Vaccine Injury Claims Surged During COVID Pandemic but Reimbursements Were Low, Agency Says

Of 13,333 COVID-19-related claims, only 92 were eligible, it found.

A nurse at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center is injected with the COVID-19 vaccine in Queens, N.Y., on Dec.14, 2020. Mark Lennihan - Pool/Getty Images

A report released by a federal congressional agency this week found that a review of a U.S. vaccine injury compensation program shows that less than 3 percent of completed claims during the first several years of the COVID-19 pandemic are eligible for reimbursement.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) on Dec. 18 said that a review of the Health and Human Services (HHS) Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP) revealed that it received “a surge of 13,333 COVID-19 claims,” which is about 27 times the number of claims in the first decade of the program’s history.