Meliss Langert v. HHS - Tdap, Guillain-Barré syndrome (2025)

Meliss Langert filed a petition alleging that she suffered Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) as a result of receiving a Tdap vaccine on September 4, 2019. The court reviewed the case based on written submissions and expert reports.

Petitioner's medical history included chronic low back pain, but the court focused on the post-vaccination period. Ms.

Langert reported symptoms including diplopia, fatigue, myalgias, nausea, dizziness, and back pain starting as early as the day after vaccination. She was hospitalized and eventually diagnosed with GBS, with some treating physicians suggesting a link to the vaccine.

Petitioner's expert, Dr. David Simpson, opined that the Tdap vaccine caused her GBS through molecular mimicry, with symptom onset occurring five days post-vaccination.

Respondent's expert, Dr. Matthew Brier, argued that Petitioner's symptoms, particularly back pain and double vision, began within one to two days of vaccination, which is too soon to establish causation for GBS following a Tdap vaccine, and that the medical literature does not strongly support a causal link between the Tdap vaccine and GBS.

The court found that Petitioner failed to establish a medically acceptable temporal relationship between the vaccination and the onset of her GBS. The court determined that the evidence most strongly supported an onset of symptoms no later than one day post-vaccination, which is not a medically acceptable timeframe for vaccine-induced GBS, especially given the proposed mechanism of molecular mimicry which requires more time for an adaptive immune response.

Therefore, the court denied entitlement to compensation.