COVID-19 vaccine: Cut-off date looms for compensation under injury scheme

Monday is the last day for Australians to apply for compensation under the Federal Government’s COVID-19 vaccine injury scheme.

Since the scheme was launched in December 2021, over $32 million has been paid out to 392 claimants who suffered a “moderate to severe impact” following an adverse reaction to a COVID-19 vaccine.

The vaccines have been credited with saving thousands of lives in Australia and tens of millions worldwide, while also reducing severe illness.

But as with all medicines, vaccines can have side effects.

The vast majority of those from COVID-19 vaccines were mild and resolved within days. However, some people suffered severe impacts, including death.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration, which monitors vaccine safety, identified 14 cases where the cause of death was linked to vaccinations, most of which were linked to the original AstraZeneca vaccine.

Australia and other countries stopped using that vaccine because of rare but serious side effects.

Among the recognised potential adverse effects are heart conditions myocarditis and pericarditis, certain types of blood clots, skin disorder erythema multiforme, capillary leak syndrome, autoimmune condition Guillain-Barre syndrome and transverse myelitis, which inflames the spinal cord.

The TGA has identified no new vaccine-related deaths since 2022 and the Federal Government won’t accept new applications under the scheme after Monday.

A government spokesperson said the scheme was established by the Coalition Government as a “no-fault, time-limited claims scheme to respond to the unprecedented immediate circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic”.

It was due to end in April but was extended to the end of September.

There have been calls for Australia to establish a comprehensive no-fault vaccine injury compensation scheme, covering all vaccines.

Such schemes exist in other countries, including the US, UK and New Zealand.

And it’s a scheme senior medicos say is well overdue.

Dr Tim Ford, a senior lecturer in paediatrics at the University of WA’s school of medicine, said an Australian scheme should cover all national immunisation program vaccines.

It’s an opinion he shares with colleagues Professor Nicholas Wood from The Children’s Hospital at Westmead clinical school at the University of Sydney and senior medicine lecturer at the University of Queensland Dr Sophie Wen.

“An Australian vaccine injury scheme . . . should be seen as a crucial component of our public health system and a social responsibility commitment to all Australians,” the trio wrote in The Conversation this week.