Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme: 'Astra Zeneca COVID-19 vaccine left us disabled - now we're locked in a battle with a pharma giant'

Those affected – and their families – believe the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme is outdated and urgently needs reform under the new Labour Government to ensure it reflects the range of medical complications they have to cope with every day.

A Leeds-based lawyer is representing claimants, including a number from Yorkshire, who allege they suffered injuries caused by the Astra Zeneca COVID-19 Vaccine.

A group action claim has been launched by Leigh Day partner Sarah Moore under section 2 of the Consumer Protection Act 1987 against the pharmaceutical giant, AstraZeneca. It is expected that the claims could be worth millions of pounds, according to Ms Moore.

Fifty claimants represented by Ms Moore are pursuing the claim due to injuries allegedly caused by the Vaxzevria Astra Zeneca COVID-19 Vaccine manufactured by Astra Zeneca UK Limited (AZUK). Eleven of the claimants are acting on the behalf of a loved one who died following a complication allegedly caused by the vaccine.

All eleven of the bereaved claimants have received death certificates or medical evidence that confirms that the AZUK vaccine caused the deaths suffered by their loved ones, Ms Moore said.

The claimants say that they, or their loved one, suffered Vaccine Induced Immune Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia (VITT) which is a form of Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (TTS) as a direct result of the AZUK vaccine. This is a rare syndrome characterised by blood clotting and insufficiency of platelets.

TTS can have life-threatening consequences including strokes, brain damage, heart attacks, pulmonary embolism, which is a blockage of an artery in the lungs, and amputation.

Ms Moore is calling for the Government to review the Vaccine Damages Payment Scheme (VDPS), which she said was set up in 1979 as a temporary measure to provide a lump-sum payment to individuals who had become severely disabled as a result of a vaccination recommended by the Government.

In a statement, Leigh Day said: “The threshold for the VDPS payment requires the applicant to demonstrate that their injuries have rendered them 60 per cent disabled to qualify for a one-off payment of £120,000, which is paid for by the taxpayer.

"The scheme has been criticised for many years for its inaccessibility and the low and ‘arbitrary figure’ awarded to individuals and families whose care needs and losses will in some cases run into millions of pounds.”

Ms Moore told The Yorkshire Post that Astra Zeneca deny liability although they have accepted that the vaccine can cause this particular type of harm in rare cases.

She added: “We were supposed to be having the first case management conference in December, that’s now been moved to February 2025. From that hearing we would expect to have a timetable through to trial including a timetable for disclosure.

“For the moment, we’re locked into this battle. A large proportion of the 50 have already received £120,000 from the Government under the Vaccine Damages Payment Scheme.

"All of them have either had causation accepted by the VDPS and received the VDPS payment or have had causation accepted but haven’t reached the 60 per cent disability threshold that makes them eligible for £120,000.”

Ms Moore believes the current payment scheme – which is 45 years old – needs to be reformed as a matter or urgency. Such action would bolster faith in a system which is supposed to protect us all, according to critics of the current payment regime.

Ms Moore added: “The reason litigation is necessary is because we have a statutory scheme that doesn’t work.

“The whole point of the statute was to ensure that people didn’t have to litigate these claims in recognition of the special status of those who are injured or bereaved through a state recommended vaccination.”

Ms Moore added: “The VDPS is based on a social pact between the Government and the people whom they ask to step up for vaccination.

"Fortunately, severe injuries and deaths as a result of vaccination are rare, however, where things do go wrong there needs to be a safety net which will provide the bereaved and injured with a meaningful financial payment which fully recognises the impact of the injuries or death on their lives.

“That safety net only works if it is properly put together. All in the group have been told through VDPs that their injuries or deaths were caused as a consequence of the vaccine but they are being offered only £120,000.

"Unfortunately, as a result of the severity and complexity of their injuries, quite a few of our claimants require compensation vastly in excess of that.

“When you have got relatively young people involved who are going to have life-long dependencies on carers or require special equipment or special adaptations, those figures get very high, very quickly.

“£120,000 as a payment isn’t enough, especially when those injured will be unable to return to any form of paid work, may require 24 hour care and have young families to support.

“The loss of earnings claims in most cases takes you well in excess of £120,000,’’ Ms Moore added.

“Vaccination is a crucial part of any public health policy, we saw that for ourselves in the pandemic. However, vaccination programmes only work if people are willing to volunteer for vaccination.

"That requires people to have confidence not only in the safety of the vaccines, but also in the fact that in the rare event that something goes wrong their families will be looked after.

“This principle was at the heart of the Vaccine Damage Payment Act when it was created in the 1970s, Unfortunately as it stands the Vaccine Damage Payment Act is no longer fit for purpose, it offers too little, too late, to too few people.

“It is for that reason that these families have been compelled to bring this legal action. They are reluctant litigants, they have loved ones to care for and many are still grieving, but they are fighting this case because they need answers and they need the financial means to try and put their lives back together as best they can.”

Ms Moore, who was educated at Cambridge University and joined Leigh Day in 2006, specialises in large multiparty group actions on behalf of claimants based in the UK and overseas across a wide range of issues including environmental and product liability claims.

Her previous UK cases have typically involved a wide range of defective medicines or medical devices from Thalidomide through to metal-on-metal hips and breast implants.

Responding to the statement from Leigh Day, an AstraZeneca spokesperson said: “Our sympathy goes out to anyone who has lost loved ones or reported health problems. Patient safety is our highest priority.

"From the body of evidence in clinical trials and real-world data, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has continuously been shown to have an acceptable safety profile and regulators around the world consistently state that the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks of extremely rare potential side effects.

“We are incredibly proud of the role the Oxford-AstraZeneca played in ending the global pandemic. According to independent estimates, over six million lives were saved in the first year of use alone and over three billion doses were supplied globally.

"Our efforts have been recognized by Governments around the world and are widely regarded as being a critical component of ending the global pandemic.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “Our deepest sympathies are with those impacted by vaccine complications. This government is committed to learning lessons through the COVID-19 inquiry.

“Throughout the pandemic the health system responded quickly to reports of extremely rare cases of complications following vaccination.”

The spokesperson highlighted the fact that COVID-19 vaccines will be discussed in Module 4 of the Covid-19 Inquiry, where the hearings are planned to start from January 14 2025 to January 30 2025.

The statement added: “The health system quickly responded to reports from the MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory agency) of extremely rare cases of concurrent thrombosis and thrombocytopenia following vaccination with the first dose of AstraZeneca.

“In April 2021, the JCVI advised that adults under 30 without underlying health issues should be offered an alternative vaccine to AstraZeneca if available. This was later extended in May 2021 to adults under 40 without underlying health issues. 

“The Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS) provides a one-off, tax-free payment of £120,000 to claimants who have been found, in rare cases and on the balance of probabilities, to have been seriously disabled by certain vaccines for a disease listed in the Vaccine Damage Payment Act 1979.

“The VDPS is not a compensation scheme and is not designed to cover all expenses associated with severe disablement. Outside of the VDPS, there is a strong financial safety net for anyone who has a long-term health condition or a disability and needs support.”