Rebecca Ray v. HHS - Influenza, GBS/CIDP (2025)

On March 23, 2020, Rebecca Ray filed a petition under the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program alleging that an influenza vaccine administered on October 9, 2018, caused her Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS). She later amended her petition to include a claim for Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Neuropathy (CIDP) as an alternative diagnosis.

The respondent, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, argued against compensation and recommended dismissal. Initially, the petitioner pursued a claim under the Vaccine Injury Table for GBS, but this was dismissed by the Chief Special Master because her symptom onset on December 22, 2018, occurred more than 70 days (over ten weeks) after vaccination, exceeding the Table's 3-42 day window.

The case then proceeded as an off-Table claim. The Chief Special Master warned that establishing causation for a non-Table claim would be unlikely given the ten-week onset period.

The case was reassigned to Special Master Nora Beth Dorsey for adjudication of the off-Table claim. Petitioner's counsel was David John Carney of Green & Schafle, LLC, and respondent's counsel was Ryan D.

Pyles of the U.S. Department of Justice.

The Special Master reviewed the evidence, including expert reports from Dr. Omid Akbari and Dr.

Joseph Jeret for the petitioner, and Dr. Andrew MacGinnitie and Dr.

Harold Moses for the respondent. The parties stipulated that the exact date of vaccination (October 8 or 9, 2018) did not materially affect their positions.

The Special Master found that the petitioner's diagnosis of GBS/CIDP was established, but she failed to prove causation by a preponderance of the evidence. The court determined that the symptom onset on December 22, 2018, 74 days after vaccination, was too long to establish a medically acceptable temporal association required for an off-Table claim under the Althen standard.

Expert testimony and medical literature reviewed indicated that a causal link between the flu vaccine and GBS/CIDP is generally not supported beyond an eight-week timeframe. The Special Master noted that while the theory of molecular mimicry was not disputed, the timing of the onset was incompatible with this theory and other proposed mechanisms.

The petitioner's arguments regarding delayed onset and misinterpretations of medical literature were found unpersuasive. Therefore, the Special Master concluded that the petitioner did not meet her burden of proof for causation and dismissed her petition.