The Biden administration sparked outrage this month after issuing its first payouts to victims of the COVID-19 injection years after the vaccine’s rollout in December 2020.

Angry reactions to the news cited the fact that in over two years, only three out of approximately 7,000 COVID-19 vaccine injury compensation claims were paid, totaling less than $5,000. One vaccine victim was paid $2,019.55 for suffering anaphylaxis as a result of the vaccine, and two others who suffered myocarditis were paid $1,582.65 and $1,032.69, respectively.

The Countermeasure Injury Compensation Program (CICP) is meant to compensate for injuries and deaths that were caused by medical devices and drugs delivered during certain public health emergencies, including COVID-19. Prior to 2020, the CICP had adjudicated less than 500 cases in its entire history.

As of December 1, 2022, there were 11,431 CICP claims filed. Of those, 10,899 are related to COVID-19, an increase of over 3,000 claims since March 2022. Furthermore, 70% of all those CICP claims were for injuries resulting specifically from the COVID-19 vaccine while the remaining 3,275 claims alleged injuries/deaths from other COVID-19 countermeasures.

The Health Resource and Services Administration (HRSA), which oversees the CICP, kept the anaphylaxis injury claim under review since the fall of 2021. Vaccine injury compensation expert Wayne Rhode says this means the medical bills were significant.

“For a case that took 18+ months to review previous medical benefits that may have been awarded to the injured party, this process tells me it was a major injury that resulted in very large medical bills,” said Rhode.

Children’s Health Defense (CHD) Acting General Counsel Kim Mack Rosenberg called the three payouts “a tragedy”.

“These long-awaited awards were overdue, highly anticipated and speculated upon,” said Rosenberg. “What is remarkable is that less than $5,000 was paid — total. This is a tragedy that highlights the severe limitations of the program.”

CHD Acting President Laura Bono echoed Rosenberg’s comments, calling the payouts “insulting” and slamming the CICP program, which others have referred to as a “black hole” for compensation.

“The CICP is a pathetic, government-run program that gives complete liability protection to the very industries profiting from the COVID vaccine or product,” commented Bono. “While victims linger with their injuries, paying out-of-pocket for expenses, or at worst die, the industries run to the bank.”

Erica Jo, a victim of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine who has so far paid over $83,289.58 to treat her vision loss from the injections says it has been four months since the HRSA said it would review her claim.

“It has been 419 days that the @HRSAgov has been sitting on my CICP claim,” Erica Jo wrote in a tweet Tuesday. “120 days since they said they would begin review & have not touched it since. Doesn’t this delay my constitutional right to due process? Oversight help please?!?!”

The US government’s slow response to victims of the COVID-19 vaccine puts it even behind countries whose mandates were seen as totalitarian.

Canada, for instance, has already doled out C$2.8 million ($2.06 million) to COVID-19 vaccine victims, and Australia’s budget for vaccine injury compensation is expected to jump to A$77 million ($50 million) by July.

“At the current pace, it will take decades for the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program — which prior to 2020 had decided fewer than 500 cases in its entire history — to sort through them all,” estimates Reuters.

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