HHS said a new NIH clinic and changes to reporting systems will study and record health problems reported after vaccination.
US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. this week launched an agency-wide effort to study and document health problems reported after vaccination, the Department of Health and Human Services said on Thursday. The centerpiece is a National Institutes of Health clinic that opened on Monday to treat and study patients reporting those problems.
Other steps include a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services proposal to reimburse doctors who report suspected injuries to the CDC's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, a CDC update of that system, and a requirement that electronic health records capture vaccine-related adverse events.
Reuters noted that the American Academy of Pediatrics says childhood vaccines are studied in trials and monitored after approval. The federal Vaccine Injury Table lists 14 compensable injuries across 16 vaccine types. Since 1988 the compensation program has awarded about 5 billion dollars across about 12,300 injury and death claims.
Kennedy has said US children receive too many vaccines and has claimed they get up to 90 doses before age 18, a figure Reuters described as false. In January the CDC announced a revised childhood schedule that dropped universal recommendations for several vaccines. A federal court in March blocked key parts of related changes, finding Kennedy and HHS had violated federal law in reshaping the advisory committee.
The Thursday announcement describes a study and reporting program. It does not itself establish new causal findings.
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- The American Academy of Pediatrics says childhood vaccines are studied in trials and monitored for safety after approval.