Case
Study: COVID Vax Exacerbates MS Symptoms
A team of multiple sclerosis researchers from
Harvard Medical School and MS centers in Massachusetts and New York report an
increase in MS symptoms in COVID-vaccinated individuals with MS.
Specifically, the team saw increased
demyelination of the central nervous system (CNS) “consistent with active CNS
demyelination of the optic nerve, brain and/or spinal cord. Symptoms included
visual loss, dysmetria, gait instability, paresthesias,
sphincter disturbance and limb weakness,” the researchers said in a case
published in the Journal of Neurology.
Even though no one with MS was included in the
original mRNA vaccine clinical trials, the Harvard team gave seven individuals
the vaccine based on an observational study of 555 MS patients who took the
shots in late December and early January 2021, who showed relatively few
adverse reactions from it.
However, the Harvard team’s seven patients
developed new neurological symptoms within a few weeks of either the first or
second doses. The patients had “low” neurological disabilities before they were
given the shots; three of them had no history at all of
demyelinating disease.
While the Harvard team said they couldn’t
definitively pin the vaccinations as the cause of the seven patients’ new
symptoms since, theoretically, those symptoms could develop at any time in an
MS patient, they did say “Our observations suggest that, in some individuals,
COVID-19 vaccination may carry a short-term risk of CNS demyelination. This is
in contrast with a recent study performed in Israel on 555 individuals with MS
who received the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.”
SOURCES:
Journal of Neurology
September 4, 2021
Multiple Sclerosis
Journal April 2021
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