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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is reviewing an application to establish new medical codes to classify injuries and deaths specifically linked to the COVID-19 vaccines.
On Wednesday, React19, which advocates for vaccine-injured people, submitted the application to a committee that evaluates new codes at the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics.
The proposal is now open for a 60-day public comment period.
The application asks the CDC to create an International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th Revision (ICD-10) code for Post-COVID Vaccine Syndrome — injuries and deaths linked to COVID-19 vaccines.
Medical codes are standardized codes used globally by healthcare professionals to classify patient diseases and medical conditions. According to Zowe Smith, a former medical coder, the codes are used “to track and monitor all causes of death, and for research.”
In the U.S., ICD codes also play a key role in medical billing and insurance reimbursement, with specific codes assigned to every illness and treatment.
Dr. Joel Wallskog, React19 co-chair and a Wisconsin orthopedic surgeon injured by the COVID-19 vaccine, said the new codes would help clinicians identify, treat and study COVID-19 vaccine injuries.
“You cannot treat what you cannot name. Today, we took a critical step forward naming these conditions, and changing the future for patients,” he said.
In a post on X, React19 said that the application review “marks an important step toward clinical recognition, accurate documentation, and future research.”
A setback and a breakthrough.
While this week brought unexpected challenges, progress continued.Today, March 18th, REACT19 advanced a proposal to the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics for a dedicated ICD-10 code to identify adverse effects of COVID-19 vaccines. The… pic.twitter.com/kWCncRqF7v
— React19 – Official (@React19org) March 18, 2026
If approved, the new code could be implemented in the U.S. coding system on Oct. 1, 2027. React19 is also submitting a request to accelerate the timeline, and encouraging supporters to contact federal health agencies, their representatives and their senators to urge the CDC to expedite the addition of the code.
CDC’s vaccine advisory committee planned to discuss adding codes for vaccine injuries at its meeting this week, but a court order prevented the committee from meeting as planned.
‘Far more than a bureaucratic requirement’
The international coding system “represents far more than a bureaucratic requirement — it serves as the international language of medicine,” Wallskog wrote on TrialSite News.
Currently, COVID-19 vaccine-related injuries must be captured under broader, non-specific vaccine adverse event codes. This complicates diagnosis, treatment and research.
Wallskog said that without specific codes, clinicians may document symptoms rather than underlying causes, potentially leading to incomplete medical records.
Smith said the absence of a precise code can make it difficult for patients to access appropriate care and insurance coverage.
“Physicians and hospitals all work on evidence-based care or a standard of care which is a standardized template of treatment for each disease,” Smith said. When doctors can’t make a diagnosis that falls within the codes, they can’t get paid by insurance. This can lead doctors to dismiss patients or refer them elsewhere.
Wallskog said the code will be a major first step, but that the code alone would not address broader gaps in care.
“We still need research, science-based diagnostic and therapeutic protocols, and treatment facilities across the country,” he said.
A ‘surveillance blind spot’
Wallskogs said the lack of a dedicated COVID-19 vaccine injury code has created what epidemiologists call a “surveillance blind spot,” making it harder to track cases and conduct research.
MIT researcher Stephanie Seneff, Ph.D., said in the interview with Smith that without consistent coding, identifying patterns in reported vaccine-related injuries can be difficult. Smith likened it to “finding a needle in a haystack.”
Researchers may need to analyze multiple overlapping codes and cross-reference them with vaccine records or patient histories, adding complexity to studies.
Additionally, some federal vaccine registries are not publicly accessible.
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No funding for COVID vaccine injuries
The World Health Organization published a diagnosis code for COVID-19 vaccine adverse events, but the U.S. did not incorporate it as a reportable code.
For comparison, long COVID received a dedicated ICD code in October 2021. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) alone has invested over $1.6 billion into research on the condition.
The U.S. government invested $31.9 billion in research that led to the development of the COVID-19 vaccines.
But there has been extremely limited federal funding to study COVID-19 vaccine injuries beyond analysis of adverse event reporting databases, including the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) and V-safe — even though 4,551 peer-reviewed studies document COVID-19 vaccine injuries.
React19 lists those studied in their literature database.
Early in 2021, after reports of vaccine injuries, the NIH brought some affected people to its headquarters for testing and treatment. Those efforts resulted in at least one publicly available paper, “Neuropathic symptoms with SARS-CoV-2 vaccination,” a preprint published May 2022 in medRxiv.
However, the agency pulled the plug on the study before finishing it and finalizing its report. It also abruptly stopped responding to people injured.
React19 co-Chair Brianne Dressen, who was injured by the AstraZeneca vaccine as a participant in the clinical trial, said more research is needed and noted there are no clear commitments from federal agencies to expand studies in this area.
Smith said adding the code “would provide patients who have long suffered with chronic illnesses and disabilities with the care they desperately need. It would prevent doctors from turning them away because they cannot get reimbursement for their treatment and it would stop doctors from getting dinged and financially punished if they accept vaccine-injured patients into their care.”
“It’s been 5 years,” Smith said. “It’s long past time for the victims who took the shots to get the care and compassion they deserve.”
Related articles in The Defender
- CDC Must Create Medical Codes to Track COVID Vaccine Adverse Events, Advocacy Group Says
- While U.S. Government Struggles to Process Claims, Nonprofit Awards $1 Million to People Injured by COVID Vaccines
- Their Vaccine Injury Reports Disappeared From VAERS — So They Developed a Tool Anyone Can Use to Track Their Own Reports
