Court Tosses Lawsuit Filed by Family of College Student Who Died After Getting Mandated COVID Vaccine

A federal court dismissed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Defense filed by the family of a 24-year-old college student who died from complications of COVID-19 vaccine-induced myocarditis.

by Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D.

A federal court on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) filed by the family of a 24-year-old college student who died from complications of COVID-19 vaccine-induced myocarditis.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed the lawsuit, ruling that the federal government enjoys sovereign immunity, which protects it from lawsuits.

Children’s Health Defense (CHD) funded the suit, which was filed in May 2023 by the estate of George Watts Jr.

Watts’ family filed the lawsuit against the DOD and Lloyd Austin III in his official capacity as defense secretary. The DOD oversaw the development and distribution of the COVID-19 vaccines under Operation Warp Speed.

The lawsuit alleged the DOD engaged in “willful misconduct” by continuing to distribute only the stockpiled version of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine that had received emergency use authorization (EUA) even after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted full approval to another Pfizer vaccine, Comirnaty.

According to the lawsuit, the DOD “capitalized on a quintessential ‘bait and switch’ fraud,” using the fact that Comirnaty was FDA-approved to bolster its claims that the Pfizer-BioNTech EUA vaccine was “safe and effective,” misleading the American public in the process.

In November 2021, a federal judge rejected a DOD claim that the Pfizer-BioNTech EUA vaccine and the fully approved Comirnaty vaccine were “interchangeable.”

COVID-19 vaccines are classified as a “covered countermeasure” under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP Act). The act provides immunity to vaccine manufacturers and those who administer the vaccines against injury claims during a public health emergency.

The only exception to the PREP Act’s immunity shield is if a countermeasure-related injury is caused by “willful misconduct” by a person or entity otherwise protected under the act.

But Tuesday’s ruling sidestepped the PREP Act’s provisions altogether. According to the ruling, the PREP Act does not revoke the sovereign immunity of the government or federal agencies, but “explicitly preserves it.”

“The government asserts its general immunity from suit, which, independently of the PREP Act, ‘bar[s] suits for money damages against officials in their official capacity absent a specific waiver by the government,’” the ruling states.

Court ignored ‘substantial evidence’ of willful misconduct

CHD CEO Mary Holland said the ruling “shows us just how broken our legal system is today” and underscores the “urgent need for the Supreme Court to declare the PREP Act unconstitutional, which is unlikely, or for Congress to repeal it.”

Holland said:

“The PREP Act of 2005 — basically allowing no recourse for any injury or death from the use or abuse of experimental medical products — violates the most basic understanding of due process and the right to a remedy for a wrong.

“George Watts Jr. died because of a dangerous, misbranded injection that he was misled to take based on the false information that the product was ‘safe and effective’ and licensed. It was none of those things.”

Kim Mack Rosenberg, CHD’s general counsel, also criticized the ruling. “The court took over a year to issue its decision and then issued a short decision, relying solely on sovereign immunity to dismiss the case and protect the government.” She said the court failed “to take a deep dive into the doctrine and exceptions.”

Mack Rosenberg said the court “essentially told the family they have no recourse against the government, despite the detailed allegations of willful misconduct in the complaint — all supported by substantial evidence.”

Ray Flores, senior outside counsel for CHD, represented Watts’ family in the lawsuit. “The PREP Act specifically grants exclusive jurisdiction to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia,” Flores said. Yet, the “D.C. District Court ruled that it lacked jurisdiction.”

Attorney Michael Baum told The Defender there is a severability provision in the PREP Act that wasn’t addressed in the ruling.

“In my opinion, once the PREP Act designated the United States as a covered person and cut off all other remedies in all other courts, any claims of sovereign immunity should have been invalidated,” Baum said.

“The PREP Act clearly provides that unconstitutional provisions, such as cutting off all due process, may be severed,” he added. “The court failed to see it that way.”

Watts first student whose death was proven to directly result from COVID jab

In the summer of 2021, SUNY Corning Community College in Corning, New York, where Watts was a student, mandated the COVID-19 vaccine for all students.

Watts, who was not yet vaccinated, waited for the FDA to grant full approval to a COVID-19 vaccine. He received his first dose of the vaccine at Guthrie Robert Packer Hospital in Pennsylvania on Aug. 27, 2021 — four days after the FDA approved Pfizer’s Comirnaty vaccine.

However, the vaccine Watts received was not Comirnaty, but the EUA Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, because the DOD did not make Comirnaty available.

Watts experienced side effects from the first dose. However, because the vaccine was promoted as “safe and effective,” he got his second dose at the same location on Sept. 17, 2021, according to the family’s lawsuit.

Following his second dose, Watts experienced increasingly severe side effects, leading him to visit an emergency room on Oct. 12, 2021, complaining of a lump on the left side of his neck and other ailments.

The hospital diagnosed him with sinusitis and prescribed an antibiotic. But Watts’ health continued to decline, and on Oct. 27, 2021, he began coughing up blood at home before becoming unresponsive. He was found to be in cardiac arrest and subsequently died.

Watts had no previous medical history that could explain his sudden death. He also tested negative for COVID-19 in a post-mortem test.

The medical examiner and an independent physician ruled Watts’ death was caused by “complications of COVID-19 vaccine-related myocarditis.” His death certificate listed COVID-19 vaccine-related myocarditis as the sole immediate cause of death.

Lucia Sinatra, co-founder of No College Mandates, said Watts’ death “was the first time we found evidence that a college student’s death was the direct result of COVID-19 vaccines,” leading the organization to reach out to CHD to help the family file a lawsuit.

According to the family’s lawsuit, the DOD, in engaging in a “quintessential ‘bait and switch’ fraud,” was aware that drugs granted EUA status cannot legally be marketed as “safe and effective.” Under the FDA’s standard for EUA drugs, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine could be marketed only as “may be effective.”

Watts was misled into taking the vaccine and he died as a result, the lawsuit alleged.

“According to the pleadings, the DOD routinely equated experimental vaccines to licensed vaccines, directed distribution, and left the experimental vaccine that killed George Watts Jr., as the only one available even after licensure,” Baum said. “This continued lack of concern for the critical distinction between licensed and experimental formed the basis of willful misconduct as pled.”

According to Sinatra, the U.S. government, “in complete disregard for the risks and for what is acceptable under the law, intentionally misrepresented an experimental vaccine as ‘safe and effective.’”

In dismissing the claim, Sinatra said, “the court never addressed the ‘willful misconduct’ claim which is the crux of the entire complaint. For this reason, the ruling is a devastating one.”

Before they sued the DOJ, the Watts family filed a request for benefits with the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP) in August 2022.

However, Watts’ family received no determination from the CICP within the 240-day period in which the CICP is supposed to respond to complaints, leading them to file their lawsuit.

As of Aug. 1, the CICP, which offers compensation for serious injuries or deaths arising from countermeasures implemented during a public health emergency, had approved 14 COVID-19 vaccine injury claims — out of a total of 13,356 claims filed. CICP denied 3,073 claims, while 10,226 claims were “in review” or “pending review.”

Baum said he would recommend the Watts family appeal Tuesday’s ruling.

Flores said he is “confident that on appeal a higher court will see that the ‘covered person’ status the United States enjoys under the PREP Act both protects and subjects, and therefore waives sovereign immunity.”