Canadians - read this! Canada does not have a vaccine injury compensation program

[kathymuggle]

So I was reading the Quebec government sites on vaccines (there is a propaganda piece if I ever saw one - and a badly translated one, to boot) and it said Quebec is the only province that has a vaccine injury claim process.  WTF??  

So I did a little digging, and it turns out it is true.  Most of Canada does not have a vaccine injury claim process. 

http://www.ctvnews.ca/vaccine-compensation-program-overdue-experts-1.641855

Canadians can sue the vaccine makers, but as the article explains:

"...there has not been a single successful civil lawsuit for medical injury related to immunization in Canada, she says.

"These are very difficult cases to prove in court," she says. "For most people, the risks of being injured from the vaccine are so rare and so idiosyncratic that judges have deemed that a reasonable person, even if they were told that they may actually get GBS after a flu vaccine, they still would have gone ahead and been immunized against flu. And so these cases are really not winnable."

I am going to cross post this in research.  I am somewhat speechless, and both enraged and not surprised at the same time.

[Angela Aloisi]

That's sad. Canada is so progressive in so much though, so I'm surprised!

[kathymuggle]

Angela Aloisi:  Canada is a great country :)

It does not appear it is a good country to assume vaccination risks in, however.  

I suspect there are political reasons for this (due to our bureacracy and how our country is structured) but that is still no excuse.

Here is an article from WHO on vaccine injury claims process.  Only 19 countries have a vaccine injury claim process:

http://www.who.int/bulletin/10-081901.pdf

19 countries with current vaccine compensation schemes.  Germany, France, Austria,  Denmark, Japan,  New Zealand, Sweden Switzerland, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.  China (Province of Taiwan),Finland,  the United States of America (USA)  and the Canadian Province of Quebec,. Italy, Norway,  the Republic of Korea,  Hungary,  Iceland  and Slovenia.

Edited by kathymuggle - 2/28/13 at 5:55am

[kathymuggle]

Originally Posted by Angela Aloisi 

That's sad. Canada is so progressive in so much though, so I'm surprised!

What is a bit surprising to me is that I did not know there was no compensation program.  I would not go so far as to say it was a secret, but I have read many Government of Canada papers on vaccines, and this is the first I have seen of it.  I only found out because I was on a Quebec website, and they like to toot their horn about their unique accomplishments.

Is it their job to tell me there is no vaccine injury program and that to date no one has successfully sued for vaccine damage in Canada, or is it my job to ask? How would I even know to ask (when so many developed countries do have vaccine compensation programs).  UGH.

[Bronwen13]

"These are very difficult cases to prove in court," she says. "For most people, the risks of being injured from the vaccine are so rare and so idiosyncratic that judges have deemed that a reasonable person, even if they were told that they may actually get GBS after a flu vaccine, they still would have gone ahead and been immunized against flu. And so these cases are really not winnable."

Hmmmm......isn't this like saying to a reasonable person, "well, you could get in a car accident if you drive, but you're probably going to go ahead and drive anyway."  Maybe we should be buying insurance for vaccinations then.