Alisa Jett-Crawford v. HHS - Influenza, polymyalgia rheumatica (2026)

On November 10, 2021, Alisa Jett-Crawford filed a petition alleging that a seasonal influenza vaccination, Flucelvax quadrivalent, administered on November 11, 2018 caused polymyalgia rheumatica and appendicitis requiring surgery. By the time the merits record was decided, the expert proof focused on polymyalgia rheumatica.

Ms. Jett-Crawford was a healthy 58-year-old woman with no chronic medical conditions before vaccination.

The parties agreed that her relevant symptoms began on or about November 19, 2018, eight days after vaccination. She experienced widespread pain involving the left wrist, shoulders, neck, hips, knees, and ankles.

In December 2018 she contacted her primary care provider and was prescribed meloxicam; later that month she reported bilateral wrist, shoulder, hip, and ankle pain, worse in the morning, with NSAIDs ineffective. Laboratory work showed elevated inflammatory markers with negative or normal rheumatoid-factor, ACPA, ANA, and CK testing.

In January 2019 an emergency department differential included polymyalgia rheumatica, osteoarthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis, and prednisone was recommended. Rheumatology later treated her as PMR or possible seronegative rheumatoid arthritis, with the record reflecting both diagnostic possibilities before her later care settled around PMR.

Petitioner relied on Dr. M.

Eric Gershwin, a rheumatology and immunology expert, who argued that the flu vaccine could trigger PMR through cytokine dysregulation, particularly IL-6 and other innate and adaptive immune responses in a susceptible host. Respondent relied on Dr.

Jonathan Miner, who challenged the diagnosis and causation theory, argued that seronegative rheumatoid arthritis better explained the pattern of symptoms, and criticized the cytokine theory as unsupported by reliable evidence connecting influenza vaccination to sustained PMR. Special Master Nora Beth Dorsey found that Ms.

Jett-Crawford had proven a PMR diagnosis by preponderant evidence, giving weight to the treating records and the absence of a later seronegative-RA diagnosis. She denied compensation, however, because Dr.

Gershwin did not establish a reliable medical theory showing that the flu vaccine can cause PMR. The decision found the cited literature, case reports, VAERS material, and cytokine evidence insufficient, noted that transient cytokine changes after vaccination did not prove sustained PMR, and also found that the timing evidence did not satisfy Althen.

The petition was dismissed on March 23, 2026. A separate interim attorney-fees decision had earlier awarded fees and costs, but there was no vaccine-injury compensation.