Note: Guillain Barre Syndrome (GBS) (autoimmune paralysis) is a recognized side effect from some vaccines, including Johnson and Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine, according to recent warnings issued by FDA. There have been reports of GBS after other Covid-19 vaccines, but FDA has said it does not yet see a link and the illnesses could be just coincidental. Public health officials say the benefits of Covid-19 vaccines outweigh the risks among the eligible population.
Even with significant numbers of vaccinated people ending up infected, hospitalized and even dead from Covid-19, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says vaccination is still the best way to be protected.
Officials say even though vaccinated individuals can catch and spread Covid-19, it is hoped that they do not get as ill as they might have without vaccination.
Read CDC Q-and-A on Covid-19 vaccines here
CDC and many other public health officials have consistently omitted facts and discussion about immunity among the 120 million+ Americans who have battled and survived Covid-19 infections, or who were infected without developing any symptoms. A building body of data indicates most of them have better protection against Covid, including the variants (so far), than those who are vaccinated.
Read FDA info on Guillain Barre Syndrome autoimmune paralysis after Covid-19 vaccine here
This doesn’t mean it’s impossible for previously-infected people to become infected again; but scientists say (so far) such instances are considered rare, and recurring cases are generally mild if not invisible.
Additionally, health officials and news reports often present Covid-19 reporting in a one-sided, fact-starved fashion, without accurately representing the views of scientists and scientific studies that are countervailing to the government’s narrative.
Read summary of Covid-19 vaccine concerns here
As patients speak with their physicians and measure the risk of known vaccine adverse events, so far, in their demographic group, it helps to know of some patient experiences that are not well-represented by public health officials or in the media. Some of them will be highlighted on this website.
Please note: adverse events after vaccination do not necessarily mean the vaccine caused or triggered the medical issue(s). Longterm impact of Covid-19 vaccines are unknown since they have not been on the market long enough to know.
Read analysis of Covid-19 adverse events here
Paralyzed after Moderna shots
An 86-year old man received two Moderna shots; the second one in March. The following is information as provided by a relative.
According to the family member, prior to vaccination, the man “swam almost everyday. Gardened, chopped wood, had just bought a fishing boat. He is 86 years old, but is very strong, active and alert. He used to still go to work a couple days a week.”
“A few days after his second shot he had trouble walking, and with numbness in his hands and legs. He went to the ER and they were afraid he was having a stroke.”
He tested negative for the kinds of indicators for strokes, had a scan done, and was sent home.
“A couple days later he collapsed in his garden and couldn’t get up and crawled to the house. Back to the hospital. This time he was diagnosed with Guillain Barre Syndrome. Not good. The doc and neurologist said it was caused by the shot. He got quite a wakeup call, because the doc basically said: ‘It might go away and it might get real bad and could kill you.’ (It affects the limbs first, but it can spread to the chest and interfere with your breathing, put you on a respirator, even kill you). We already knew that could happen – because our next door neighbor years ago died from Guillain Barre Syndrome (GBS), which she contracted from a flu shot.”
He was hospitalized for a week and treated for GBS “a daily drip of Immunoglobulin.” He returned home and had a visiting therapist.
After a week, he had “a big relapse…he even fell a couple times and broke 5 ribs…and he was back in the hospital. This time he got steroid treatments. This time we took him to a therapeutic hospital for recovery afterwards.”
According to the family member: “GBS causes pain in your extremities as it heals, so he has been deprived of a lot of sleep. Between the ribs, and the GBS pains, the ‘wounds’ in his midsection from steroid injections and the various sleeping and pain meds the docs have put him on (none of which agreed with him), he lost his muscle tone and around 26 pounds.”
Months later, he has progressed from a wheelchair to walker to a cane and “can now walk pretty much normally – but he is quite a different person.”
The man is reported to be “still on the mend. He may always be on the mend. It always seems that ‘old’ people go from fit and bouncy to ‘elderly’ because of some medical event. And this was his. He is back in the pool a couple times a week, but he’s not swimming laps.”
A July analysis of adverse events reported to a federal database after Covid-19 vaccine showed the following cases:
