Applications open for federal vaccine injury compensation

The federal government began accepting applications for its vaccine injury support program this week, but some people diagnosed with rare but serious conditions after their vaccinations aren't sure the compensation goes far enough.

Serious side effects have been very rare amongthe millions ofdosesadministered in Canada this year. But they're possiblewith any vaccine,and thisnew program covers not only COVID-19 shots, but other vaccinationsas well.

To qualify, a personhas to have received a Health Canada-approved vaccine in Canada and be diagnosed with "aserious and permanent injury."

But what if someone's significantly injured and can't work for a while, but eventually recoversmonths later? Would that qualify for help?

Murry Helleksonhopes so.

Prior to his COVID vaccination at a pharmacy near his home in Edson, Alta., he was a healthy 49-year old whodid physical work at a local lumber mill. A couple of weeks later, he started to feel some numbness and tingling. His arms and legs loststrength.

WATCH | Recovering from GBS:

Recovering from vaccine injury

3 years ago

Duration 0:15

Matthew Dawe working to regain his strength after being diagnosed with Guillain-Barr Syndrome following his COVID-19 vaccination.

Alarmed, he made several trips tohis local ER before he was referred to neurologists in Edmonton who finally diagnosed Guillain-Barr Syndrome (GBS), a rare neurological condition where the body's immune systemis triggered into attacking its nerves. Left untreated, it causes paralysis.

"I've never had anything like this before in my life," he said. Fearing he might not make it, he started phoning family members.

His wife Jennifer Donovan also had to take time offwork to care for him.

"Watching your spouse go from tough guy, go-go-go all the time, to not even being able to walk. Everything goes through your mind," she said.

After five days in hospital, Helleksonreturned home.But he could be off work for four to six months just because he did the right thing, heeded the government's call and got vaccinated.

"I think the government should have your back," he said.

His hands and legs remain numb, and he has to walkwith a cane. "Some people never recover from it fully," he said, but he remains hopeful he will.

15 casesso far

Matthew Dawe, 40,was walking his dog in Calgary about ten days after receiving his AstraZeneca vaccine when his feet went numb. Within hours, he was in an ER, slowly losing function in different parts of his body.

Health-care workers didn't immediately recognize what was wrong for a while, they even thought it could be COVID-19. But eventually he was diagnosed with GBS.

"You don't know where it's going to stop," Dawesaid. He said he'd run a 5K only days before he found himself in hospital. He prayed histreatments would work before paralysis reached his lungs andhe'd have to go on a ventilator.

His doctor, like Hellekson's, reported thisvaccine side effectto Health Canada. While itremains rare, they'renot alone: as of May 21, Health Canada's adverse events tracking system shows 15 cases of GBS ona list of several hundred other individuals who have reported serious side effects.

The department told CBC News that seven of these cases have been linked to a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTechvaccine and eight to doses of AstraZeneca's.

"I feel very fortunate," Dawe said. Hegot treatmentbefore he lost toomuch muscle. And as a project manager with Shell Canada, Dawe hasbenefits to cover medical expenses, therapyandtime off work.He knows others aren't so lucky.

The new federal sickness benefit for COVID-19 doesn't help people who get sick fromavaccine, rather thanthe virus itself.

'Draconian' criteria

The menfound each other, and others in the same boat, online, after searching for information and help.

Now they want others to be aware this can happen in rare situations, and take any warning signs seriously. Doctors need to be more aware too, they said.

Hellekson said he's sick of watching politicians talking about how they'll help you if you get COVID-19,but "if what the government gives you, to put in your arm, injures you? No help. Before they started giving the vaccines out and the big push to do it, they should have had this in place."

Until the pandemic hit, Canada was the only G7 country where the government didn't assumeallthe liability for injuries to protect vaccine developersfrom lawsuits. But the federal government's COVID-19 vaccine purchase contracts required it to set up a national no-fault compensation program, retroactive to early December, when needles began plunging into Canadian arms.

In an email to CBC News, Health Canada said the new programwill define"serious and permanent injury" as"a severe, life-threatening or life-altering injury that may require in-person hospitalization, or a prolongation of existing hospitalization, and results in persistent or significant disability or incapacity, or where the outcome is a congenital malformation or death."

Dawe said he finds the program'slanguage somewhat "draconian" andsubjective, suggesting it sounds like the government istrying to limit its payouts.

"In eight months, if I'm back to baseline, does that prohibit me from getting access to the damages?" he asked.

"That's not the way the real world works.If you absorb all liability from an agency, you can't just filter out what part of the liability you want to take on. You want to take liability for permanent damages but not pain and suffering? The government would be the only ones who'd have a chance at doing that. Anyone in their private lives would be roasted alive."

Dawe said he plans to hire a lawyer to help him with his application, to make surehe's ready to appeal if he needs to. Hellekson might too.

Comparable compensation schemes in other jurisdictions could offer someone with GBS in the neighbourhood of $120,000. Someone who died following vaccination which happened withseveral recent blood clot cases in Canada could receive closer to $250,000.

Health Canada declined to answer questions from CBC News earlier this spring about the precise amounts available andthe total fundingallocated forcompensation. But2021-22 spending estimates tabled in Parliamentseek authorization for $19 million to coverthe program's first monthsof operations.

Flexible, 'not confrontational'

The new federalsupport program, which launched its application portal this week, is modelled after a compensation schemeavailable in Quebec since the late 1980s.

A third party, RCGT, has been contracted toadministerthe program and will oversee the processing and adjudication of claims, based on criteria set by the government.

Similarprogramsuse a standardized table of injuries known to be associated with vaccinations, then assess whether the applicant's condition falls within a reasonable time period following vaccination.

Applications will be reviewed by medical experts on a case-by-case basis, the application portal says, and could cover lost income replacement, death and injury benefits, funeral expenses or the reimbursement of otherwise uncovered medical expenses.

Kumanan Wilson, an epidemiology researcher and medical professor at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, was consulted on the design of this program. He said heexpects adjudicatorsto apply a civil law threshold, weighing the evidence in decisions,instead of compellingapplicantsto prove definitively thattheir vaccinations caused them harm.

"The tribunal system is far less adversarial than the U.S. system where you go to a court," he said. "It's not meant to be confrontational. It's meant to be fair.It's meant to be permissive."

Ambiguous language in the criteriaallows some flexibility in its interpretation, he said, particularly as thescience on documented COVID vaccineside effects continuesto evolve. "It's a living document and it will change."

"Feedback is going to be really important from the public," he said, especially if vaccines are going to be required as conditions for employment in certain fields. "My bias would be yes, those people should be compensated."