The USA established its National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program in 1988

Since then over two billion dollars has been paid in compensation, in 2,569 awards.

The USA program is funded by a small levy on the cost of every dose of vaccine in the USA. This provides a fund which is sufficient to provide full compensatory damages plus costs to qualifying applicants. The fund even pays legal costs in proper but unsuccessful claims.

The program has certain categories of adverse reactions which are accepted to have been caused by vaccines within certain limits. Outside of those limits, it is for the applicant to prove causation on the balance of probability.

Claims are adjudicated on by the US Court of Federal Claims and there is an appeal process.

The DTP vaccine alone has led to 1,265 awards out of the 2,569 made. This vaccine was withdrawn from use in the USA in 1996 and was replaced with the DTaP (containing the acellular pertussis rather than whole cell pertussis vaccine)

The US program is one which, I believe, should be a model for any reform of the UK vaccine injury compensation scheme under the Vaccine Damage Payment Act 1979.