The choice of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the nation’s top health agency is breathing life into an effort to reform a decades-old government program for paying people injured by vaccines.
Thousands of people are waiting to see whether the US Department of Health and Human Services will pay their claims for injuries or death allegedly from vaccines. Handled through a program shielding drugmakers from lawsuits, claimants can wait for years for word on whether they’ll be paid.
Lawmakers have pushed for changes to the Reagan-era process without success. Reformers say the Biden administration has been unhelpful, and that ...