New Zealanders claimed $2.5 million from ACC for injuries from the covid-19 vaccine, including $11,980 claimed in Wairarapa. However, most claims were rejected due to no injury or causal link.
ACC received 17 claims for injuries related to the vaccine in the Wairarapa DHB region since February 18, 2021. Five claims were accepted and 12 were declined.
ACC did not provide a breakdown of injury groups in Wairarapa due to the small number of claims.
Over 90 per cent of the region had at least one dose of the vaccine, about 2001 children and 40,038 people aged over 12.
For the five accepted claims, ACC paid $5277 for compensation and $6703 for treatment.
Nationally, 3095 people submitted claims as at August. Just 39 per cent of claims were accepted, the most common injury was an allergic reaction.
There were 195 allergic reactions, 140 sprains, 126 cardiac injuries, 124 contusions [bruises], 98 adverse drug reactions, 85 infections, 64 infections, 25 bursitis and 22 for nerve damage. There were 310 claims classified as other.
Fewer than 4 claims were related to a fatal injury.
There were 1673 declined claims and 188 are still being assessed.
Of the rejected, 1182 were due to no injury, 188 were no causal link, 58 were withdrawn, 33 had a lack of information. Sixteen were declined due to being an ordinary consequence of treatment and 54 for other reasons.
Claims for female clients represented 65 per cent of claims lodged, compared to 50 per cent of the population with at least one dose of the vaccine.
The claims were classified as covid-19 vaccination related if the forms received by ACC mentioned Comirnaty [the name of the Pfizer-BioNTech covid-19 vaccine], AstraZeneca, Novavax, or included the terms covid or Pfizer together with vacc or injection.
Listed side effects included pain/swelling at the injection site, feeling tired or fatigued, headaches, muscle aches, chills, joint pain, fever, nausea and redness at injection site. Serious side effects were Myocarditis –inflammation of the heart muscle – and pericarditis –inflammation of the tissue forming a sac around the heart.
ACC deals with vaccine-related claims
