Why do some people think that COVID vaccine side effects are being ignored?
The usual suspects are promoting a poorly written article in the NY Times…
How Many Will Believe the New York Times Article about COVID Vaccine Harms?
THE New York Times?
Yes, The New York Times.
The Washington Post has Leana Wen, and apparently The New York Times has their own health and science reporters who can easily mess up a good story about COVID and COVID vaccines.
“In this study, we used tree-based scan statistics to look broadly for >60,000 possible adverse events after bivalent COVID-19 vaccination.”
Safety signal identification for COVID-19 bivalent booster vaccination using tree-based scan statistics in the Vaccine Safety Datalink
A story that could easily have focused on:
- the fact that yes, extremely rare, one in a million type side effects will happen quite a bit when over 676 million doses of COVID vaccine have been given in the United States alone
- the fact that it is very hard to determine if a vaccine truly is responsible for these types of rare side effects and give a better explanation about back ground rates of diseases and that correlation does not imply causation
- that while we don’t have a central repository of vaccine recipients, nor of medical records, and no easy way to pool these day, we do have the Vaccine Safety Datalink!
- the fact that even larger studies are being done using the Global Vaccine Data Network of 31 sites, in 26 countries, made up of over 300 million people!
- the many safety studies have been done to see if COVID vaccines could cause many of the conditions listed in the article, including Bell’s palsy (she left out the big studies that say there is no link to COVID vaccines!) and there has been no evidence of contaminated vaccine batches causing brain damage…
Most importantly, her story could have focused on the fact that anti-vaccine influencers have taken to blaming anything and everything on COVID vaccines, from any death and blood clots to being trans and their newly made up COVID-19 vaccine turbo cancer.
They are even blaming autism on COVID vaccines now!
This idea that “everything is a COVID vaccine injury” gets in the way of determining who really does have a possible side effect from the vaccine.
That should have been the focus of Apoorva Mandavilli’s story!
Instead, she barely mentions it and instead of blaming this misinformation for anything, she blames those who aren’t doing enough “intense research” to figure out if something could be a side effect or a coincidence…
Are COVID Vaccines Causing Side Effects That Are Being Ignored?
Now that the COVID pandemic seems to be under control and we have far fewer cases and deaths each day, it is easy to forget where we were a few year ago…
“We estimate that COVID-19 vaccination was associated with over 8 million fewer confirmed cases, over 120 thousand fewer deaths, and 700 thousand fewer hospitalizations during the first six months of the campaign.”
The impact of COVID-19 vaccination in the US: Averted burden of SARS-COV-2-related cases, hospitalizations and deaths
Despite what anti-vaccine influencers may claim, COVID vaccines have had a dramatic impact on the pandemic.
COVID vaccines saved lives.
And thanks to very regular meetings of the COVID-19 Vaccine Safety Technical (VaST) Work Group, those COVID vaccines, in addition to being effective, are very safe.
They are also continuing to be studied to see if even the most rare symptoms and conditions could be true side effects or coincidences.
“This observational study suggests that a variety of neuropathic symptoms may manifest after SARS-CoV-2 vaccinations and in some patients might be an immune-mediated process.”
Neuropathic symptoms with SARS-CoV-2 vaccination
Studies that are being done by NIH, despite what Apoorva Mandavilli says in her article.
“Although some case reports have suggested a possible association between COVID-19 vaccination and ADEM, there was no consistent pattern in terms of vaccine or timing following vaccination, and larger epidemiological studies have not confirmed any potential association. Moreover, case reports may report on coincidental events and do not establish association nor indicate causality, thus larger observational studies are warranted to further investigate our finding.”
COVID-19 vaccines and adverse events of special interest: A multinational Global Vaccine Data Network (GVDN) cohort study of 99 million vaccinated individuals
But why is it so hard to figure out if something is caused by the vaccine or just a coincidence? If it happened within a few days of getting the vaccine, isn’t the vaccine the cause?
While it is easy to blame a recent vaccine for any new symptom or condition, it is important to remember that many of these things would have happened even if you had not gotten a shot.
