Erin M. Kinney v. HHS - MMR, seizure disorder, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (“POTS”), and fibromyalgia (2024)

Erin M. Kinney, an adult, filed a petition alleging that she suffered a seizure disorder, POTS, and fibromyalgia following an influenza vaccine on October 15, 2015, and an MMR vaccine on October 21, 2015.

She later amended her petition to include additional conditions. Ms.

Kinney, who was 22 years old at the time of vaccination, reported being active in her community and working prior to her symptoms. Approximately one week after her MMR vaccine, she began experiencing fatigue, vertigo, pain, and episodes of weakness and falling.

Her medical history became complex, with numerous diagnoses considered by various specialists, including narcolepsy, epilepsy, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, and POTS. Ms.

Kinney submitted medical records and expert reports, primarily from Dr. Yuval Shafrir, who opined that her conditions were autoimmune in nature and vaccine-caused, with narcolepsy being the linchpin of his theory.

Respondent's expert, Dr. M.

Steven Evans, disagreed with many of the diagnoses and opined that the evidence did not support vaccine causation. The court found that Ms.

Kinney did not meet her burden of proof under the Althen standard. Specifically, the court determined that Dr.

Shafrir's theory of causation, particularly regarding vaccine-induced narcolepsy and its extension to other conditions, was not sound and reliable. The court noted that the evidence linking the specific vaccines Ms.

Kinney received to narcolepsy was weak, especially given her negative test for the HLA-DQB1*0602 allele, which is strongly associated with vaccine-related narcolepsy. Furthermore, the court found that the medical records did not establish a clear logical sequence of cause and effect linking the vaccinations to her conditions.

Consequently, the petition was dismissed.