A Disability Act? The Vaccine Damage Payments Act 1979 and the British Government’s Response to the Pertussis Vaccine Scare

The Vaccine Damage Payments Act 1979 provided a lump-sum social security benefit to children who had become severely disabled as a result of vaccination. It came in the wake of a scare over the safety of the whooping cough (pertussis) vaccine. Yet very little has been written about it. Existing literature focuses more on the public health and medical aspects of both the Act and the scare. This article uses material from the archives of disability organisations and official documents to show that this Act should be seen as part of the history of post-war British disability policy. By framing it thus, we can learn more about why the government responded in the specific way that it did, as well as shed new light on public attitudes towards vaccination and disability.