The Vaccine Injury Table That Allowed Thousands to Sue

A parent in a clinic and a federal ledger entry - how did the Vaccine Injury Table expose them?

The Vaccine Injury Table That Allowed Thousands to Sue

In this episode, we follow how a federal compensation system was designed, the specific rules that governed claims, and the pressures that shaped its creation. It asks how a bureaucratic list could channel pain, science, and law into thousands of petitions.

Program: National Vaccine Injury Table Program Date created: 1988 Law: National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 Claim count: 5,636 autism-related petitions by the late 1990s Table cap: $250,000 non-economic damages

- The DPT vaccine litigation in the 1970s-80s led manufacturers to threaten exit and prompted Congress to act. - The Vaccine Injury Table ties specific injuries to listed vaccines and exact onset windows, e.g., anaphylaxis within four hours. - Claimants need not prove negligence; matching the Table and timing can trigger a presumption of causation. - The program limits non-economic awards to $250,000 while allowing separate calculation of medical costs and lost earnings. - By the late 1990s, 5,636 families filed claims alleging MMR caused autism after a 1998 paper linked the vaccine to autism.

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