Covid inquiry hears some vaccine injured have waited over a year for help ruling

More than 1,000 people who have sought support from the vaccine damage payment scheme after being injured or bereaved as a result of Covid-19 jabs have been waiting a year or more for a decision on their application, the UK Covid-19 Inquiry has heard.

Sarah Moore, a partner at law firm Leigh Day, told the probe on Wednesday that there is a “real world impact” from delays.

It comes as she suggested a “bespoke compensation scheme or support scheme” specifically for those affected by Covid-19 vaccinations should be put in place.

The vaccine damage payment scheme was set up as a result of the 1979 Vaccine Damage Payment Act and offers a tax-free payment of £120,000 to those who have been left severely disabled or bereaved as a result of vaccination.

However, Ms Moore said that a change of government between 1978 and 1979 meant that the legislation was “hastily put together”.

She told the inquiry there have been 17,519 applications to the vaccine damage payment scheme following adverse reactions to Covid-19 vaccines, and only 55% have had a decision.

“Of those 8,000 approximately who are still waiting for a decision, 1,027 people have been waiting for 12 months, 438 people have been waiting for more than 18 months, and 126 people have been waiting for more than two years now,” Ms Moore added.

“I know that they are just figures on a page, but to animate those and to speak to the humanity of what those figures actually mean, we have one gentleman within our group who has been waiting for two years.

“He suffered a very significant neurological injury as a result of one of the vaccines, and as a consequence of him having to wait so long to receive this £120,000, and his personal circumstances, he’s been living in an elderly care home – he’s in his mid-40s.

“And we now understand from the experts with whom we are working that that delay in accessing rehabilitation treatments has impacted his prognosis quite significantly. So it has a real world impact.”

Ms Moore was asked if the government ought to have realised that, given the widespread rollout of jabs, there was likely to be more applications.

She replied: “Yes, I think that’s got to be the case, hasn’t it, logically.

“If you have an unprecedented vaccine rollout, then you are going to probably have an unprecedented number of adverse events. I don’t think that’s controversial to say.”

When asked about the reasons why applications may be taking so long to process, Ms Moore said: “I think obtaining medical records has definitely been a problem that the medical assessment panels have been experiencing.

“But we are talking about a government service here, so you would think that there would be more ready access to those records.

“It’s also important to remember that some of these people who are making applications to the vaccine damage payment scheme are bereaved.

“So they are doing so where they already have been through an inquest, a coronial process, and they are making this application with the benefit of a confirmed death certificate, which will say on the face of the certificate that the vaccine has caused the death.

“So in those circumstances, it’s very difficult to understand why somebody should be waiting 18 months for a medical assessment panel to make a decision about causation.”

When asked about reforms to the scheme, Ms Moore suggested a bespoke service for Covid-19 vaccines.

She said: “We understand that any statutory reform would be forward facing, and we understand, based on discussions with Wes Streeting, that it would require a lot of parliamentary time, and that, of course, would need to be done incredibly carefully, and that work must be done.

“But as a more immediate solution here, there could be the possibility of setting up a bespoke compensation scheme, or support scheme, specifically for those who’ve been injured or bereaved as a consequence of Covid-19 vaccinations. That would be, I think, a swifter measure to put in place.”

Ms Moore told the inquiry a bespoke scheme could boost vaccine confidence in the long-term.

“I would suggest we are very good in the UK at thinking up bespoke schemes; from the Thalidomide Trust back in the 1980s through to the vCJD, the mad cow, BSE, bespoke scheme, right through to the infected blood scheme,” she added.

“We do have the wherewithal – as a consequence of academic work, legal experts – to think through sensible schemes that balance the need to ensure people are given fair amounts of money to support them, but also are not too onerous on the public purse, and recognise the fact that these people, through no fault of their own, have suffered these devastating consequences.

“It could have been any of us, and I think the society to move to do that would be potentially – if you’ll excuse the pun – a shot in the arm for vaccine confidence, because this is the government, I think, recognising the necessity of holding up their their end of social contract.”