‘End the shield’: New plan would put liability for vaccine failures back on manufacturers

Decades ago federal lawmakers decided to protect vaccine manufacturers from the liability for their failures, the injures and damages their products may cause, putting that burden directly on the backs of taxpayers.

Now Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, want to move it back.

The push behind the original move was that protecting those manufacturers, and their financial bottom lines, from any liability for injuries and other damages from their products would encourage those financial giants to research, develop and produce more drugs.

The law immunizes “covered persons” from lawsuits and liability for losses tied to the administration of those vaccines.

But that could be changing, follow the disasters that hit many Americans during and after the China-originated COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting shots that were developed, and sold to the government for billions of dollars, then.

Side effects from those shots have included fatal events multiple times. Heart problems, muscle problems and more all have been reported and confirmed.

A report at Just the News said the new legislation, introduced in the Senate and assigned to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, would eliminate that federal liability protection.

It would instead allow those hurt and injured to file lawsuits against the manufacturers whose products are thought to be to blame.

Sen. Rand Paul unveils bill to end nationwide liability protections for vaccine manufacturers https://t.co/TTfdhauLRs

— John Solomon (@jsolomonReports) February 15, 2026

HUGE! 26 years of waiting. Thank you, @RandPaul !

Rand Paul Wants to End the Vaccine Carve Out and Voters Approve in MAHA Poll, by @teacher_choice @ChildrensHD @CHDTVLive @SecKennedy https://t.co/2xJo7TV0NY pic.twitter.com/vxR6PFZlBW

— Mary S. Holland, Esq. (@maryhollandnyc) February 15, 2026

BREAKING: Senator Rand Paul Introduces Federal Bill to END Vaccine Makers’ Liability Shield

Bill S.3853 would collapse the vaccine cartel’s 40-year reign of penalty-free “unavoidable harm” by Nicolas Hulscher, MPH @NicHulscher @McCulloughFund https://t.co/r5fIBxsJWk

— Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH® (@P_McCulloughMD) February 15, 2026

“If passed, the bill will make changes to the federal law to abolish the liability shield provided to vaccine manufacturers under the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, which largely protects vaccine manufacturers from product liability lawsuits and requires most injury claims to be directed to a federal compensation program,” the report said.

Paul explained it would make pharmaceutical companies more accountable by allowing people to sue them if they believe they have been injured by vaccines.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirms that there have been millions of adverse events reported to the government under the liability protection scheme, and it is the American taxpayer who is billed for cases that have developed.

A Substack report from Jon Fleetwood said the bill is S.3853, formally titled “A bill to amend the Public Health Service Act to end the liability shield for vaccine manufacturers, and for other purposes.”

Among the laws now assigning liability to taxpayers are the 2005 PREP Act, the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act and more.

Congress first limited routine vaccine liability in the 1980s and established the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program to replace direct litigation for many childhood vaccines.