Immunity: What It Means and Who Is Liable?

Do you acknowledge and explicitly assume COVID-19 risks before receiving care? Do you also agree to hold harmless this facility and grant legal immunity to our doctors and medical providers? These types of questions are appearing more and more on intake forms that health care providers are using when screening patients. Refusing to acknowledge these questions can lead to the health facility refusing service.

You might be injured, or sick or just need a checkup and now you are forced to sign away your rights before even getting the care you need. Doesn’t sound fair does it?

Yet it’s happening, and it’s leaving patients confused, frustrated and a bit unsettled. Unfortunately, those facilities that are adding those questions to their intake forms are worried of the potential malpractice claims that could arise from patients suing them for improper care. Apparently the oath they took of “do no harm” in a Covid world means “don’t sue me if I harm you”.

Insurance companies are to blame for this transition as they are the ones who are insuring the medical facilities and will ultimately pay the price if and when those doctors get sued. And those insurers have incentivized the medical community with lower insurance premiums by asking them to have their patients sign off on lawsuits.

And to top it off… Pfizer and Moderna have been granted total immunity from any and all liability if something goes unintentionally wrong with their Covid 19 vaccines. So, if you’ve elected (or are required) to take the vaccine and experience side effects of any kind there is no recourse or remedy to protect you in a court of law. And most States now are giving a free pass to employers who require their employees to get vaccinated if sickness or even death occurs as a result.

In a non-Covid world, manufacturers of medications, hospitals and medical professionals and even employers would not get this type of blanket immunity. In fact, pharmaceutical companies typically aren’t offered much liability protection at all.

So the real question is…who’s liable?

If the manufacturers have been granted immunity, can you sue the entity who granted permission to the manufacturer? In this case that entity is the Food and Drug Administration (The FDA) and they are part of the U.S. Government. And because the U.S. Government has sovereign immunity…they basically are off the hook for any injury you sustained through immunization.

However a little known, rarely utilized act our benevolent government implemented in such times might be a solution to those who have been injured by a vaccine. Although sadly, it’s only compensated less than 6% of the claims filed in the last decade. It’s called the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP) a subset of the PREP Act which provides benefits to eligible individuals who suffer serious injury (or death) following immunization.

This compensation program pays up to $50,000 per year in unreimbursed lost wages and out-of-pocket medical expenses. Unfortunately it does not cover legal fees or compensation for pain and suffering. If a death claim is submitted, and successful, the fund caps the death benefit at $370,376. But like most government programs the CICP is very hard to use and the bar for compensation is very high.

In the last ten years of the 499 claims filed with CICP only 29 claims were approved for compensation totaling more than $6 million.

The reason we share this information is that since the Covid pandemic began, we have been inundated with questions related to injury and death in response to treatment, vaccination and what if any legal action is available.

The Law Offices of David W. Holub is a personal injury law firm located in Merrillville, Indiana, focused on providing efficient and effective client-centered representation. Our mission is to provide top quality legal representation, which includes an uncompromising pursuit of our client’s legal interests, while being accessible and attentive to our clients during times of personal challenge.

The firm concentrates in personal injury cases of all types, medical malpractice, and wrongful death litigation. We work tirelessly to serve each client aggressively and with empathy, to communicate regularly and clearly, and to obtain prompt and favorable results, while adhering to the highest standards of excellence and integrity. Our team considers it a high honor to be called upon to serve our clients whom we often come to regard as our friends.

If you’ve been injured and are looking for answers we invite you to make use of the information on our website, and to call our law office at (219) 736-9700 to schedule a time to talk directly to us and see firsthand if we are the right law firm for you.

If you would like to learn more about personal injury law, we encourage you to listen to our Personal Injury Primer Podcast where we break down the law into simple terms, provide legal tips, and discuss topics related to personal injury law. And read “Fighting For Truth: A Trial Lawyer’s Insight Into What It Takes To Win” an entertaining and enlightening book pulling readers into the courtroom giving them a glimpse of the legal process and what it takes to win at trial.