The Vaccine Injury Table — and why it splits the rates

Developmental delay / regression

Developmental delay or regression is a non-Table condition that overlaps substantially with both encephalopathy and autism-spectrum claims. Many pediatric cases tagged developmental-delay in this registry allege cognitive or motor regression following vaccination, often with a documented encephalopathic event.

Largest compensated developmental-delay cases

Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS)

GBS is an acute polyneuropathy in which the body's immune system attacks peripheral nerves. GBS following a flu shot was added to the Vaccine Injury Table in 2017 alongside SIRVA. The historical association between GBS and influenza vaccines dates to the 1976 swine flu vaccine campaign, in which GBS rates were elevated above background. Modern flu vaccines show a much smaller signal, but the Table presumption applies regardless.

Encephalopathy / encephalitis

Vaccine encephalopathy is the original injury class that motivated the VICP. The 1980s wave of DPT-vaccine brain-injury lawsuits — and the resulting near-collapse of the U.S. childhood vaccine supply — led Congress to pass the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, which established the no-fault VICP.

Encephalopathy following DPT (and its successor DTaP) is Table-listed with strict criteria: "acute encephalopathy" onset within 72 hours of vaccination, severe enough to require hospitalization, and resulting in a "chronic encephalopathy" persisting more than six months. The 51% compensation rate reflects the strictness of those thresholds — many petitions allege encephalopathy that doesn't meet them. Off-Table encephalopathy claims must be argued under Althen.

Largest compensated encephalopathy cases on file

SIRVA — shoulder injury after vaccination

Shoulder injury related to vaccine administration (SIRVA) is the highest-volume and highest-compensation-rate condition in the registry. SIRVA was added to the Vaccine Injury Table on March 21, 2017; before then, shoulder injuries from vaccinations had to be argued under Althen. The Table addition created the sharp inflection visible in the filings timeline.

The Table criteria require: pain in the shoulder of injection within 48 hours; pain limited to the shoulder; no history of pain, inflammation, or dysfunction in the affected shoulder before vaccination; and no alternative cause explaining the injury. Cases that fit those criteria compensate at roughly 90%.

Autism spectrum disorder

Autism-spectrum petitions have the lowest compensation rate of any condition tracked in this registry. The rate reflects how the program has historically adjudicated autism-causation theories under the Althen standard — not a medical judgment about whether vaccines and autism are causally related in the general population.

The Omnibus Autism Proceedings (2002–2010)

Between 2002 and 2010, the Office of Special Masters consolidated more than 5,000 autism-related petitions into the Omnibus Autism Proceedings (OAP). Three test cases reviewed two general theories: (1) MMR plus thimerosal-containing vaccines causing autism, and (2) thimerosal alone causing autism. Both theories were rejected. The test cases — Cedillo v. HHS, Snyder v. HHS, and Hazlehurst v. HHS — were appealed; the Federal Circuit affirmed the denials. Subsequent autism-only petitions are routinely denied with citation to OAP precedent.

The Poling concession (2008)

The Office of Special Masters has subsequently and repeatedly distinguished Poling from the OAP holdings: Poling involved a documented pre-existing condition and a government concession; OAP reviewed a general causal theory and rejected it.

The closest in-corpus analog to the Poling pattern that was contested through to a published decision is A.H.T. v. HHS (2017), which alleged "mitochondrial disorder aggravated by vaccination, leading to encephalopathic event." That petition was denied.

Compensated autism-spectrum cases in this registry

The 6 compensated cases in the autism-spectrum bucket are listed below. Their alleged-condition fields show that most are mixed presentations — encephalopathy or developmental regression with autism-spectrum features — rather than autism in isolation:

In October 2025, KFF Health News reported on a Trump administration proposal by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to add autism to the Vaccine Injury Table. If enacted, that would shift autism claims from the Althen regime to the Table presumption regime — fundamentally changing the compensation calculus for this condition. As of this page's last data refresh, no such Table revision has been finalized.

Neurological issues — across the registry

The VICP doesn't track "neurological injury" as a single category. The relevant clinical conditions tracked separately above are encephalopathy/encephalitis, seizure disorder, developmental delay/regression, and autism-spectrum disorder. Together they represent the registry's neurological-injury surface area:

Compensation rates compared across these four conditions:

The encephalopathy hub is the closest single taxonomic match to "vaccine-related neurological injury."

Seizure disorder

Residual seizure disorder is Table-listed for DTaP and certain other vaccines when it presents as part of an acute encephalopathy. Off-Table seizure claims require Althen-style proof of causation. Many DTaP-era pediatric cases in the registry involve infants who developed first-time seizures within 72 hours of vaccination and went on to chronic seizure disorders.

Largest compensated seizure cases

Pediatric vs. adult compensation rates

The same legal label (e.g. "transverse myelitis," "GBS") doesn't always compensate at the same rate across age cohorts. This is partly mechanical — a pediatric DTaP encephalopathy fits the Vaccine Injury Table presumption while an adult HPV-era encephalopathy is decided under Althen — and partly evidentiary: pediatric petitions often arrive with documented well-baby-visit timelines, while adult onset can be harder to anchor.

Death cases

Death cases follow a different settlement framework than injury cases. Wrongful-death awards under the Vaccine Act are statutorily capped at $250,000, plus pain-and-suffering and reasonable funeral expenses. The full demographics — children vs. adults, by-vaccine distribution, and age-at-vaccination concentration — are on the dedicated death-cases page.