US Government Pays 2 More People Injured by COVID Vaccines

Both experienced myocarditis, or heart inflammation, after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine. One person received $4,183 and the other $4,934...

The U.S. government has paid two more people who were injured by COVID-19 vaccines as it faces the prospect of being forced by a court to improve a program for victims.

The U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), which runs the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP), issued the payments to two people who suffered heart inflammation after COVID-19 vaccination.

HRSA disclosed the two payments in its most recent update, which includes data current as of Oct. 1.

Both people experienced myocarditis, or heart inflammation, after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine. HRSA has declined to disclose which shots the people received. One person received $4,183 and the other received $4,934.

Critics said the payments weren't nearly enough to satisfy moves made to improve the government response to vaccine injuries.

"Almost three years into the COVID vaccine roll-out and the U.S. government has paid out around $18,000 total to six people," Brianne Dressen, co-founder of React19, told The Epoch Times in an email. "It is clear that addressing the collateral damage of the COVID vaccine program is not a priority for the U.S. government."

React19 was founded by Ms. Dressen and others after they were injured by COVID-19 vaccines but found little appetite within the government, despite its widespread promotion of the shots, for helping the injured.

The CICP, they say, is a prime example of a broken system. The vaccines were rolled out in December 2020, and adverse events began being reported almost immediately. But the government did not compensate injured people through the program until 2023.

To date, six people have received compensation. Five suffered myocarditis. One suffered anaphylaxis, or severe allergic shock. The total payments amount to $17,711.

While the CICP has paid six people, and has approved 26 other applications for payment, it has rejected 854 claims. More than 10,000 others are pending.

Americans diagnosed by doctors with vaccine injuries are among those who have been rejected, according to records reviewed by The Epoch Times.

The COVID-19 vaccines are covered by the CICP because, under the Trump administration, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) declared COVID-19 a national emergency. That declaration has been extended multiple times, and is currently in place through the end of 2024.

The CICP, lawyers and advocates say, is an inferior system to the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, which covers most vaccines administered in the United States. The latter includes judicial review, while the CICP is entirely run by the HHS, which includes HRSA.

React19 and injured people sued HRSA over the program this month, asserting it is unconstitutional. The plaintiffs asked the federal court to force the government to improve the program in various ways, including adding judicial review and a process to obtain discovery.

"The CICP has over 11,000 claims, 97 percent rejection rate, near-impossible standard of proof, and no transparency in the application process," Ms. Dressen said. "The program is a failure."

The CICP was established by the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act of 2005. It shields vaccine manufacturers from lawsuits, except in cases of "willful misconduct."

Under the law, once the HHS secretary declares an emergency, countermeasures including vaccines that respond to the emergency are covered by the CICP.

Then-Health Secretary Alex Azar issued the first declaration, which took effect on Feb. 4, 2020. The declaration was extended repeatedly, primarily after President Joe Biden took office. Health Secretary Xavier Becerra extended it through December 2024.

"The protections provided by the PREP Act declaration have helped millions of Americans receive convenient and timely COVID-19 vaccines, treatments, and tests. Recognizing this, the amended declaration that Secretary Becerra will sign will extend important protections to continue to facilitate such access," HHS said before Mr. Becerra signed the extension.

The CICP can provide compensation for unreimbursed medical expenses, lost employment income, and, if the injured person died, benefits to survivors.

People have one year from when they receive a vaccine covered by the CICP to apply for compensation. They must prove they were injured by providing "compelling, reliable and valid medical and scientific evidence," according to CICP administrators.

Administrators have rejected multiple petitions that featured diagnoses by doctors and supporting studies. In their rejections, administrators did not cite any studies, according to records reviewed by The Epoch Times.

Dr. Joel Wallskog, co-chair of React19, was rejected even though a doctor said he suffered a "significant reaction from Moderna COVID vaccination."

"The current medical and scientific evidence does not show a causal link between the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine and transverse myelitis, other neuro-inflammatory disorders, myelopathy, or thrombotic disorders, including spinal cord infarction,” Dr. George Reed Grimes, a director in HRSA, told Dr. Wallskog in a letter.

Dr. Wallskog appealed the determination, but appeals are also decided by HRSA officials. That arrangement, instead of the judicial review featured in the national program, “potentially creates a conflict of interest,” researchers wrote in a 2022 paper, advising Congress to reform CICP by allowing judicial review or relocating the program.

Let me put what real scientists say here about vaccine safety:

Safety of COVID-19 Vaccines

This CDC webpage links to the original medical/scientific study reports that you can read in the medical journals.

According to an article published in the medical journal Annals of Internal Medicine, In this population-based surveillance, we found that myocarditis/pericarditis 0 to 7 days after mRNA vaccination in persons aged 5 to 39 years occurred in approximately 1 in 200 000 doses after the first dose and 1 in 30 000 doses after second dose of the primary series, and 1 in 50 000 doses after the first booster.

Hmm, even the highest incidence rate is pretty darned low.

Incidence of Myocarditis/Pericarditis Following mRNA COVID-19 Vaccination Among Children and Younger Adults in the United States

According to an article published in the medical journal Circulation Research, the incidence of peri- and myocarditis as a result of catching Covid is much higher:
The incidence of myocarditis pre-COVID was reported at 1 to 10 cases/100 000 individuals and with COVID ranging from 150 to 4000 cases/100 000 individuals.

This works out to one case of myocarditis per 25 to 667 cases of Covid. COVID-19, Myocarditis and Pericarditis.

In addition, as this article points out, during active Covid disease, heart cells are directly infected. When a cell is infected, it produces virus mRNA and protein (including spike) which form new viruses that cause the cell to die and burst open to release the new virus particles. Therefore, an infection always causes tissue damage. How serious the damage is depends on how quickly the tissue heals itself--which, in the case of the heart, is a slow process. A cold, by comparison, infects upper respiratory cells that typically replace themselves within 24-48 hours, meaning that the damage heals quickly.

I will point out that, metaphorically, the difference in the dose of spike protein received from vaccine versus received during virus infection is like the difference between consuming a sip of wine versus a liter of vodka. SARS-CoV-2 viruses are literally covered with spike proteins, and they spread throughout your entire body. The viruses damage lungs, kidneys, the circulatory system, and the reproductive system. Given that it takes two weeks and longer to develop a good immune response, that means that the virus is literally reproducing unopposed in your body for weeks if you have not been vaccinated. If you have been vaccinated, your adaptive immune response is already active when you are exposed, meaning that your body starts fighting the virus immediately.

I really do not understand why nominally conservative news outlets such as Epoch Times are so complicit in spreading antivax propaganda. The targeting of such propaganda to conservatives is, I think, completely deliberate. It is meant to harm us. It harms us because Republicans are ~7% more likely to die from Covid than DemocRATs, which has an effect on elections since there are fewer of us to vote. It also harms us by linking conservatism to antivax/antiscience rhetoric, making us look like kooks who shouldn't be trusted with anything. I understand why radical leftists such as RFK, Jr. and Naomi Wolf are targeting conservatives, but not why supposedly conservative publications are also doing so.

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