Latoya McCoy v. HHS - Influenza, left shoulder pain / adhesive capsulitis alleged as SIRVA (2024)

On October 5, 2020, Latoya McCoy filed a petition alleging that an influenza vaccination on October 8, 2017 caused a left shoulder injury, later framed as SIRVA and adhesive capsulitis. The case did not resolve as a routine stipulation.

Respondent opposed compensation, arguing that the records did not support a qualifying vaccine-caused shoulder injury. The record described a complicated pre-vaccination picture.

Ms. McCoy had prior bilateral shoulder and upper-extremity complaints in 2015 and 2016, including symptoms and treatment that made the timing of any post-vaccination injury important.

Her later statements about when left shoulder pain began were inconsistent with contemporaneous records, and the SIRVA theory emerged long after the vaccination. Petitioner's expert, Dr.

Michael Katz, opined that vaccination made preexisting degenerative shoulder changes symptomatic, but Chief Special Master Brian H. Corcoran found that opinion did not overcome the medical record problems.

On October 15, 2024, Chief Special Master Corcoran dismissed the case. He found that Ms.

McCoy had not established Table SIRVA, causation-in-fact, or vaccine-related residual effects lasting more than six months. A later fee-and-costs dispute also went against petitioner: fees were denied for lack of reasonable basis, and Judge Kathryn C.

Davis denied a motion for review on October 20, 2025. No vaccine-injury compensation was awarded.