Pediatric filings — well-baby visit calendar
The chart below plots vaccine injury filings against the infant's age in months at the time of vaccination. Bars highlighted in cyan mark months that fall on a recommended ACIP well-baby visit: 0 (HepB birth dose), 2, 4, 6, 12, 15, 18, and 24 months. The pattern is striking — injury filings cluster sharply at the visit months and drop to near zero in the months between.
Of the 317 pediatric VICP cases (ages 0–24 months) on file, 62% (198 cases) were vaccinated in one of the 8 ACIP visit months — those 8 months represent only 32% of the calendar window. Random distribution would predict the opposite: ~32% concentration. The clustering is the opposite of what a random injury distribution would produce.
Vaccines administered at each ACIP visit
The CDC's recommended childhood immunization schedule lists the typical vaccines given at each well-baby visit. The right two columns show how many VICP injury cases on file have an age at vaccination matching each visit month, and how many of those involved the death of the infant.
| Visit | Vaccines typically administered | # Vaccines | VICP cases | Deaths |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 mo | HepB (birth dose) | 1 | 13 | 2 |
| 2 mo | DTaP · Hib · IPV · PCV13 · HepB · Rotavirus | 6 | 28 | 10 |
| 4 mo | DTaP · Hib · IPV · PCV13 · Rotavirus | 5 | 23 | 9 |
| 6 mo | DTaP · Hib · PCV13 · HepB · Rotavirus · Influenza | 6 | 38 | 4 |
| 12 mo | MMR · Varicella · HepA · Hib · PCV13 | 5 | 47 | 3 |
| 15 mo | DTaP (4th dose) | 1 | 23 | 3 |
| 18 mo | HepA (2nd dose) · annual influenza | 1 | 12 | 0 |
| 24 mo | Catch-up doses · annual influenza | 0 | 14 | 0 |
Visit months account for 62% of pediatric filings while representing only 32% of the calendar window. The clustering is not random — and the heaviest cluster (2 months — when an infant's first heavy stack of vaccines is administered: typically DTaP, Hib, IPV, PCV13, HepB, and rotavirus) carries the heaviest death load.
Across the 8 ACIP visit months, the number of vaccines administered and the number of recorded VICP deaths are positively correlated: the visits with the heaviest combined vaccine load are the visits with the most deaths on record. This is a descriptive observation about the dataset; it is not a causal claim about vaccine safety in the general population.
The DPT / DTaP infant-death timeline
The pertussis vaccine controversy is the original reason the VICP exists. A wave of DPT brain-injury lawsuits in the early 1980s nearly collapsed the U.S. childhood vaccine supply, leading Congress to pass the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986. The acellular pertussis vaccine (DTaP) replaced whole-cell DPT starting in the late 1990s. Both formulations have produced infant-death petitions in the VICP every decade since the program opened.
Named cases on file
Every infant-death petition involving a pertussis-containing vaccine in the public docket — the petitions that did not redact the child's name. Each row links to the published Special Master decision.
