(The Defender) The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) extended liability protection to COVID-19 vaccine makers and those administering the shots through Dec. 31, 2029. The extension takes effect Jan. 1, 2025.
HHS Secretary Xavier Beccera said the extension is needed because COVID-19 poses a “credible risk” to public health now and in the future.
“I have determined that the spread of SARS-CoV-2 or a virus mutating therefrom and the resulting disease COVID-19 constitutes a credible risk of a future public health emergency,” Beccera said in the announcement.
“Development of and stockpiling vaccines, therapeutics, devices, and diagnostics for COVID-19 continues to be needed for U.S. preparedness against the credible threat of a public health emergency due to outbreaks of COVID-19,” Beccera added.
Kim Mack Rosenberg, general counsel for Children’s Health Defense (CHD), called the last-minute move by the Biden administration “very concerning” because it protects industry and the government and “allows for largely unfettered product development.”
This is the 12th extension of the liability shield for COVID-19 countermeasures since January 2020, when HHS declared a public health emergency under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP Act).
The act provides legal immunity to “covered persons” who manufacture or administer countermeasures during a public health emergency, including vaccine makers, manufacturers of masks and other personal protective equipment, and physicians, nurses and pharmacists who administer vaccines covered under the act.
Although the Biden administration ended its COVID-19 public health emergency in May 2023, the public health emergency HHS declared in January 2020 under the PREP Act remains in effect.
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