Autism Symptoms Could Be Added to U.S. Vaccine Injury Program

On July 28, 2025, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said he planned to overhaul the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP. In September, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) announced it may add certain symptoms of autism to the official list of vaccine side effects eligible for compensation.¹

The VICP was established by Congress under the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act (NCVIA) as an alternative to bringing a lawsuit against DPT, MMR and polio vaccine manufacturers to protect the childhood vaccine supply in the U.S. after manufacturers threatened to leave the country with no childhood vaccines unless they were shielded for all vaccine injury lawsuits. Although in 1986 Congress gave the vaccine companies partial liability protection for failure to warn (a legal responsibility taken over by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) through publication of Vaccine Information Statements (VIS), Congress did not give vaccine companies a liability shield for product design defect—failure to make a vaccine less reactive. In 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that vaccine manufacturers should not be held liable for product design defect in the manufacture of vaccines licensed by the government.

Since it began operating in 1988, the VICP has paid more $5 billion to children and adults who received vaccine federally recommended for children and then exhibited signs and symptoms of vaccine reactions and permanent injuries listed on the VICP’s Vaccine Injury Table (VIT).

Signs and symptoms of autism following vaccination and autism as a permanent vaceine injury has never been listed on the VIT.¹

While established as a no-fault alternative to traditional lawsuits, Secretary Kennedy and others who want to reform the VICP say the program denies compensation to far too many vaccine victims and has become a highly adversarial nightmare for families, who have to wait years for a compensaton award decision because DHHS using Department of Justice attorneys contest almost every claim. Petitioners for compensation must prove causation without access to discovery, binding precedent, or manufacturers’ internal data, and nearly two out of three vaccine injury claims are rejected.  Cases that are appealed are adjudicated by special masters, who are court-appointed officials in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims and review evidence, hear expert testimony, and determine whether contested compensation should be awarded.²

Kennedy Vows to “Fix Broken” VICP that “Rejects More Than Half of All Petitions”

Characterizing the vaccine court as dysfunctional, Kennedy has accused the VICP of “routinely dismissing legitimate claims or dragging them out for years.” He says, “Instead of ‘quickly and fairly’ awarding compensation, Special Masters reject more than half of all petitions.” Kennedy argues that the VICP has “devolved into a heartless system designed to deny vaccine injury and withhold compensation from families who desperately need it.”^{3 4}

While the DHHS has the authority to update the list of conditions eligible for compensation through the VICP, such changes generally require a formal rulemaking process that can take months or even years to complete. The “notice-and-comment” process, mandated under the Administrative Procedure Act, involves drafting a proposed rule, publishing it in the Federal Register, allowing time for public comment, reviewing feedback, and then issuing a final rule. The process is often described as lengthy, expensive, and legally complex, which is why updates to the VICP’s injury table are rare.⁵

White House Declares ‘Bold Action’ on Autism After 400 Percent Increase Since 2000

Autism has surged nearly 400 percent since 2000 and now affects 1 in 31 American children, according to a recent White House statement. The administration has made addressing the autism epidemic a top priority, launching new treatment and research initiatives, including a potential therapy for speech-related deficits and $50 million in funding through the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH).⁶

“For too long, families have been left without answers or options as autism rates have soared,” Kennedy said, announcing a series of initiatives that include the first FDA-recognized treatment pathway. “We will follow the science, restore trust, and deliver hope to millions of American families.” The remarks coincided with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) formal acknowledgment of a “potential association between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes.” ⁶

Broadening Definitions Could Open Door for Autism Claims

“Part of what Secretary Kennedy is doing right now—and with my help, and we have a team looking at it—is we have to figure out a way to capture these kids,” said longtime vaccine injury lawyer and senior DHHS adviser Drew Downing at a recent panel discussion on autism hosted by the MAHA Institute. “If you don’t want to use the ‘A word,’ whatever, that’s fine,” he said, referring to autism. “How do we capture them: Do we broaden the definition of encephalopathic events? Do we broaden neurological injuries? How do we do that?”⁷

NIH director Jay Bhattacharya, MD, MPH said the Autism Data Science Initiative (ADSI) will integrate large-scale biological, clinical, and behavioral data with environmental, nutritional, medical, social, and genetic factors. “Millions of American families who care for autistic kids need scientists to apply gold-standard science, expertise, and open minds,” he said. “With ADSI, NIH is harnessing cutting-edge research to uncover the root causes of autism and build knowledge that can improve lives and restore hope for families.” ⁶

2000s Litigation Ended Autism-Related Vaccine Injury Payouts

According to vaccine injury attorney Renée Gentry, in the early years of the VICP, some children with post-vaccination neurological injury who later exhibited autism symptoms and diagnoses did receive compensation; but that changed with the Omnibus Autism Proceeding in the 2000s, when DHHS and Justice with the agreement of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims consolidated thousands of autism claims and, after a series of hearings, the Court of Claims special masters concluded that the scientific evidence did not support the conclusion that vaccines cause of autism, effectively closing the door on future VICP claims when the child has been diagnosed with autism.^{7 8}

“Since that time, autism is the ‘A word’ that you’re not allowed to utter within the vaccine program realm because you will be vilified, as you guys know,” Downing said. “But autism is simply a collection of symptoms—collection of symptoms that place someone on a spectrum of neurological disease” that can be caused by “any number of things,” he added.⁹

Experts agree the VICP needs reform, but worry the changes Kennedy wants to implement could bankrupt or destabilize the program entirely, either by discouraging drug makers from staying in the vaccine market or limiting access to vaccines.¹⁰

Among other changes to the program, Kennedy said he plans to streamline the vaccine injury compensation process, making it easier for families—often burdened with mounting medical bills to care for their vaccine injured children—to win financial compensation. “What we’re going to try to do is to make sure that the parents [whose children] do get injured get compensation, that they get it very quickly, and they get it without the kind of adversarial impediments that have now been erected over the past 40 years.” In the meantime, some reports suggest that Kennedy could begin informally settling cases involving injuries not currently listed on the VIT.¹⁰

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