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← Return to COVID vaccines and neuropathy
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I think a lot of doctors just don’t know or want to know if there is a correlation, because in reality there are a relatively small percentage of us having these non-life threatening reactions. And, we definitely need people vaccinated. But, it doesn’t make it right that there are providers who do not take the symptoms seriously. My hope is that research can lead to a Covid vaccine that doesn’t cause such reactions. As a transplant recipient, there is little chance that I and many others are protected even though we’re fully vaccinated.
I have autoimmune disease caused neuropathy, which increased significantly after I was vaccinated. I saw my neurologist shortly after my second shot and he said he wasn’t surprised at my body’s reaction since the vaccine is designed to spark an immune response. So, at least in my case, it triggered Sjogren’s to go even more in hyperdrive and increased my neuropathy symptoms.
Replies to "I think a lot of doctors just don’t know or want to know if there is..."
I was fortunate that my PCP and rheumatologist both took me seriously. And I'm not the only patient they've seen with similar reactions. But they seem to be the exception to the rule. You are 100% correct that we are among a small percentage of people who had a serious but non-life threatening reaction. But that doesn't give providers the right to not take people seriously and dismiss the possibility that the vaccine could be responsible for their issues. My daughter has had tachycardia for 4 months after one shot of Pfizer. Her PCP told her it was anxiety and to see a psychiatrist! It was so bad she ended up seeing a cardiologist who confirmed the tachycardia and prescribed medication to slow her heart down. But even he refused to admit the possibility that the vaccine was responsible, even though post-vaccination heart issues have been widely reported It just astounds me.
How is your neuropathy now? Has it lessened at all? Hope you have found something that helps you.
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Thank you for joining the discussion. You are correct, side effects like neuropathy (new or increased) are exceedingly rare after vaccine (1533 reports of all types, 435 were mild enough to result in no medical care). That shows reports of new or worse neuropathy in the range of 340/100,000 reports, or .7/100,000 people vaccinated (or .4/100,000 doses). Keep in mind that the report only means the 2 events occurred somewhere around the same time, not that the vaccine was the cause.
Compare that to reported estimates of new or worse neuropathy in the range of 5 - 10% of hospitalized Covid patients (between 120,000 and 250,000) or 350 - 700/100,000 of all Covid patients. So far 11% of the population has had confirmed Covid, about 7% of those have been hospitalized (almost 2.5 million).
If the neuropathy estimates on the low end at 5% are even close, that means over 100,000 people have new or worse neuropathy from 35,000,000 Covid infections compared to the report of 1533 from 350,000,000 doses of the vaccine in 201,000,000 people. That doesn't begin to take into account all the other risks of a Covid infection.
What we read here on Connect and in the media are reports from the minority who have bad reactions to the vaccine, not the majority of the 200,000,000 million plus who were safely and uneventfully vaccinated. Even among the 465,000 VAERS reports, over 300,000 reported events mild enough that they never sought medical care.
These are all things to keep in mind as we decide whether or not to get vaccinated. The fact that individuals have not been infected up to now does not mean they will never get Covid, unless they choose to live in a bubble for the foreseeable future. NOT my personal choice - I am vaccinated, wear a mask, and stay away from crowds. But I can safely interact with the precautions I have chosen to take.
Sue