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Mealey's Coronavirus

  • February 03, 2026

    Florida Woman Seeks To Compel HHS Secretary To Add COVID Vaccine To Injury Table

    FORT MYERS, Fla. — A woman injured by the COVID-19 vaccine sued U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Feb. 2 seeking to compel him to add the vaccine to the Vaccine Injury Table (VIT) as provided by the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act so that she could be compensated under the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP).

  • February 03, 2026

    PPP Loan Recipient Says False Claims Act Suit Fails To Show Knowing Falsity

    SAN DIEGO — Asserting that a False Claims Act (FCA) claimant had no direct knowledge of the details of a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan application process and thus could not show a knowingly false statement made in connection with the application, a construction equipment dealer moved a California federal court for summary judgment in a lawsuit by a former employee alleging that the dealer received the COVID-related loan by altering or misrepresenting its payroll records.

  • January 29, 2026

    Government To High Court: Service Members’ Vaccine Mandate Petitions Are Moot

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 28 — two weeks after the federal government argued in two oppositions that the issue in companion cases is moot — distributed for its Feb. 20 conference two petitions by members of the U.S. Air Force and Space Force that ask the high court to consider in class cases whether the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) allows for their reinstatement following their refusal to get the COVID-19 vaccine to include back pay and retirement points.

  • January 29, 2026

    6th Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Retailer’s Coverage Suit Prompted By COVID-19

    CINCINNATI — The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a lower federal court’s grant of an insurer’s motion to dismiss a women’s fashion retailer’s breach of contract and declaratory judgment lawsuit seeking business interruption coverage for its losses arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, holding that the lower court did not err when it refused to evaluate the policy at issue under the law of each of the 22 states where the insured claimed losses.

  • January 28, 2026

    Doctors Groups Seek To Block Changes To CDC Vaccine Recommendations

    BOSTON — On the heels of a request to amend their complaint a fourth time in response to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Jan. 5 reduction of its recommended childhood vaccinations from 17 to 11, physicians’ professional groups and others moved for a preliminary injunction to block the CDC from implementing or enforcing those changes, as well as its earlier announced changes to COVID-19 vaccine recommendations for children and pregnant women, the hepatitis B vaccine for newborns and other changes to established vaccine recommendations.

  • January 26, 2026

    COVID Grant Terminations Case Stayed Pending Court Of Appeals Jurisdiction Ruling

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Pending the resolution of Climate United Fund v. Citibank, which the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals recently agreed to rehear en banc, a District of Columbia federal judge stayed a lawsuit brought by a group of municipalities and a labor union against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, its secretary, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and its acting director alleging that the mass termination of federal grants provided as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic is unlawful.

  • January 26, 2026

    3rd Circuit Affirms Qualified Immunity Grant In COVID-19 Nursing Home Deaths Case

    PHILADELPHIA — Ruling that survivors of former nursing home residents who died from COVID-19 failed to show that New Jersey’s governor and public health commissioner were on notice that their actions in handling the pandemic with respect to nursing homes would violate the residents’ statutory or constitutional rights, a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Jan. 23 affirmed a New Jersey federal court’s dismissal of the survivors’ lawsuit on the basis of qualified immunity.

  • January 23, 2026

    11th Circuit Affirms Insurer Win In LTD ‘Active Employment’ Case

    ATLANTA — Concluding in an unpublished per curiam opinion that an insurer “had a reasonable basis” for finding that a surgeon dropped below the number of working hours required for “active employment” early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed summary judgment for the insurer that denied long-term disability (LTD) benefits on the basis that a tremor he consulted a doctor about over that time constituted an excluded preexisting condition.

  • January 23, 2026

    Hospital Seeking $11.5M Refund For COVID Tax Credit Not Eligible, Government Says

    SPOKANE, Wash. — Stating that a hospital failed to allege facts establishing that it had experienced a partial suspension of its operations during the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government moved a Washington federal court to dismiss the hospital’s complaint seeking payment of a tax refund of more than $11.5 million representing employee retention tax credits (ERCs) provided for by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

  • January 23, 2026

    Government: Business Not Suspended During COVID-19, Not Entitled To Tax Credits

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Denying that its motion for judgment on the pleadings in an employer’s lawsuit seeking employee retention credits (ERCs) authorized by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act was based solely on IRS interpretational guidance, the federal government has filed a reply brief stating that its motion is grounded in basic statutory interpretation, under which the employer could not have been classified as having been suspended or shut down so as to make it eligible for ERCs.

  • January 22, 2026

    Manhattan College Settles Undergrads’ Pandemic Closure Suit For More Than $740,000

    NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York granted final approval of a $742,940 settlement to be paid by Manhattan College to end class action litigation by students who alleged that they were not properly reimbursed for tuition, fees and other costs after the campus closed and all classes switched to remote learning in the spring of 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

  • January 21, 2026

    Colorado Supreme Court Partly Grants Certiorari In Coronavirus Coverage Dispute

    DENVER — The Colorado Supreme Court on Jan. 20 partly granted a retirement communities owner insured’s petition seeking review of a Colorado appeals court majority’s opinion that partly reversed a lower court’s ruling in favor of the insurer in the insured’s lawsuit seeking coverage for its losses arising from the coronavirus pandemic.

