Jeremy Adams v. HHS - Influenza, right shoulder skin abscess associated with bacterial infection (2025)

On September 20, 2019, Jeremy Adams filed a petition seeking compensation for an abscess injury after an influenza vaccination administered on October 3, 2018, when he was 38 years old. His case belonged to a group of claims involving a Kentucky mobile vaccination entity whose vaccine-safety practices were later criticized in related litigation.

Mr. Adams alleged that sometime after vaccination he developed right shoulder pain and then redness, swelling, and drainage at the injection site.

By January 2019 he was treated for a right lateral deltoid skin abscess associated with bacterial infection, underwent an open debridement, received antibiotics, and followed with infectious-disease care while the wound gradually improved. The public ruling notes that later records did not document continuing pain, numbness, or functional loss, but Mr.

Adams submitted a photograph showing a residual scar. Chief Special Master Brian H.

Corcoran applied the causation ruling from the related Silvers test case, which had found that the same vaccination setting caused a right shoulder bacterial abscess. He granted entitlement on July 22, 2025, finding that the scar was enough to satisfy the Vaccine Act's six-month severity requirement, even though any damages award was likely to be modest.

Before damages were resolved, Mr. Adams moved to dismiss his own claim.

His counsel represented that he expected the Program award would not match the amount he believed appropriate and that he intended to reject the resulting judgment and pursue a civil action. On September 30, 2025, Chief Special Master Corcoran dismissed the petition with prejudice.

No Vaccine Program compensation was awarded. Mr.

Adams was represented by John J. Patterson of Luxon, Patterson & Himes, PLLC.