| Petitioner | Year | Age | Vaccine | Outcome | Award |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| David Bradley White | 1993 | 2 mo | DPT | DENIED | — |
| Patricia Ann Piper | 1993 | 6 mo | DPT | DENIED | — |
| Jamie J. Burton | 1993 | 5 mo | DPT | DISMISSED | — |
| Tamara Joseph | 1993 | 2 mo | DPT | UNCLEAR | — |
| William ('Billy') Skinner | 1994 | 2 mo | DPT | UNCLEAR | — |
| Jeffrey Hossack | 1995 | 2 mo | DPT | WON | $250K |
| Kenneth L. Walker, IV | 1995 | 2 mo | DPT | DENIED | — |
| Kristen Jo Andrews | 1995 | 2 mo | DTP | WON | — |
| Zachary Hinkle | 1995 | 5 mo | DPT | DENIED | — |
| Damien Hellenbrand-Sztaba | 1996 | 21 mo | Diphtheria, Pertussis, Tetanus | DENIED | — |
| Harley D. Brown | 1996 | 2 mo | DPT, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), oral pol… | DISMISSED | — |
| Curtis Gurr | 1997 | 2 mo | DPT | DISMISSED | — |
| Jason Lucas Anderson | 1997 | 2 mo | DPT, oral polio, Hib | DENIED | — |
| Christina Kaminski | 1997 | 2 mo | DPT | UNCLEAR | — |
| Amanda Riggs | 1998 | 2 mo | DPT | WON | — |
| Phillip Bobby Camery | 1998 | 1 mo | DPT | WON | — |
| Natalie Sword | 1999 | 1 mo | DPT | WON | — |
| Jennifer Lawson | 1999 | 7 mo | DPT | UNCLEAR | — |
| Billy Allen Dudley | 2002 | 2 mo | DPT | UNCLEAR | — |
| Logan Leuz | 2005 | 2 mo | DTaP, Hib, Hepatitis B, Prevnar | DISMISSED | — |
| Jody L. Nordwall | 2008 | 1 mo | DTaP | DENIED | — |
| A.T.W. | 2015 | 2 mo | DTaP | DENIED | — |
| Asia Copperthite | 2016 | 7 mo | Pediarix; Hib; Prevnar | WON | $255K |
| Nicholas Copenhaver | 2016 | 4 mo | Pentacel | DENIED | — |
| Lindsey Pelton, parent of N.L.P., deceased | 2017 | 4 mo | DTaP, Hepatitis B, IPV, Hib, Pneumococcal Conjugat… | DISMISSED | — |
| Z.J.C. | 2017 | 15 mo | DTaP | DISMISSED | — |
| STEVEN FORREST and NICOLE FORREST, on behalf of E.M.F. | 2017 | 4 mo | DTaP, IPV, Hib, PCV, Rotavirus | DENIED | — |
| J.H.B. | 2018 | 2 mo | DTaP | WON | $310K |
| J.R.S. | 2018 | 2 mo | hepatitis B; rotavirus; DTaP; Hib; IPV; pneumococc… | DENIED | — |
| Carson Nichols | 2018 | 4 mo | DTaP, Hib, IPV (polio), PCV-7 (pneumococcal) | DENIED | — |
| CHASE BOATMON & MAURINA CUPID, parents of J.B., deceased | 2018 | 3 mo | DTaP, IPV, PCV, Rotavirus, Hep B | DENIED | — |
| Zaire Corvell Thomas | 2018 | 4 mo | DTaP | DISMISSED | — |
| A.r.d-C. | 2019 | 7 mo | DTaP | DISMISSED | — |
| T.F. | 2020 | 2 mo | Pentacel (DTaP/IPV/Hib), Prevnar 13, hepatitis B | DISMISSED | — |
| S.W. | 2020 | 2 mo | Pediarix, Prevnar, Hib, Rotavirus | DISMISSED | — |
| Najee Shields | 2020 | 5 mo | DTaP | DISMISSED | — |
| M.D.P. | 2020 | 6 mo | DTaP | DENIED | — |
| Z.S. | 2022 | 16 mo | DTaP-HepB-IPV | DENIED | — |
| A.E.S. | 2025 | 2 mo | Pediarix (DTaP/IPV/Hep B); Hib; PCV13; RotaTeq | WON | $300K |
| E.E.D. | 2025 | 2 mo | Rotarix; Pediarix (DTaP/Hep B/IPV); Hib | DENIED | — |
Filter: is_death=1 AND
age at vaccination < 24 months AND vaccine list contains DPT, DTaP,
Pentacel, Pediarix, or any pertussis-component formulation. Petitions
with redacted petitioner names (initials only) are aggregated into the
chart counts above but omitted from the named-cases table.
Frequently asked questions about the VICP
General questions about the U.S. Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.