The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Thursday announced a series of actions aimed at strengthening the federal government's response to vaccine-related health concerns.
The Oct. 8 announcement highlighted four key initiatives, the first being a new National Institutes of Health (NIH) clinic that opened Oct. 5.
The NIH clinic is “dedicated to studying and caring for patients experiencing health problems following vaccination,” the agency says. The clinic was established to expand access to care and evaluation while advancing scientific understanding of potential health issues, HHS officials said.
HHS is also modernizing the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) to make adverse-event reporting simpler, more accessible and easier to use. VAERS is co-managed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
In August, CDC solicited bids for a new contract to overhaul the system. On September 28, CDC announced a new contract to make VAERS accessible on mobile devices and improve the tools available to researchers and medical professionals investigating potential safety signals.
Federal health IT standards will also now require electronic health records (EHRs) to capture adverse events related to vaccinations.
And, through a new Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) policy, the agency also proposed reimbursing physicians for reporting suspected vaccine-related injuries using the CDC’s VAERS system.
“We must listen to patients and families who report vaccine injuries—not dismiss or gaslight them,” said Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, HHS Secretary, in a statement. “President Trump and I are building a health system that takes them seriously, follows the evidence, and uses what we learn to make vaccines safer. This is how we earn back trust in our public health institutions.”
HHS submitted a proposed rule in July to draft a list of injuries believed to be related to the COVID-19 vaccine, Fierce Pharma reported. The rule would streamline the compensation process for individuals claiming harm from the vaccinations.
The rule governing the table is slated for proposal in November, with the public comment period expected to conclude in January 2027, per Fierce Pharma.