An organization aligned with U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has formally petitioned him to substantially expand the federal list of vaccine-related injuries, and it has threatened litigation if no action is taken. The document, dated March 20, seeks amendments to the Vaccine Injury Table, which currently enumerates 47 conditions for which claimants can receive expedited compensation.
The Vaccine Injury Table functions as a shortcut within the federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, allowing individuals to obtain compensation without having to prove that a vaccine caused their illness when their symptoms match a listed condition. The petition filed by the Informed Consent Action Network calls for adding more than 300 injuries to that list and contains a 60-day notice of intent to sue if HHS does not begin the rulemaking process to amend the table.
ICAN is part of the Make America Healthy Again movement associated with Kennedy and was founded by Del Bigtree, who served as Kennedy’s presidential campaign communications director. The group’s petition bases its request on a series of government-commissioned reports that evaluated adverse events associated with vaccines. While those reports did not establish vaccine causation for most of the injuries they examined, the petition contends that the government’s commissioning of studies and its use of language such as "associated" or that there is "some basis" to believe in a causal link meet the legal standard for adding conditions to the table, which refers to injuries "associated" with vaccines.
Legal rationale and contested interpretation
The petition argues the phraseology used in the government-commissioned studies is sufficient under the Vaccine Injury Table’s legal standard. It takes the position that the government’s own investigations and the language contained in those reports create a basis to memorialize those potential harms on the table.
ICAN’s lawyer Aaron Siri, who has previously worked with Kennedy on vaccine litigation and served as legal counsel during his presidential campaign, said the petition was submitted without internal coordination at HHS. "This petition and notice was submitted without any coordination with anyone inside the federal government and we hope that HHS does the right thing in response to it," Siri told reporters.
Scientific and legal pushback
Public health and legal experts have pushed back against the petition’s interpretation of government language and its proposed legal standard. Noel Brewer, a professor of public health at the University of North Carolina and a former member of a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention independent vaccine advisory panel, criticized the petition’s reasoning as flawed. "The lawyer is making the argument that the government considering if something could be harmful made it a harm that should be memorialized as such, and that doesn’t make any sense," he said. Brewer was among 17 panel members fired by Kennedy last year.
Dorit Reiss, a vaccine law expert at the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco, likewise faulted the legal interpretation. "The petition argues that simply analyzing potential harms establishes an association, even if the government found no evidence of one. That interpretation stretches the legal definitions," she said.
The White House and the Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to requests for comment on the petition.
Context within the compensation system and Kennedy’s agenda
The Vaccine Injury Compensation Program is a no-fault federal program designed to compensate people who claim vaccine-related injuries while protecting manufacturers and providers from direct litigation. The program allows claimants to file injury claims against the government rather than against vaccine makers.
The petition places Secretary Kennedy in a position to act on a long-standing policy objective to reform the compensation system. Before taking his post at HHS, Kennedy had profited from anti-vaccine activities, and he has described the compensation program as "broken" and "a morass of inefficiency." In August, he reinstated a federal task force for safer childhood vaccines that had been dormant for nearly three decades, doing so one day before a deadline to respond to a lawsuit funded by Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine group he founded.
Political tensions and possible obstacles
The petition also highlights frictions between Kennedy’s base within the Make America Healthy Again movement and the broader administration. Earlier this year, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to boost domestic production of the herbicide glyphosate, a move that angered Kennedy’s supporters. Aaron Siri suggested political constraints might limit Kennedy’s ability to act. In a post on X, Siri wrote that he was confident the secretary wanted to update the table but said the only reason he would not is if the White House prevented it. Siri added that a federal lawsuit would follow at the end of the 60-day notice period if the administration blocked action.
What remains unresolved
The petition sets in motion a 60-day window during which HHS could begin rulemaking to amend the Vaccine Injury Table. If the department does not start that process, the petitioners have said they will proceed with litigation. The outcome will determine whether the list of conditions eligible for expedited compensation is broadened and could affect the volume and nature of claims filed under the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.