Christopher Bost v. HHS - Influenza, chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) (2026)

On January 4, 2022, Christopher Bost filed a petition alleging that a seasonal influenza vaccination administered on September 18, 2020 caused chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy. Mr.

Bost was 57 years old at vaccination. The onset question was central.

On the day of vaccination, Mr. Bost reported about one month of left heel and toe pain or numbness, but treating providers later treated that complaint as an outlier rather than the start of the inflammatory neuropathy.

About one week after vaccination, he developed new toe numbness and tiredness in his legs. By October 2020 he was reporting bilateral leg weakness, difficulty climbing hills and stairs, abnormal gait, and foot numbness.

Neurosurgery and neurology evaluations followed, with worsening weakness and sensory symptoms. By January 2021, Mr.

Bost had numbness in his fingers and feet, mixed motor and sensory neuropathy on EMG, loss of reflexes, and progressive weakness severe enough to require hospitalization. At St.

Luke's, he had elevated CSF protein, EMG/NCS findings consistent with subacute demyelinating polyneuropathy and CIDP, and lumbar MRI enhancement of cauda equina nerve roots consistent with an inflammatory process. He received IVIG, then plasmapheresis when hand numbness and clumsiness persisted, followed by inpatient rehabilitation, outpatient therapy, prednisone, and repeated IVIG.

His symptoms improved but left him with a prolonged disabling course. Petitioner relied on neurologist Dr.

Joseph Jeret and neuroimmunology expert Dr. Noga Or-Geva.

They argued that the clinical course, EMG/NCS, CSF, MRI, and treatment response supported CIDP, and that molecular mimicry between the 2020-2021 flu vaccine and human neural proteins such as Contactin-1, Contactin-2, Neurofascin, and myelin-associated glycoprotein supplied a biologically plausible immune mechanism. Respondent challenged both diagnosis and causation through experts including Dr.

Michael Bromberg and Dr. Richard Hawse, emphasizing diagnostic criteria, the limited treatment response, preserved reflexes in parts of the record, and the lack of reliable proof that the flu vaccine caused CIDP.

Chief Special Master Brian H. Corcoran granted entitlement on March 18, 2026.

He accepted CIDP as the more likely diagnosis, treated the heel and toe complaint at vaccination as insufficient to establish pre-vaccination neurologic onset, and found that symptoms more likely began within eight days after vaccination. Although he described the case as close and noted that treating-provider support was limited, he found the record slightly preponderated in favor of a logical vaccine-related sequence and ordered the case to proceed to damages.