Steve Milloy, board member of the Heartland Institute, said Feb. 26 that proposed legislation in Congress to end liability protections for vaccine manufacturers under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 could have negative consequences without broader changes to the legal system.
"Big Pharma should not have blanket immunity on vaccines or anything else. But what are the bill's provisions for unscrupulous trial lawyers, incompetent/biased judges and idiot juries? We've never done serious tort reform, and simply ending immunity on vaccines will only make things worse," Milloy said in a post on X.
He made the statement in response to the End the Vaccine Carveout Act (S.3853), introduced in February by Sen. Rand Paul and Sen. Mike Lee, which would repeal provisions of the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 that established the no-fault vaccine injury compensation system.
The debate over liability protections also comes amid broader concerns about the scale of the U.S. tort system. It cost $529 billion in 2022, equal to 2.1% of gross domestic product and $4,207 per household, according to the Institute for Legal Reform. Tort costs grew at an annual rate of 7.1% from 2016 to 2022, and the report projected costs could approach $1 trillion by 2030, adding pressure on manufacturers of federally regulated products, including vaccines.
The Vaccine Injury Compensation Program has awarded more than $5 billion since 1988, funded by a $0.75 excise tax per vaccine dose, according to the Health Resources and Services Administration. Before the program was established, lawsuits had driven all but one pertussis vaccine manufacturer from the U.S. market by 1985, causing shortages and price increases.
Milloy is also publisher of JunkScience.com and holds a Master of Health Sciences in biostatistics from Johns Hopkins University and a Juris Doctor from the University of Baltimore. He has authored six books on science policy and regulation and serves as a board member at Heartland Institute.
