Covid vaccine compensation could be given to thousands left ‘disabled’ by the AstraZeneca jab, it has emerged.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting is understood to be considering plans to set up a programme for those suffering from life-changing conditions as a result of the Covid jab.
There are concerns that the existing government-funded Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS) is struggling to cope with an overwhelming number of people claiming they are suffering side-effects from the injection.
Campaigners from the Vaccine Bereaved and Injured UK group argue the VDPS is no longer fit for purpose, and officials are thought to be looking at whether the scheme should be reformed or overhauled.
Some of the families represented by the group are involved in legal action against AstraZeneca, which admitted in court documents earlier this year that its Covid vaccine can ‘in very rare cases’ cause a side effect that leads to blood clots and a low platelet count.
The pharmaceutical company is being sued in a class action over claims that the jab, developed with Oxford University, caused death or serious injury in dozens of cases.
Shadow attorney general Sir Jeremy Wright attended a meeting with Wes Streeting and Andrew Gwynne, a health minister, along with campaigners last month.
He has another follow-up meeting with the health secretary scheduled in the coming weeks.
‘The two options are reforming the VDPS and also setting up a bespoke compensation scheme,’ he told the Sunday Telegraph.
‘But it is not an option for the government to put its head in the sand and do nothing.
‘If you are in the very small minority of those injured [by the Covid vaccine], those people have a right to expect the state to look after them properly – they were only doing what the state asked them to do.’
More than 15,000 people have applied for compensation from the VDPS for alleged harm caused by Covid vaccines, but only 188 have been told they are entitled to payout.
Figures show the majority of successful claims relate to the AstraZeneca jab with fewer than five in connection to Pfizer and Moderna.
Those awarded so far include for conditions such as stroke, heart attack, dangerous blood clots, inflammation of the spinal cord, excessive swelling of the vaccinated limb and facial paralysis.
The VDPS awards a one-off £120,000 tax-free payment to people who have been severely injured, and to the families of those who have died, as a result of vaccination against certain diseases including Covid.
In order to qualify, individuals have to be deemed 60 per cent disabled.