Editor’s note: Experts quoted in this story suggested that Cody’s Law, if passed, could pose a financial burden to Florida state healthcare programs. Heather Hudson told The Defender she believes those statements are inaccurate because Cody’s Law proposes to expedite claims already filed by vaccine-injured patients with state Medicare and Medicaid programs, similar to how claims are filed with those programs by other severely injured patients.
Florida lawmakers are considering a bill that would expedite the review and payment process for vaccine injury claims under the Medicare, Medicaid and Medicaid Medically Needy Programs.
If passed, “Cody’s Law: Florida No Vaccine-Injured Patient Left Behind” would be the first such law in the U.S. and could supplant federal vaccine injury compensation programs.
The bill, filed in the Florida House of Representatives in January and the Florida Senate last week, is named after Cody Hudson, a previously healthy college student who sustained serious — and now terminal — vaccine injuries in 2021.
Cody’s mother, Heather Hudson, advocated for and drafted the legislation. She said the law would fill the “gaps of all the vaccine injury compensation programs and Social Security disability.”
“It provides expedited claims processing, like is done for other severe and major illnesses, by Medicare and Medicaid, and affords the vaccine-injured and Emergency Use Authorization protocol-injured medical care at the onset of injury, when it is needed most,” Hudson said.
COVID-19 vaccines were released in 2020 in the U.S. under emergency use authorization. Under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP Act), manufacturers cannot be held liable for injuries caused by the vaccines. In December 2024, that liability shield was extended through 2029.
People injured by COVID-19 vaccines can apply to the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program, or CICP. To date, the CICP has received 14,234 claims and approved just 26 of them.
Unlike the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP), which covers injuries arising from vaccines routinely administered to children and pregnant women, the CICP — in the few cases where it does make awards — pays only for unreimbursed medical expenses and up to $50,000 per year for lost wages.
Psychotherapist Joseph Sansone, Ph.D., author of the “Ban the Jab” resolution adopted by 10 Florida counties, said Cody’s Law would be “a pioneering state-level initiative” that would “provide medical care to individuals who have been injured by COVID-19 injection that have been lied to and abandoned … These victims are being gaslit and nobody is acknowledging their injuries.”
Cody, once given three days to live, left terminally injured by the COVID shots
Hudson said she faced “a bumpy road” in bringing the proposed law to Florida representatives. It took “about a year of extraordinary and tear-jerking humanitarian efforts” to attain sponsors in the House and later in the Senate.
Those efforts succeeded. “The legislators left the proposed law intact and the way I wrote it,” Hudson said.
In January, just after the Florida House proposed Cody’s Law, Hudson wrote an open letter to the members of the state Senate, calling on them to introduce and sponsor the bill. Hudson, her husband and Cody later went to the state capitol “to be seen and heard.”
Day 1 bringing the receipts to the Florida Capitol for the vaccine injured is complete, we stayed talking to Florida Senators and aides until 7:00 p.m. and it was dark out when we left. We were not taking “no” for an answer. We have our “game plan” for tomorrow… going back for… pic.twitter.com/Q5JanXbz4R
— Heather Hudson (@Amothersanthem) February 13, 2025
“We crashed the party and brought ‘Cody’s Law’ to their doors,” Hudson said. Two state senators sponsored the bill just before the legislative deadline.
Through her efforts, Hudson sought to inform educators about Cody’s story. In July 2021, he received the two primary doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. Shortly after his second dose, he experienced rashes and aches and pains. By September of that year, his condition rapidly worsened.
“In October 2021, Cody suffered his horrific, life-changing and debilitating autoimmune blood clotting,” Hudson said. He was diagnosed with a pulmonary embolism in his left lung, thrombosis in his right lung and thrombocytopenia throughout his lungs. Doctors gave him three days to live.
In an October 2023 interview, Cody and his mother shared their story. At the time, Cody walked with a cane and suffered from several autoimmune issues, including recurring lesions, myopathy and neuropathy, heart issues and postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome — often known as POTS.
