34:15-31.6 Injury, illness, death resulting from administration of vaccine eligible for compensation.

5. Any injury, illness or death of any public safety worker, resulting from the administration to the worker of a vaccine including, but not limited to, smallpox vaccine, to prepare for, or respond to, any actual, threatened, or potential bioterrorism or epidemic, as part of an inoculation program in connection with the worker's employment or in connection with any governmental program or recommendation for the inoculation of workers in the worker's occupation, geographical area, or other category that includes the worker, or resulting from the transmission of disease from another employee or member of the public inoculated under the program, is presumed to arise out of and in the course of the employment and all care or treatment of the worker, including testing, diagnosis, surveillance and monitoring of the worker's condition, and all time during which the worker is unable to work while receiving the care or treatment, is compensable under the provisions of R.S.34:15-1 et seq. This section shall not be regarded as authorizing any requirement that employees participate in an inoculation program or as diminishing any requirement of law that an inoculation program be voluntary. This prima facie presumption may be rebutted by a preponderance of the evidence showing that the administration of the vaccine is not linked to the injury, illness or death. The employer may require the worker to undergo, at the expense of the employer, reasonable testing, evaluation and monitoring of health conditions of the worker which is relevant to determining whether the administration of the vaccine is linked to the occurrence, but the presumption of compensability shall not be adversely affected by any failure of the employer to require such testing, evaluation or monitoring.

L.2019, c.156, s.5.