P.E.I. man, left debilitated after vaccine, misses out on deadline for compensation
CBC
A Prince Edward Island man wants others to be aware of a federal program that offers compensation for serious and permanent injuries from vaccines approved by Health Canada, since he missed the deadline for applying and has been left in dire straits.
Kent Gillespie used to rotate among three different occupations to make a living.
"I was doing construction, I've been cooking for a lot of years and I had my own painting company," he said during an interview with CBC News at his Charlottetown home.
His life is very different now.
"I tried going back to work with my nephew and it seemed like every second day I had to take the day off because my hands were just locked up like this," he said, showing his cramped and painful fingers. "I feel a lot less of a human being."
Gillespie said his troubles began with back pain not long after his first dose of the Moderna vaccine for COVID-19 back in 2021. His legs gave out too, with the collapse sending him to the hospital.
Doctors there didn't know what was wrong, he said, so when the time came for his second shot of vaccine, he went ahead with it. That's when the mysterious problem with his hands started.
Now his days are spent applying anti-inflammatory cream, trying to get around as best he can, and wishing there was better awareness of the supports for people with vaccine injuries.
"It's hard because I [feel] I'm alone. No one's going to help me. I called everywhere."
The vast majority of people around the world who've received COVID vaccines since early 2021 have had minor side-effects at most. By the time Canada stopped updating its database on adverse reactions to COVID vaccines in December 2023, only 0.011 per cent of all doses administered had led to what were considered serious reactions.
Text on that database also noted: "Adverse events may occur after being vaccinated with a COVID-19 vaccine, but they are not necessarily related to the vaccine."
In December 2020, the federal government had launched a program to support and compensate people for "serious and permanent" injuries linked to any kind of vaccine authorized by Health Canada.
It's called the Vaccine Injury Support Program.
As of December 2024, its website says, the program had paid out $16.6 million to 209 people out of the 3,060 claims submitted by that date. Out of the 1,049 who had been assessed by a medical review board, 328 people who were turned down for compensation had appealed. Only 10 appeals had led to an overturn of the original decision by the end of 2024.
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