A Young Mother's Quest for Justice After Vaccine Injury Leaves Her Son with Chronic Pain
The US government has a program designed to compensate people who suffer from rare vaccine reactions, but many claimants say they are not receiving the help they need.
In 2019, after a routine vaccination, 11-year-old Keithron Thomas felt a sharp pain in his shoulder and down his arm. His mother, Melanie Bostic, thought it would go away after a few days. But days turned to weeks, then months, and years.
Bostic filed a claim in the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) for compensation to cover her son's spiraling medical bills. She then contacted the Carlson Law Firm, which referred her to Arizona-based attorney Andrew Downing — who now serves as a senior adviser to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Downing declined to comment on Bostic's case, but she says he advised her that he would pursue the claim before the VICP. However, after months of waiting, Downing told Bostic it was time to opt out of the program and sue Merck, the manufacturer of Gardasil.
Bostic refused to opt out, and Downing withdrew from the case. The government paid Downing $445 an hour for representing Bostic, but she felt that he steered her away from the VICP and towards a lawsuit against Merck.
The VICP was created in 1986 after a flood of vaccine injury lawsuits drove drugmakers from the market. Congress aimed to offer a faster and more generous path to compensation for people injured by vaccines, while shielding manufacturers from liability.
However, some lawyers have transferred hundreds of VICP claims into civil suits, where the financial rewards could run far higher. Downing has collected millions of taxpayer dollars in attorneys fees from vaccine court while launching precisely what it was designed to avoid: lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers.
Experts say that this shift in legal strategy has fueled Kennedy's crusade against Merck and could hurt some vaccine-injured clients. University of California Law-San Francisco professor Dorit Reiss has studied vaccine court for over a decade and says that VICP attorneys who are also suing vaccine makers have "incentives to direct more people" to lawsuits, "when it might not be in their best interest."
The Vaccine Injury Compensation Program aims to strike a balance between protecting public health and helping individuals who may pay its price. The no-fault program allows claimants with vaccine-related injuries to get help without showing that the vaccine maker did anything wrong, even when the evidence doesn't meet courtroom standards.
However, many claimants say they are not receiving fair compensation or timely support from the program. Bostic says she was furious that the court paid Downing anything and feels that he steered her away from the VICP.
Since fiscal year 2020, the VICP has paid scores of attorneys about $280 million — including over $43 million for cases they did not win. In each of the last two fiscal years, lawyers got roughly $9 million for VICP claims in which their clients got nothing.
Bostic now works from home as a bank fraud analyst and puts in overtime to afford health insurance for Thomas and her six other children. She says that she is learning how to cope with her son's chronic pain but still hopes to receive fair compensation through the VICP.
The US government has a program designed to compensate people who suffer from rare vaccine reactions, but many claimants say they are not receiving the help they need.
In 2019, after a routine vaccination, 11-year-old Keithron Thomas felt a sharp pain in his shoulder and down his arm. His mother, Melanie Bostic, thought it would go away after a few days. But days turned to weeks, then months, and years.
Bostic filed a claim in the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) for compensation to cover her son's spiraling medical bills. She then contacted the Carlson Law Firm, which referred her to Arizona-based attorney Andrew Downing — who now serves as a senior adviser to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Downing declined to comment on Bostic's case, but she says he advised her that he would pursue the claim before the VICP. However, after months of waiting, Downing told Bostic it was time to opt out of the program and sue Merck, the manufacturer of Gardasil.
Bostic refused to opt out, and Downing withdrew from the case. The government paid Downing $445 an hour for representing Bostic, but she felt that he steered her away from the VICP and towards a lawsuit against Merck.
The VICP was created in 1986 after a flood of vaccine injury lawsuits drove drugmakers from the market. Congress aimed to offer a faster and more generous path to compensation for people injured by vaccines, while shielding manufacturers from liability.
However, some lawyers have transferred hundreds of VICP claims into civil suits, where the financial rewards could run far higher. Downing has collected millions of taxpayer dollars in attorneys fees from vaccine court while launching precisely what it was designed to avoid: lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers.
Experts say that this shift in legal strategy has fueled Kennedy's crusade against Merck and could hurt some vaccine-injured clients. University of California Law-San Francisco professor Dorit Reiss has studied vaccine court for over a decade and says that VICP attorneys who are also suing vaccine makers have "incentives to direct more people" to lawsuits, "when it might not be in their best interest."
The Vaccine Injury Compensation Program aims to strike a balance between protecting public health and helping individuals who may pay its price. The no-fault program allows claimants with vaccine-related injuries to get help without showing that the vaccine maker did anything wrong, even when the evidence doesn't meet courtroom standards.
However, many claimants say they are not receiving fair compensation or timely support from the program. Bostic says she was furious that the court paid Downing anything and feels that he steered her away from the VICP.
Since fiscal year 2020, the VICP has paid scores of attorneys about $280 million — including over $43 million for cases they did not win. In each of the last two fiscal years, lawyers got roughly $9 million for VICP claims in which their clients got nothing.
Bostic now works from home as a bank fraud analyst and puts in overtime to afford health insurance for Thomas and her six other children. She says that she is learning how to cope with her son's chronic pain but still hopes to receive fair compensation through the VICP.
i mean who pays that much for a lawyer? and they just steered the mom away from the program that's supposed to help her 
. like what's going on here? 
it's all about the money, not about helping people 
.
. It's just not right that some lawyers are making a profit off others' misfortunes while trying to undermine a program that's supposed to help those in need 
This whole thing just smells fishy, ya know? Like they're playing a game where the government gives you money to shut up and move on, but really they're trying to screw over the people who need it most 
This is crazy! A mom just wants help for her kid who got hurt from a vaccine, but instead she gets steered away from the program that's meant to help her and towards some greedy lawyer making bank off of it... like $445 an hour!!! 
. She tries to get help thru the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) but it turns out one of the lawyers working for her was also suing Merck 
. experts say that this lawyer's actions might be hurting some vaccine-injured clients & making them not get fair compensation 
. Back in my day, we thought it was supposed to help people who got hurt by vaccines, not line some lawyers pockets 
.
. It's also super frustrating that some lawyers are taking advantage of the system and steering clients towards lawsuits instead of trying to get them help through the VICP 
. The VICP was meant to be a straightforward route, but now it's becoming a maze of complexity that's leaving people like Bostic feeling frustrated and hopeless.
I think it's a huge problem that lawyers like Andrew Downing are profiteering off of people like Melanie Bostic who just want to get help for their kids. Like, come on, $445 an hour is crazy! 
?
. And poor Melanie Bostic, she's going through so much with her son's chronic pain and still has to deal with this lawyer drama 
the program is supposed to help people who get hurt by vaccines but it sounds like it's more about lining the pockets of lawyers 
, and meanwhile, the attorney who was supposed to help her gets paid $445 an hour by the gov