Hudson said that shortly after this interview, Cody’s body “stopped responding to his anticoagulation therapy.” Doctors informed them that Cody could develop blood clots at any time. He sustained several strokes, blood clots, facial droop and a partial loss of his reading ability.
Hudson said the treatment options available to Cody are expensive. “In the years of caring for Cody after his injury, our family has become nearly destitute,” Hudson said. “This is the life of many American citizens and their families who became vaccine-injured after taking the COVID-19 shots or hospital protocol drugs.”
She said the only possible treatment for his antiphospholipid syndrome is Rituxan, which costs around $60,000 to $80,000 a year. It is known to reduce the antiphospholipid antibodies “that bring on his insidious blood clotting.”
The family cancelled plans to move to Arizona and has since lived in a mobile home, while most of their possessions have remained in storage.
“We took a total loss on everything, we lost all of our equity, my husband’s 401K, and the savings we had were spent on buying the tiny mobile home where we live now. We are trying to move to a bigger mobile home, but the financial burden has been extraordinary,” Hudson said.
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Vaccine injury compensation programs don’t fund immediate care
Hudson said these financial burdens are not covered by vaccine injury compensation programs or by Social Security.
“There are no state or federal programs that afford immediate medical care to these injured citizens as they await years-long program determinations, even if their physicians have determined them disabled and in critical need.”
In a letter to Florida lawmakers that Hudson shared with The Defender, she wrote:
“These programs, known for extensive wait times and high denial rates, leave the injured with compounding medical bills, financial devastation, and failing health. Families have lost homes, health, and, in some cases, lives.”
Wayne Rohde, author of “The Vaccine Court: The Dark Truth of America’s Vaccine Injury Compensation Program” and “The Vaccine Court 2.0,” applauded efforts to enact Cody’s Law. He said the bill is “unique regarding how to address medical coverage payments regarding COVID-19 vaccine injuries in the State of Florida.”
Attorney Ray Flores, senior outside counsel for Children’s Health Defense (CHD) and an expert on the PREP Act, said that under the 10th Amendment, Cody’s Law would not conflict with the PREP Act or other federal vaccine injury compensation programs.
As a result, “Florida is free to leave no vaccine-injured patient behind on its own nickel,” Flores said. “Whether or not the state can afford to do so is a different issue entirely.”
Rohde expressed similar concerns. “The legislation is asking for the State of Florida to provide medical coverage through their Medicare system and to expedite applications. I can see millions of dollars needed to pay claims.”
He said any compensation that vaccine injury victims receive at the state level would be subtracted from any potential future CICP payouts.
“If nothing is changed on a federal level with COVID vaccine injuries and their petitions remain in the CICP … the amount of compensation in the CICP would be reduced by the amount of benefits paid by the State of Florida. The CICP is the payor of last resort on all levels,” Rohde said.
Keep fighting! In a hope to save children and the injured, ALL of the advocacy groups are working together to get Cody’s Law passed first in Florida and then in the other US states. Thank you @Honest_Medicine & @React19org @drpaulmarik1
Please sign the petition at… pic.twitter.com/z7tq1Pk245— Heather Hudson (@Amothersanthem) October 31, 2024
Hudson said she hopes that, if passed, Cody’s Law will extend to other states and “bring about awareness of the need for the vaccine and drug manufacturers to be made liable for the cost of these injuries.”
She said legislative committees now have up to 60 days to review the bill. According to Sansone, one of the bill’s co-sponsors, Republican Sen. Jonathan Martin, is viewed as a potential future gubernatorial candidate. “His support greatly improves this bill’s chance of passing,” Sansone said.
Related articles in The Defender- Exclusive: Healthy 21-Year-Old Given 3 Days to Live After Pfizer Shots Led to Rare Autoimmune Disorder
- COVID Vaccine Makers Get Another Free Pass as Biden Administration Extends Liability Shield Through 2029
- White House Lacked Plan to Compensate People Injured by COVID Shots, as FDA Sped Up Approval
- ‘Before They Scrub This History’: Group Documents Stories of COVID Protocol Victims
