Spearheaded by vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the initiative will involve a new NIH clinic, an updated monitoring system and reimbursements for doctors who report suspected side effects.

The Department of Health and Human Services has launched a broad plan to strengthen the surveillance of vaccine-related injuries, announcing on Thursday a series of moves including enhanced monitoring systems and a new clinic to study people who’ve experienced health problems following an immunization.

Spearheaded by longtime vaccine skeptic and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the initiatives are designed to boost how the federal government “identifies, documents, investigates and responds to health problems reported following vaccination,” the agency said in a statement. The goal is to boost patient outcomes and accumulate “better evidence about potential vaccine-related injuries.”

HHS revealed multiple different initiatives to accomplish that objective. One is the clinic, which the National Institutes of Health opened in Bethesda, Md. on Oct. 5. There, NIH researchers will “investigate potential causes” of health problems following vaccination.

The agency will also reimburse doctors for reporting suspected vaccine-related side effects to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS, a move it claimed will help “encourage” more comprehensive documentation.

VAERS itself is being updated, too, with the goal of making the system more “accessible.” HHS will lastly require electronic health records to capture vaccine-related adverse events.

“We must listen to patients and families who report vaccine injuries — not dismiss or gaslight them,” Kennedy said in the statement, adding that he and President Donald Trump are “building a health system that takes [people] seriously, follows the evidence, and uses what we learn to make vaccines safer.”

Source link