Iraq to Compensate Citizens Suffering from Coronavirus Vaccine Side Effects

Lawmakers in Iraq passed a bill Sunday exempting manufacturers of Chinese coronavirus vaccine candidates from liability for possible damages from them.

The bill specifically stipulates that “international companies that manufacture, equip, and distribute” a Chinese coronavirus vaccine candidate contracted by the Iraqi government for use in the country, “in addition to the Iraqi Ministry of Health and its employees, are exempt from civil and penal liability from damages resulting from the use of the vaccine.”

“All the companies producing the vaccine demanded legal protection,” Hassan Khalati, an Iraqi parliament minister who worked on the exemption bill, told Iraqi state media outlet al-Sabah on March 14, as quoted by Rudaw, a Kurdish news agency.

“Some [companies] were satisfied with a pledge from the [Iraqi] Ministry of Health, and others were satisfied with a decision from the Council of Ministers, aside for the company (Pfizer) that demanded that there be a law voted on by the House of Representatives,” Khalati revealed, adding that Iraq’s health ministry proposed the bill at the request of Pfizer, a U.S.-based pharmaceutical corporation.

In addition to Pfizer, Iraq’s federal government has contracted with the Chinese state-run pharmaceutical firm Sinovac Biotech, the German-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, and Russia’s state-run Gamaleya Research Institute to use and distribute their coronavirus vaccine candidates to Iraqis. Iraq began distributing Sinovac Biotech’s vaccine candidate, known as “Sinopharm,” on March 2, according to state media.

Iraq’s new bill exempting vaccine manufacturers from damages caused by their shots “obligates the Iraqi government to compensate those adversely affected by the use of the vaccine, with the exception of intentional actions that lead to death or serious injury by using the vaccine contrary to medical instructions,” Rudaw noted Sunday.

Iraq’s Council of Ministers passed legislation in early March to provide “ten million Iraqi dinars (approximately $7,000) to families of those who died of COVID-19 [coronavirus] while working as Ministry of Health employees,” according to the news agency.

Iraq recorded 3,866 new infections from the Chinese coronavirus on March 14, marking a significant spike in its number of daily new cases. The country has so far reported more than 763,085 cases and 13,788 death from the virus, according to the Iraqi health ministry.

Germany, France, Italy, and Spain joined a growing number of countries worldwide on Monday that have temporarily suspended the use of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine candidate following at least 37 reports of people suffering serious blood clots after receiving the shot.

“French President Emmanuel Macron said his country will likewise suspend shots until at least Tuesday afternoon. Italy’s drug regulator also announced a temporary ban, as did Spain, Portugal, and Slovenia,” the Associated Press reported March 15.

Denmark was the first country to pause its use of AstraZeneca’s vaccine candidate on March 12; Ireland, Thailand, the Netherlands, Norway, Iceland, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Bulgaria soon followed.