a COVID-19 vaccine. Indeed, among the approximately 10 million Americans who signed up for the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC’s) V-safe program, which was designed to assess the safety of COVID-19 vaccines, more than 70 percent of individuals who reported needing post-vaccination medical care went to urgent care, the emergency room, or were hospitalized...
With these and myriad other heartbreaking stories in mind, we write to you with the following questions:
Treatment and Study
1) What can be done to educate doctors about treatments for COVID-19 vaccine–related injuries and possible diagnoses? ...
Diagnosis Codes
3) Individuals who have been injured by a COVID-19 vaccine often struggle to obtain insurance benefits or coverage for their injuries because insurance companies lack a diagnosis or medical code for COVID-19 vaccine adverse reactions. What can be done to encourage insurance companies to create such codes so that patients are able to obtain insurance coverage for their injuries?
4) When will the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) begin implementing COVID-19 vaccine adverse reaction codes, as other countries are already doing? ...
CICP
5) What accounts for the extraordinarily low CICP approval rate for claims for COVID-19 vaccine injuries? It blinks reality to say that only 0.5 percent of claimants had valid, compensable injuries.
6) How does the CICP determine how much to award for valid, compensable claims? That the average amount awarded so far for COVID-19 vaccine–related claims is less than $4,000 suggests that the metrics being used are vastly underinclusive...
8) What can be done to improve transparency and due process for individuals navigating the CICP labyrinth? Why is no hearing, appeal, or other adversary type process provided at any stage of the proceedings?...
12) Who funds the CICP? Why has only $6 million been allocated to claimants for compensation?"