  • January 21, 2026

    Judge: Engineer Claiming COVID Vaccine Injury Is Due LTD Benefits

    SAN JOSE, Calif. — On de novo review, a California federal judge concluded that a mechanical engineer who said she was disabled by a COVID vaccine injury due to symptoms including fatigue and brain fog is entitled to retroactive long-term disability (LTD) benefits under the plan’s initial “regular occupation” standard.

  • January 20, 2026

    Doctor Groups Seek To Amend Complaint Based On Latest CDC Vaccine Recommendations

    BOSTON — Characterizing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Jan. 5 reduction of its recommended childhood vaccinations from 17 to 11 as a “drastic overhaul” effected “without following the evidentiary-driven, and legally required processes for issuing recommended vaccine schedules,” physicians’ professional groups and others moved Jan. 19 to file a fourth amended complaint to add allegations to their lawsuit seeking to set aside both the CDC’s earlier changes to COVID-19 vaccine recommendations and the appointment of new members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).

  • January 16, 2026

    Pa. Federal Judge Upholds Denial Of LTD Benefits For River Pilot With Long COVID

    PHILADELPHIA — Saying he is “constrained by” the arbitrary and capricious standard of review, a Pennsylvania federal judge on Jan. 15 upheld denial of long-term disability (LTD) benefits for a river pilot who was diagnosed with long COVID.

  • January 16, 2026

    Supreme Court Seeks State Response In COVID-19 Doctor Misinformation Policy Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 15 requested a response to a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by physicians and other entities that questioned the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine seeking review of a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel opinion affirming the dismissal by a Washington federal court of the petitioners’ lawsuit alleging constitutional violations by the state in initiating disciplinary proceedings against the doctors for the publication of allegedly false views on COVID-19.

  • January 15, 2026

    Judge Dismisses COVID-19 Coverage Suit Brought By Owner Of Seattle Space Needle

    SEATTLE — Following the filing of a joint stipulation of dismissal, a Washington federal judge dismissed the owner and operator of the Space Needle in Seattle’s breach of contract and declaratory judgment lawsuit seeking to recoup the “millions of dollars in revenues” it lost when its business was interrupted because of the coronavirus pandemic.

  • January 14, 2026

    Washington Federal Judge Trims Attorney Fees In Remanded ERISA Disability Case

    SEATTLE — Addressing an opposed request for attorney fees totaling $239,390 in a long-term disability (LTD) benefits case involving long COVID that was remanded to the administrator for full consideration because of a “substantial” procedural error, a Washington federal judge on Jan. 13 reduced the hours and the blended hourly rate, concluding that the appropriate fee award in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act case is $112,050.

  • January 14, 2026

    1st Circuit Agrees Ferry Authority Workers Won’t Succeed With Vaccine Claims

    BOSTON — A First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held that a trial court properly denied a renewed motion for a preliminary injunction filed by employees of a Massachusetts ferry operations authority who sued the authority and its director of Human Resources after requests for religious exemptions from a COVID-19 vaccine mandate were denied, finding that the employees did not establish that they were likely to succeed on the merits.

  • January 13, 2026

    Parties Dismiss Settled COVID-19 Vaccine Refusal Religious Discrimination Case

    DENVER — Having previously notified a Colorado federal court of their intention to settle, the parties to a lawsuit by a former employee of a nursing facility alleging religious discrimination by her employer stemming from her termination as a result of her refusal to be vaccinated for COVID-19 filed a stipulated motion of dismissal with prejudice on Jan. 12.

  • January 12, 2026

    High Court Denies Cert In Case Blaming COVID Data Fraud For School Disenrollment

    WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 12 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari from a former law student who alleged that his disenrollment from law school resulted from his refusal to be vaccinated pursuant to a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy that was implemented based on allegedly fraudulent data and contended that the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, which affirmed the dismissal of his suit by a Massachusetts federal court for lack of standing, did not conduct an “earnest” review of the case.

  • January 12, 2026

    N.C. Panel: Court Correctly Deemed Some COVID-Related Documents Properly Withheld

    RALEIGH, N.C. — A health research organization failed in its efforts to obtain certain documents withheld by a university in its response to a public records request, with a North Carolina Appeals Court panel ruling that a trial court correctly found that the documents were exempt from production under the North Carolina Public Records Act (PRA).

  • January 09, 2026

    Man Seeking To Add COVID Vaccine To Vaccine Injury Table Appeals Standing Ruling

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A man who sought an order forcing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to add the COVID-19 vaccine to the Vaccine Injury Table (VIT) so he could be compensated by the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) filed a notice of appeal to the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Jan. 8 after a District of Columbia federal judge granted the government’s motion to dismiss for lack of standing, having found that an act of Congress was a necessary step to adding a vaccine to the VIT.

  • January 07, 2026

    COMMENTARY: 2025 Key Insurance Decisions, Trends, & Developments & A Look Ahead To 2026

    By Scott M. Seaman, Pedro E. Hernandez and Jordan W.P. Evans

  • January 07, 2026

    Judge: Doctor Groups Have Standing To Contest CDC Vaccine Recommendation Changes

    BOSTON — Concluding that physicians’ professional groups have sufficiently pleaded that they have been required to “devote significant time and resources” to counseling their members in response to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) changes to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID-19 vaccination recommendations for healthy children and pregnant women so as to confer standing, a Massachusetts federal judge on Jan. 6 denied the government’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the groups and three Jane Does seeking to set aside both the CDC’s vaccine recommendation changes and the appointment of new members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).