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A group of lawyers is demanding U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. add to the list of vaccine injuries included in the federal government’s vaccine injury table, or face possible legal action.
In a petition submitted last week to Kennedy and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN) said that HHS has failed to fulfill its legal obligation to add new conditions to the Vaccine Injury Table when research indicates an association between a vaccine and a specific injury.
The Vaccine Injury Table lists vaccines and associated injuries that are covered by the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) — the federal program through which people injured by a vaccine can apply for compensation.
The VICP was established under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, or “Vaccine Act,” which granted vaccine manufacturers immunity from legal liability for most vaccine injuries.
Under the Vaccine Act, HHS is required to add vaccines recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for routine use in children or pregnant women to the Vaccine Injury Table within two years of the CDC’s recommendation.
According to the petition — signed by attorneys Aaron Siri, Elizabeth A. Brehm and Erin K. Bello on behalf of “numerous individuals injured by childhood vaccines” — federal authorities “have for years identified and acknowledged associations between specific vaccines and adverse health events” but failed to add the known injuries to the table.
“To avoid litigation, Petitioners respectfully petition and urge the Secretary to act immediately to fulfill the statutory mandate, strengthen and clarify the administration of the VICP consistent with congressional intent, and ensure that all vaccine-injured Americans receive the compensation they are owed,” the petition states.
In a July 2025 interview on “The Charlie Kirk Show,” Kennedy vowed to reform the VICP, calling it a “very heartless system.”
“The VICP is broken, and I intend to fix it,” Kennedy said. “I will not allow the VICP to continue to ignore its mandate and fail its mission of quickly and fairly compensating vaccine-injured individuals.”
In September 2025, Kennedy suggested he could expand the Vaccine Injury Table to include symptoms commonly associated with autism.
Petition a ‘remarkable document’
According to the petition, the VICP and federal health agencies have not fulfilled their obligation to maintain a “safety net” for the vaccine-injured:
“The VICP was designed to provide a safety net for vaccine-injured individuals — a promise to the American public in exchange for the significant legal rights they surrendered. That promise has not been kept, and as such, the VICP’s statutory objectives have not been realized.”
Wayne Rohde, an expert in vaccine injury compensation and author of “The Vaccine Court: The Dark Truth of America’s Vaccine Injury Compensation Program” and “The Vaccine Court 2.0,” called the petition a “remarkable document” that outlines how the Vaccine Injury Table should be amended.
Unless Kennedy deems ICAN’s petition to be frivolous, HHS must refer the petition to the Advisory Commission on Childhood Vaccines for its recommendations. In January, Kennedy removed four members from the commission, potentially signaling broader changes to come.
After the commission issues its recommendations, or after 180 days — whichever occurs first — the HHS secretary must initiate a rulemaking proceeding or publish a statement of reasons for declining to do so.
Federal studies linked routine vaccines to injuries not listed on the table
The petition includes a list of vaccines and the additional injuries that federal research has linked to the vaccines, and therefore should be added to the table:
- The measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine and conditions including atypical measles, febrile seizures and Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS).
- The Hep A (hepatitis A) vaccine and conditions such as Bell’s palsy, GBS and multiple sclerosis(MS).
- The Hep B (hepatitis B) vaccine and conditions such as apnea, encephalitis, GBS, herpes zoster (shingles), MS and Bell’s palsy.
- The seasonal flu vaccine and conditions such as convulsions, encephalitis, Bell’s palsy, meningitisand myocardial infarction (heart attack).
- HPV vaccines and conditions including deep venous thrombosis, GBS, MS, seizures and syncope.
- Meningococcal vaccines and conditions including Bell’s palsy, convulsions, febrile seizure, GBS and MS.
- The polio vaccine and conditions including convulsion, paresthesia and syncope.
- The varicella (chickenpox) vaccine and conditions such as Bell’s palsy, GPS, meningitis and syncope.
- DTaP and other tetanus vaccines, and conditions such as autism, myocarditis and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
Several federally funded studies, including a 2012 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, identified the injuries associated with the vaccines.
Federal agencies, including HHS, CDC and the Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA), which oversees VICP, first commissioned and funded the IOM report in 2009. IOM is now known as the National Academy of Medicine.
A 2021 report by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) also identified potential associations between vaccines and certain conditions, as did CDC materials and vaccine package inserts approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
“To be clear, HHS, CDC, HRSA, AHRQ, and the National Vaccine Program Office have publicly and continuously recognized numerous injuries as ‘associated with’ vaccines and yet these injuries have not been added to the Table in violation of federal law,” the petition states.
An association — instead of a definitive link — between a vaccine and an injury or condition is enough for the HHS secretary to initiate a rulemaking to amend the Vaccine Injury Table, the letter points out.
“The VICP was structured to operate in circumstances where scientific certainty is incomplete — not to delay Table inclusion until causation has been conclusively established,” the petition states. “These vaccines were recommended for routine use by CDC and these injuries are associated with these vaccines.”
According to Rohde, although the Vaccine Injury Table was amended several times — the routine flu vaccine was added in 2005, and the HPV and meningococcal vaccines were added in 2007 — some “emerging injury types were not addressed” until 2017.
Rohde said that VICP has, in several instances, recognized claims for injuries not listed on the Vaccine Injury Table, but said this process is often cumbersome for claimants, with “very lengthy adjudications of five-plus years.”
“It is the most difficult path to compensation in VICP, but also where the most important legal and scientific precedents are developed,” Rohde said.
Petition one of several actions asking HHS to support vaccine safety
Attorney Ray Flores, senior outside counsel for Children’s Health Defense (CHD), said ICAN’s petition is legally distinct from a citizen petition, such as one that CHD filed last year asking the FDA to revoke all existing licenses granted to the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines.
Flores said ICAN’s petition is also legally distinct from a citizen action — a provision under the Vaccine Act through which citizens can sue the HHS secretary for not performing a non-discretionary duty.
Last year, Flores sued Kennedy, alleging that HHS violated the Vaccine Act because it hadn’t established a vaccine task force to promote vaccine safety. Under the Vaccine Act, HHS was required to establish the task force and, every two years, report its progress to Congress.
CHD funded the lawsuit. In August 2025, HHS reinstated the task force in response to the lawsuit.
Flores said that ICAN can later provide Kennedy with a written notice to launch a citizen action. This would give Kennedy 60 days’ notice before a lawsuit is filed.
Rohde said that if Kennedy does modify the Vaccine Injury Table in response to ICAN’s petition, “it would be a major victory for those who have been injured.”
“The length of time to be compensated for many who file petitions with complex cases would be dramatically reduced,” Rohde said.
