US health secretary Kennedy considers adding autism symptoms to vaccine injury program, Bloomberg News reports

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(Reuters) -Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is considering adding certain symptoms of autism to an official list of side effects that can be compensated through a government vaccine injury program, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, citing an adviser.

The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, which shields vaccine manufacturers from most lawsuits and provides a fund to compensate individuals who experience serious reactions to covered vaccines, has paid out about $5 billion since its establishment in 1988, the report said.

Congress established the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program nearly four decades ago in response to a surge of lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers, which led some companies to exit the industry, the Bloomberg News report said.

Kennedy has the authority to modify the list of conditions eligible for compensation claims under the program, though any changes would likely require a regulatory process that could take months to finalize, according to the report.

Kennedy has argued that the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program is overly complicated and insufficiently generous to individuals who suffer vaccine-related injuries.

The program also includes a statute of limitations of approximately three years for filing claims, the report added.

(Reporting by Siddhi Mahatole in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)