Butler County Today

Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH) introduced the Justice For Vaccine Injured Veterans Act today, alongside 22 other House colleagues. This legislation allows service members to receive disability compensation for any vaccine injuries they may have developed under the Department of Defense’s unjust COVID-19 mandate.

"COVID-19 posed limited risks to young, fit, healthy people. Nevertheless, Joe Biden’s Department of Defense mandated that our nation’s warriors be vaccinated or forced out. Sadly, some of them have become vaccine-injured veterans due to adverse effects. Our nation has a moral obligation to care for them. This bill makes that happen.” said Rep. Davidson (R-OH).

The Justice For Vaccine Injured Veterans Act is cosponsored by Reps. Griffith, Crane, Bishop, Posey, Moore (AL), Nehls, Weber, Biggs Harshbarger, Massie, Greene, Rosendale, Steube, Mast, Burlison, Miller (IL), Dunn, Boebert, Carey, Fallon, Luna, and Gosar.

In August 2021, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin issued a memorandum entitled, “Mandatory Coronavirus Disease 2019 Vaccination of Department of Defense Service Members,” demanding the full vaccination of all members of the Armed Forces. More than 8,400 service members refused to comply with this mandate and were forced out of the military. In addition, reasonable exemptions from the vaccine mandate, such as religious beliefs, were virtually all ignored or rejected. Secretary Austin called this mandate “enormously successful” as they hit a 98 percent vaccination rate by December 2021.

In January 2023, Secretary Austin was forced to rescind this memorandum, yet service members who complied with the vaccines were susceptible to potential side effects of the vaccine.

This legislation corrects this injustice by amending 38 USC Chapter 11 to add certain COVID-19 vaccine-related injuries as presumptive conditions. If an individual has a presumptive condition, then they only need to meet the service requirements for the presumption. Any service member or veteran who received the COVID-19 vaccine during the DOD mandate timeframe and subsequently developed myocarditis, pericarditis, Guillan-Barre syndrome, or thrombosis within one year of their vaccination will be presumed eligible for disability compensation. The Secretary of Veterans Affairs also has the option to add other conditions if they notify the appropriate congressional committees.

Additionally, this legislation requires the Secretary to report on the total number of claims submitted and the status of such claims every 60 days.