Vaccine injury programs elsewhere also face challenges, criticism
Similar efforts in the U.S., U.K. and Australia have come under scrutiny for allegedly failing to support families amid surging applications and desperate pleas for help.
The Australian government closed its new injury claim program and stopped accepting new applications on Sept. 30, 2024, after complaints about how applicants were treated.
Australia had reportedly paid out about C$28.5 million in injury compensation. Its program has been widely criticized at home and by the global cable news outlet, Sky News.
One veteran Australian Liberal MP has begun publicly advocating in Parliament for the injured.
'Some of them are so severely damaged'
'It's very distressing even to have these people face to face and speaking to them when you see some of them are so severely damaged,' MP Russell Broadbent told Sky News.
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The U.K. program's administration costs were the equivalent of C$46 million as of January 2025. That sum exceeds the reported C$43.5 million spent on payouts to injured residents, The Daily Telegraph reported.
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As of January 2025, more than 17,500 Britons or their families have made injury claims, but several told the BBC they felt like they had been 'airbrushed out of the pandemic.'
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People lined up for vaccination at St Thomas' Hospital in London on Dec. 15, 2021. Long lines formed for booster shots across England at the time as the U.K. government urged adults to protect themselves against the omicron variant. Frank Augstein / Associated Press
Some Britons have also criticized their program as too slow to assess injury cases, with thresholds made too high to qualify and payouts too low for those who get them.
The U.S. government also faces a flood of claims, but most are being rejected.
Data shows 13,836 people have filed COVID-19 injury claims under the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration's (HRSA) Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program as of May 1, 2025.
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The countermeasures effort exists as a separate program from its vaccine injury system to compensate people hurt during national emergencies, like COVID-19, when new vaccines or treatments are rolled out.
U.S. officials reported that of the 13,836 COVID-19-related countermeasures injury claims it has received so far, the HRSA has issued decisions in 4,413 cases, denying 4,338 claims.
To date, U.S. officials have found only 75 claims eligible for compensation. The number of claims compensated totaled just 39, according to data disclosed on June 1.
The American program has been harshly criticized, as well.
And a U.S. congressional committee has warned that without major reforms, clearing the backlog in the countermeasures program may take almost 10 years.
The U.S. program states on its website that officials assessing the majority of COVID-19 countermeasure injury claims are 'still waiting for records and documentation to be submitted.'
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Global News
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Edmonton Journal
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Winnipeg Free Press
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