NVIC's co-founders worked with Congress on the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 (42 U.S.C. §§ 300aa-1 to 300aa-34). This historic law acknowledged that vaccine injuries and deaths are real and that the vaccine injured and their families should be financially supported and that vaccine safety protections were needed in the mass vaccination system. The law set up a federal vaccine injury compensation program as well as included legal requirements for vaccine providers to:
- give parents vaccine benefit and risk information before their children are vaccinated;
- keep written records of vaccine manufacturer names and lot numbers for each vaccination given;
- enter serious health problems following vaccination into a child's permanent medical record; and
- report serious health problems following vaccination to the federal Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS).
The law preserved the right for vaccine injured persons to bring a lawsuit in the court system if federal compensation is denied or is not sufficient or when there was evidence a drug company could have made a vaccine safe. By 2021, the U.S. Court of Claims had awarded over $4 billion dollars to vaccine victims for their catastrophic vaccine injuries, although two out of three applicants have been denied compensation. Below are links to the National Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 broken down into specific sections, as listed by the US Government Publishing Office. The amended law may also be viewed in its entirety on the US House of Representatives Office of the Law and Revision Council here.
Part 1--National Vaccine Program
- Sec. 300aa-1 Establishment - PDF | Text | More
- Sec. 300aa-2 Program responsibilities - PDF | Text | More
- Sec. 300aa-3 Plan - PDF | Text | More
- Sec. 300aa-4 Repealed. Pub. L. 105-362, title VI, §601(a)(1)(H), Nov. 10, 1998, 112 Stat. 3285 - PDF | Text | More
- Sec. 300aa-5 National Vaccine Advisory Committee - PDF | Text | More
- Sec. 300aa-6 Authorization of appropriations - PDF | Text | More
Part 2--National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program
subpart a--program requirements
- Sec. 300aa-10 Establishment of program - PDF | Text | More
- Sec. 300aa-11 Petitions for compensation - PDF | Text | More
- Sec. 300aa-12 Court jurisdiction - PDF | Text | More
- Sec. 300aa-13 Determination of eligibility and compensation - PDF | Text | More
- Sec. 300aa-14 Vaccine Injury Table - PDF | Text | More
- Sec. 300aa-15 Compensation - PDF | Text | More
- Sec. 300aa-16 Limitations of actions - PDF | Text | More
- Sec. 300aa-17 Subrogation - PDF | Text | More
- Sec. 300aa-18 Repealed. Pub. L. 100-203, title IV, §4303(d)(2)(B), Dec. 22, 1987, 101 Stat. 1330-222 - PDF | Text | More
- Sec. 300aa-19 Advisor - PDF | Text | More
subpart b--additional remedies
- Sec. 300aa-21 Authority to bring actions - PDF | Text | More
- Sec. 300aa-22 Standards of responsibility - PDF | Text | More
- Sec. 300aa-23 Trial - PDF | Text | More
subpart c--assuring a safer childhood vaccination program in united states
- Sec. 300aa-25 Recording and reporting of information - PDF | Text | More
- Sec. 300aa-26 Vaccine information - PDF | Text | More
- Sec. 300aa-27 Mandate for safer childhood vaccines - PDF | Text | More
- Sec. 300aa-28 Manufacturer recordkeeping and reporting - PDF | Text | More
subpart d--general provisions
- Sec. 300aa-31 Citizen's actions - PDF | Text | More
- Sec. 300aa-32 Judicial review - PDF | Text | More
- Sec. 300aa-33 Definitions - PDF | Text | More
- Sec. 300aa-34 Termination of program - PDF | Text | More