“Bell’s palsy affects males and females in equal numbers. It is estimated that 25-35 per 100,000 people in the United States are affected with Bell’s palsy. Approximately 40,000 individuals are diagnosed with Bell’s palsy in the United States each year.”
Bell’s Palsy
And the whole concept that “correlation does not imply causation” is even more important when hundreds of millions of people received a vaccine in a short amount of time.
Just consider all of the people who are expected to be diagnosed with Bell’s palsy every year. Remember, according to the background rate, it is about 40,000 people a year in the United States – or nearly 110 people a day.
And if just over 230,000,000 people got one or more doses of a COVID vaccine over the last few years, it should be easy to see that many of those folks who were diagnosed with Bell’s palsy and other things would also have received a recent COVID vaccine – just by chance.
“One of the thing that public health officials and vaccinologists told me over and over again was that they’re not trying to unduly dismiss these reports of severe reaction because if something is happening we need to know, especially given that these vaccines, at least some of the platforms that we’re using, are likely to come up again if not for booster shots with the COVID-19 pandemic but in future pandemics.”
Coronapod: How to define rare COVID vaccine side effects
Of course, that is not to say that COVID vaccines don’t have side effects!
What to Do About Very Rare COVID Side Effects?
Apoorva Mandavilli could also have focused on the fact that we do not have many good treatment options for many vague complaints and conditions.
And we often don’t know exactly what causes them.
No wonder these people are frustrated!
From tinnitus and POTS to transient myelitis and acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM), and that’s why some people seeking a cause will think they are a vaccine injury. That’s especially easy to do when you have anti-vaccine folks telling them over and over that they are vaccine injured!
“People should be more afraid of the virus and its consequences because even those who survive can suffer long-term disabilities.”
Assessing the risks of vaccine side effects
So we definitely do need more research and treatment guidelines into these conditions and symptoms, and not just as they are related to vaccines, so that our patients can get help. And we should be reminding folks that the best way to avoid these conditions, from Bell’s palsy and POTS to tinnitus, you should get vaccinated and protected.
These symptoms and many more are a risk after a natural COVID infection, not to mention it is a life-threatening infection!
“And vaccine supporters, including federal officials, worry that even a whisper of possible side effects feeds into misinformation spread by a vitriolic anti-vaccine movement.”
Thousands Believe Covid Vaccines Harmed Them. Is Anyone Listening?
What we don’t need is more folks feeding the anti-vaccine propaganda machine!
An anti-vaccine propaganda machine that once again seems to include the mainstream media.
More on COVID Vaccine Side Effects
- How Many People Have Died After Listening to Bad Advice About COVID?
- Deaths Following COVID-19 Vaccination – Understanding Background Rates
- Should I Blame the Vaccine If I’m Sick and I Just Got Vaccinated?
- Explaining the Correlation of Autism After Vaccines
- Lives saved by COVID‐19 vaccines
- Study Largely Confirms Known, Rare COVID-19 Vaccine Side Effects
- Assessing the risks of vaccine side effects
- Why is it so hard to investigate the rare side effects of COVID vaccines?
- Neuropathic symptoms with SARS-CoV-2 vaccination
- Coronapod: How to define rare COVID vaccine side effects
- ANA Investigates: Neurological Complications of COVID‐19 Vaccines
- Future (“long-term”) side effects from COVID vaccines are extremely unlikely
- Safety signal identification for COVID-19 bivalent booster vaccination using tree-based scan statistics in the Vaccine Safety Datalink
- The impact of COVID-19 vaccination in the US: Averted burden of SARS-COV-2-related cases, hospitalizations and deaths
- COVID-19 vaccines and adverse events of special interest: A multinational Global Vaccine Data Network (GVDN) cohort study of 99 million vaccinated individuals
- Schaffner Report: COVID-19 Vaccine Side Effects—Cause or Coincidence?
- Bell’s Palsy
- Managing PoTS
- Management of Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome in the Absence of Randomized Controlled Trials
Last Updated on May 6, 2024