The Amazing Virginian
Gold Member
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2010
- Messages
- 9,881
First off, best wishes for your fiance and her recovery.
When I read "she had gotten to the point of being unable to walk,hold things in her hands and severely slurred speech" I thought of the same - and even worse - symptoms my sister had from an attack from another autoimmune disease which my sister was diagnosed with earlier this year: Myasthemia Gravis. One attack was so bad that she could not open her eyes or move her tongue to wet her lips, and she was hospitalized for several weeks. Like with your fiance, she had several rounds of blood plasma exchange to eliminate antibodies which were attacking her and disabling her muscles. Unfortunately this is with her for life and she will undoubtedly continue to have these attacks periodically.
She never had any COVID vaccine shots. She never had COVID, either.
Sometimes we get these diseases for unknown reasons and we never know why. Cause and effect is difficult if not impossible in many/most individual cases. So we rely on statistical analysis, which has its own shortcomings. For example, we know that a small number of people with no significant exposure to cigarette smoke still get lung cancer. So we cannot say for sure that any one smoker who got lung cancer got it from smoking . . . but we can say that it is quite likely statistically.
I couldn't find any data on GBS and the COVID vaccine, but I did find info from the CDC on GBS and the flu vaccine:
"CDC monitors GBS cases during each flu season. From data collected, the association between seasonal flu vaccine and GBS has been found to vary from season to season. When there has been an increased risk, it has consistently been in the range of 1-2 additional GBS cases per million flu vaccine doses administered. Additional studies have been conducted on the risk of GBS following flu vaccination. Results of these studies suggest that it is more likely that a person will get GBS after getting the flu than after vaccination."
Since historically 3000 to 6000 people in the US develop GBS every year, we can say that the vast majority of folks who developed it, probably did not get it from the flu vaccine.
So, like everything else, it seems that you pays your money and you takes your chances. My money is still on the flu vaccine, and on the COVID vaccine.
When I read "she had gotten to the point of being unable to walk,hold things in her hands and severely slurred speech" I thought of the same - and even worse - symptoms my sister had from an attack from another autoimmune disease which my sister was diagnosed with earlier this year: Myasthemia Gravis. One attack was so bad that she could not open her eyes or move her tongue to wet her lips, and she was hospitalized for several weeks. Like with your fiance, she had several rounds of blood plasma exchange to eliminate antibodies which were attacking her and disabling her muscles. Unfortunately this is with her for life and she will undoubtedly continue to have these attacks periodically.
She never had any COVID vaccine shots. She never had COVID, either.
Sometimes we get these diseases for unknown reasons and we never know why. Cause and effect is difficult if not impossible in many/most individual cases. So we rely on statistical analysis, which has its own shortcomings. For example, we know that a small number of people with no significant exposure to cigarette smoke still get lung cancer. So we cannot say for sure that any one smoker who got lung cancer got it from smoking . . . but we can say that it is quite likely statistically.
I couldn't find any data on GBS and the COVID vaccine, but I did find info from the CDC on GBS and the flu vaccine:
"CDC monitors GBS cases during each flu season. From data collected, the association between seasonal flu vaccine and GBS has been found to vary from season to season. When there has been an increased risk, it has consistently been in the range of 1-2 additional GBS cases per million flu vaccine doses administered. Additional studies have been conducted on the risk of GBS following flu vaccination. Results of these studies suggest that it is more likely that a person will get GBS after getting the flu than after vaccination."
Since historically 3000 to 6000 people in the US develop GBS every year, we can say that the vast majority of folks who developed it, probably did not get it from the flu vaccine.
So, like everything else, it seems that you pays your money and you takes your chances. My money is still on the flu vaccine, and on the COVID vaccine.
