‘Humiliating and degrading’: Patients wait months for answers on vaccine injury claims

Only a fraction of claims through the coronavirus vaccine injury scheme have been finalised, raising concerns the process may be inaccessible for some genuine claimants.

Of the 3071 claims received by November 9 — 11 months since the scheme was established — only 263 had been determined as payable or not payable, while 1471 applications were waiting on additional information from applicants and 166 were subsequently withdrawn.

The COVID-19 Vaccine Claims Scheme, administered by Services Australia, covers losses or expenses of $1000 and above related to injury resulting in hospitalisation or death from specified reactions to the COVID-19 vaccine.

Earlier this year, Government Services Minister Bill Shorten said the small number of approvals demonstrated the vaccines were overwhelmingly safe.

But, while the vast majority of Australia’s 64 million COVID-19 vaccinations were without incident – the Therapeutic Goods Administration has received reports of 9300 reactions associated with a hospital admission, and stressed this did not mean the vaccine caused the admission – some people who experienced a severe reaction have struggled to claim under the scheme.

Sandra Byron, 59, experienced severe symptoms later diagnosed as Guillain-Barre syndrome and capillary leak syndrome after her first AstraZeneca vaccine in May 2021 and is now housebound with chronic pain and unable to work.

Her husband and now full-time carer, Ashley Russell, emphasised the Sydney family was not against vaccination but believed the claim scheme was a poor fit for exhausted patients with piecemeal medical documentation.

Byron was taken by ambulance to Hornsby Hospital four weeks after her shot with body numbness and swelling. Correspondence from the hospital confirmed her “serious systemic adverse reaction to the AstraZeneca vaccine in the days to weeks after her first dose” had been logged with NSW Health.

Yet her scheme claim, completed by her GP 10 months ago, was returned because it required reports from a neurologist and a haematologist, neither of whom she had seen while in hospital.....

Hi Sir Nail,

if you get a vaccine injury it's tough luck -
no one is going to help you.