There are inumerable stories about those impacted, directly and indirectly from the partial U.S. Government shutdown.
What do I do? How does this impact a lowly lawyer from Massachusetts? I represent petitioners who have been injured as a result of a vaccine, under the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. This program was designed by Congress in the mid-1980’s to compensate those children or adults who under rare circumstances suffer a vaccine injury.
My “opponent” is the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. They are represented quite ably by attorneys at the U.S. Department of Justice. Because of the shutdown:
- These fine people are unable to show up for work.
- They are not receiving paychecks, a stress on any individual and family.
- My clients, those that have suffered vaccine injuries, are not receiving compensation. Their cases stuck in limbo. Victims of political dysfunction.
This isn’t about me. I don’t vote my own paycheck. But it is about my clients who have already suffered enough. It is about federal attorneys on the other side, friends of mine dare I say, that I admire, who are unable to show up for work and do what they do so well.
It’s time to get the government open, because people are hurting, Federal workers and injured Americans. Our fellow citizens, friends and neighbors.
Howard Gold is a vaccine injury attorney in Wellesley, MA.
