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