A young elite baseball player who suffered heart problems following a COVID-19 vaccine is challenging Quebec’s decision not to compensate him, even though his career has been compromised.
“Since the vaccination, I am no longer the same person. My whole life was baseball. Overnight, I lost everything,” says Anthony Moniz Kingsbury, a baseball player who dreamed of playing professionally.
The athlete is one of seven Quebecers who for two years have challenged the decision of the Ministry of Health not to compensate them following a vaccine against COVID-19.
According to Health Canada, barely 0.011% of the 95 million doses of vaccine led to the report of serious unusual clinical effects such as those observed in gamblers.
Breathless
The 21-year-old from Gatineau received his first dose in October 2021. Although he was reluctant to be vaccinated, he received the product from Moderna in order to keep his job as a public servant at the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat.
“Shortly after receiving the vaccine, I wasn’t even able to run the grocery store. I was out of breath,” says the 6’2” and 215 lbs.
He says he has never had heart problems before.
A few weeks later, he went to the Papineau hospital. A doctor then concluded that myopericarditis – an inflammation of the heart – was probably caused by vaccination, a rare phenomenon (see box below).
Chest pain, palpitations and difficulty breathing were among the symptoms listed in his medical report.
For just over 6 months, Anthony Moniz Kingsbury was unable to train due to shortness of breath.
“I was not the next Éric Gagné. But I was possibly signing up to play on a professional team in an independent league, to make myself better known,” he says.
He points out that he is much better, without feeling like he was before his vaccine.
If he had been healthy, the baseball player estimates that he could have received a scholarship of tens of thousands of dollars to evolve in an American university team. This was also the case before the pandemic.
Lost opportunities
The right-handed pitcher is now contesting Quebec’s refusal to compensate him. He considers that he has lost interesting opportunities to progress because of his health problems, both sportingly and academically.
In a letter that we consulted, the Ministry of Health does not dispute the health problems of Anthony Moniz Kingsbury, but questions the “permanent” nature of his injury. This is one of the conditions for being compensated.
“I do not understand how the government can be so convinced that some of the consequences will not be permanent,” says the man whose challenge hearing at the Administrative Tribunal of Quebec is scheduled for March.
– With François-David Rouleau, Benoît Rioux and Camille Payant
Other patients dispute
At least seven people vaccinated against COVID-19 are contesting Quebec’s refusal to compensate them, saying they are dissatisfied with Health’s decision.
This is indicated by the compensation files of the Tribunal administratif du Québec (TAQ), obtained by our Bureau of investigation thanks to the Law on access to public documents. The files have been anonymized in order to protect the identity of the applicants.
In the majority of cases, Quebec does not question the possible consequences of vaccination, but rather the permanence of the sequelae.
This is particularly the case of a woman who reports having suffered myocarditis following her vaccination against COVID-19. She specifies that she then felt an acceleration of her heart rate, tightness in the chest and numbness at the end of her limbs. Also according to her request, she must take medication to manage her symptoms.
Beneficiary attendant
A man reports being unable to lift his arm for over a year following his vaccination. According to his writings, he was a beneficiary attendant in a CHSLD. In a similar case, a woman says she has suffered from a limitation in her left shoulder since receiving the vaccine from AstraZeneca in April 2021.
In all these cases, it was not possible to consult the medical records that supported the claims.
Since the start of the compensation program for victims of vaccination in 1988, 83 people have appealed the decision of Quebec following the refusal to grant them financial compensation, according to data from the Ministry of Health dating from March 2022.
Applicants who are refused have 60 days to appeal their case to the TAQ.
COMPENSATION FOLLOWING AN ANTI-COVID-19 VACCINE*
(as of June 8, 2022)
Number of claims received: 160
Number of requests processed: 74
Number of vaccinated persons compensated: 1
*The Department of Health declined to offer more recent data, saying “fragmentary” data was no longer available, unlike last June. Source: Ministry of Health
Low risks with vaccines
The risks of inflammation of the heart following a vaccine are quite low and the cases very often resolve quickly.
“It is a complication that is known, but which is relatively rare, especially given the number of doses [contre la COVID-19] which have been administered, ”said Caroline Quach-Thanh, pediatrician and microbiologist-infectiologist at Sainte-Justine hospital.
According to Canadian government data, myocarditis or pericarditis occurs 1.21 times per 100,000 anti-COVID-19 doses administered. This complication is slightly more common for Moderna’s vaccine (1.70 per 100,000 doses) than for Pfizer’s vaccine (1.14 times per 100,000 doses).
“We know that young men under 30 are more at risk of developing this complication, and that the risks are higher following a vaccine from Moderna than from Pfizer,” said Dr. Quach- Thanh, who points out that such a complication can also occur if one contracts COVID-19, regardless of age.
Change requested
In December 2021, the Quebec Committee on Immunization had also recommended that the administration of the Moderna vaccine be stopped for young people under 30, due to the higher risk of myocarditis or pericarditis in this population.
“Generally, when it’s post-vaccination, [la myopéricardite] is of short duration, a few weeks or months. For the vast majority of people, it’s back to normal, ”she added.
IN BRIEF, FOR ALL TYPES OF VACCINES
(as of March 31, 2022)
Number of applications submitted since 1988: 410
Number of claims accepted: 56
Total compensation paid: 7,9 millions $
Average compensation per victim: 140 232 $
*Data for all vaccines administered in Quebec. Source: Ministry of Health
