Sarah Medina is a 34-year-old nurse in Jacksonville. She spent 14 months on the frontlines of COVID, treating patients before any vaccine existed. She never got sick. In September 2021, her hospital system issued a mandate: get the injection or lose your job. Sarah had questions. Her doctor had concerns about her medical history. But the hospital's policy didn't allow for her doctor's judgment. Only compliance or termination.
Within three weeks of her second dose, Sarah developed chest pain, fatigue so severe she couldn't finish a shift, and irregular heartbeats. Her cardiologist diagnosed myocarditis. She was 33, a marathon runner, with no prior heart conditions. She filed a claim with the government's Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program. Eighteen months later, she received a form letter: claim denied. No explanation. No appeal.
Sarah tried to sue the manufacturer. Her attorney told her what most Americans don't know: under current federal law, you cannot sue a vaccine maker for injury. The company that made the product that damaged her heart is legally untouchable. She went to her state representative. His office said it was a federal issue. She went to her congressman. An aide said they'd "look into it."
Sarah's case is not unusual. According to data from the CDC's own Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, over 35,000 reports of myocarditis and pericarditis have been filed following COVID vaccination. The actual number is almost certainly higher. VAERS is a passive reporting system that federal studies estimate captures only a fraction of real events. Yet under current law, not a single manufacturer can be held liable.
Chris Gleason's plan would change that. It would strip pharmaceutical companies of their liability shields, protect the doctor-patient relationship so Sarah's physician could have intervened, and ensure no employer can ever force an experimental medical product on a worker again.