On October 8, the Department of Health and Human Services announced a package of measures under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. According to CIDRAP's biweekly vaccine policy review, the initiative includes an NIH clinic to study and treat people who experience health problems after vaccination, a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services proposal to pay physicians for filing reports to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), a requirement that electronic health records capture vaccine-related adverse events, and a CDC contract to update VAERS itself.

Kennedy said HHS must not "dismiss or gaslight" families who report vaccine injuries. The CMS payment piece remains a proposal that could still open for public comment, and none of the announced actions address the compensation backlog, where claims currently take two to three years to resolve.

The initiative has drawn immediate pushback from medical professionals.

Maine Public reports that some Maine physicians criticized the plan, with Dr. Laura Blaisdell, co-chair of the Maine Immunization Coalition, arguing that "when you put vaccine and injury together, in two words, and create a clinic for it, it's suggesting that there is a large problem that we're somehow missing."

Blaisdell emphasized that true vaccine injuries are very, very rare and said the U.S. already has systems that monitor and track vaccine safety.

She urged Kennedy to work with medical experts and pediatricians to restore, rather than dismantle, public trust, and said she would be more interested in a center for preventing the re-occurrence of vaccine-preventable diseases.

CIDRAP's analysis stresses that existing safety monitoring has a track record of catching rare side effects — it is how a rare clotting disorder was linked to the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine in 2021.

Anyone can submit a VAERS report, and a report alone does not show that a vaccine caused anything; without research into those reports, more submissions could be mistaken for evidence of more harm.

The review also raises concerns about the Vaccine Injury Table, which HHS can change without Congressional input. When a listed injury occurs within a set time window after a specific vaccine, causation is generally presumed.

Because most childhood vaccines are given in the first few years of life — when autism is typically diagnosed — a wide window could make many families eligible for compensation over a link that decades of research and vaccine court have found no evidence for, potentially draining the compensation fund and pushing manufacturers out of the market as lawsuits did in the 1980s.

Several open questions will shape how the initiative plays out. The CMS proposal to pay doctors for VAERS filings is not final, and CIDRAP says it will flag the rule if and when it opens for public comment.

The broader policy environment is in flux: a First Circuit appeals court heard arguments October 6 in AAP v. Kennedy over the rebuilt vaccine advisory committee, Florida is still moving to end four school vaccine requirements, and New York declared a measles emergency with 108 cases this year.

For families concerned about vaccine safety, Maine physicians point to a simple step — consult their physician rather than rely on the new clinic.