COVID-19 Vaccine No-Fault Compensation Schemes Project

Covid-Vaccine No-Fault Compensation Schemes

The covid pandemic has led to the rapid development of a number of covid vaccines. In turn this has led to the proliferation of no-fault compensation schemes (NFCS) to provide redress in the event of an adverse event due to a covid vaccine. The initial phase of this project is to map these no-fault compensation schemes and to provide basic information on the coverage they provide, further information on the aims and phases of this research project can be found here.

The NFCS we have investigated range from long-standing national vaccine compensations schemes which cover all covid vaccines to newly-created multi-jurisdictional schemes which cover specific covid vaccines. The adverse events covered are similarly wide ranging, some schemes will only provide recompense for deaths, others cover temporary injuries that will fully resolve. In most schemes the amounts awarded have an upper limit. In some schemes the upper limit is a fixed maximum sum. In other schemes there is no fixed maximum sum, but elements of the award are limited, for example lost of earnings may be capped either at a percentage of the average wage or at a fixed sum.

Headline Findings

• We have examined schemes covering 137 countries (Canada has 2 schemes)
  • 38 national schemes, 3 multinational schemes & 1 provincial scheme
• We found 29 national schemes which were operational in December 2019; all of the remaining schemes have been created since the pandemic. One Country, Hungary, does not seem to have incorporated Covid Vaccines into its national Vaccine NFCS
• The 3 multi-national schemes are non-statutory, the majority of the remaining schemes have been created using legislation
• 98 countries are covered by the 3 multinational schemes
  • AVAT - 43 countries, COVAX - 92 countries, UNICEF - 18 countries 
  • The multinational schemes cover vaccines supplied under their framework - they do not cover all vaccines supplied in that jurisdiction
  • 48 countries are double covered (AVAT & COVAX or COVAX & UNICEF)
  • 3 countries are triple covered (COVAX, UNICEF & a National Scheme)
• NFCS are not evenly distributed globally (see maps for more information)
• All 3 multinational schemes and 12 national schemes only cover permanent injuries
• 4 countries have enacted legislation to create a national NFCS, but not implemented a scheme in practice
• The majority of schemes use an administrative process, 1 scheme has an adversarial process to determine claims
• The way in which eligibility for compensation is determined varies widely across schemes
• Almost all schemes have some limit on the value of compensation that can be paid
• A number of schemes published breakdowns of their activity, claim numbers, payments made, etc, but not all schemes do. 

Detailed Research Findings

We have created a series of downloadable PDF reports which contain all the information about NFCS in different regions and globally. 

Each NFCS has a dedicated webpage containing detailed information about that scheme. These pages can be accessed via the list of countries.