William Plummer, Jr. v. HHS - Influenza, shoulder injury related to vaccine administration (SIRVA) (2023)

William Plummer, Jr. filed a petition alleging he suffered a shoulder injury related to vaccine administration (SIRVA) as a result of an influenza vaccine he received on October 5, 2019. The case was initially processed as a Table claim, meaning the injury was presumed to be vaccine-related if it met certain criteria, including onset within 48 hours of vaccination.

However, the respondent argued that the petitioner's medical records did not demonstrate onset within this timeframe. The court reviewed medical records and affidavits, noting that the first medical record documenting shoulder pain to a physician was 48 days post-vaccination, and that record stated onset occurred three days after vaccination.

Subsequent medical records described the pain as having an 'insidious onset' without mention of the vaccine. While the petitioner asserted immediate pain, the court found this testimony less persuasive than the contemporaneous medical records.

Ultimately, the court determined that the petitioner failed to preponderantly establish that his pain onset occurred within the 48-hour window required for a Table SIRVA claim. Therefore, the Table SIRVA claim was dismissed.

The court noted that a non-Table claim might still be viable and urged the parties to attempt settlement before the case would be transferred out of the Special Processing Unit.