Double Whammy for Autoimmune Patients?

We’ve been detailing the scientific evidence showing the increased risk of serious adverse events for autoimmune patients receiving the COVID vaccine. Emerging data is now showing that patients with compromised immune systems, such as those on immunosuppressive medications and organ transplant recipients, do not generate as strong an immune response to the COVID vaccines as healthy patients. Not only are autoimmune patients at greater risk for serious adverse events, but the vaccine may not even work for them—we just don’t know. Like organ transplant recipients, autoimmune patients have compromised immune systems; autoimmune patients also take immunosuppressive drugs that studies are showing dampen the immune response to the vaccine.

A handful of studies have demonstrated how the vaccine doesn’t work very well in patients with compromised immunity:

  • One study found that patients on glucocorticoid medications, which are often used to treat autoimmune conditions, “severely impeded” a proper response to the vaccine.
  • Patients with irritable bowel disease treated with infliximab, a common immunosuppressant, also had a blunted response to the vaccine.
  • A study of organ transplant recipients, many of whom take immunosuppressant drugs, concluded that a “substantial proportion of transplant recipients likely remain at risk for COVID-19 after two doses of mRNA vaccine.
  • Researchers were not able to detect antibodies in about 46% of blood-cancer patients who had received both doses of a COVID vaccine. Blood cancers like lymphoma, for example, can impair the immune system.

Many patients take the kind of drugs that dampen the response to the vaccine: patients with AIDS, organ transplants, cancers, autoimmune diseases, etc. In some cases, patients taking certain drugs are told to wait six months after drug treatment to get the vaccine. The issue is even more complicated by patients with ongoing drug treatment; the CDC says that patients on these medications can receive the vaccine, and decisions to delay drug treatment to receive the vaccine should consider the risks related to the patient’s underlying condition.

Part of the reason we don’t know even more about the vaccine’s effectiveness is that special populations of patients (autoimmune patients, organ transplant recipients, cancer patients, and those on immunosuppressive therapy) were underrepresented or entirely excluded from COVID vaccine trials.

This deepens the conundrum for autoimmune patients. As we’ve mentioned in our white paper, the data show an increased risk of serious adverse events, including life-threatening blood clots in the brain, from COVID vaccination. Now we’re seeing that, even if they do expose themselves to this additional risk, the vaccine may not even work. The point is that this hasn’t been studied specifically, so we just don’t know yet.

There are even more danger signals from the COVID vaccine that are emerging. There is animal data from a Japanese study commissioned by Pfizer showing that the lipid nanoparticles used to transport genetic instructions for the COVID spike protein do not stay at the site of injection, but enter our circulation and end up elsewhere in the body. As our friends at ANH International point out, this raises a whole new set of questions:

If the lipid nanoparticles are distributed systemically, does that mean the mRNA might instruct cells well beyond the deltoid muscles to generate the spike protein? Or do proteolytic enzymes break some or all of it down before this happens to any significant degree? Could this increase the risk of autoimmune reactions in areas distant from the injection site? Might the systemic exposure go some way to explain the continued emergence of adverse reactions affecting organs or tissues distant from the site of injection, such as heart and brain. What could the long-term implications of this be?

We also know that the CDC is investigating the recent reports of myocarditis predominantly in young males. Myocarditis (inflammation of the heart) is mostly caused by infection, but in some cases is the result of an autoimmune reaction. These are important considerations for patients, especially patients with an autoimmune profile, in making the decision about whether to get the COVID vaccine.

These important medical decisions are being made in a climate of increased social pressure to vaccinate. Businesses are re-opening and privileging vaccinated individuals. Governor Cuomo of New York just announced that Radio City Music Hall will re-open at full capacity for the Tribeca Film Festival, but only to vaccinated individuals. Many restaurants are re-opening dine-in services, but only for vaccinated individuals.

While it’s a relief to many of us that the country is re-opening and the economy is rebounding from the pandemic, we must ensure that we don’t discriminate against people who make an informed decision not to get vaccinated for legitimate medical reasons.

37 comments

  1. Let’s look at the facts. Vaccine reactions are miniscule in the vaccinated population. On the other hand, Covid-19 has claimed 600,000 American lives and counting. Six Hundred Thousand!! The bottom line is that immuno-compromised individuals are FAR MORE LIKELY to die or become seriously ill from the virus than the vaccine. No one has suggested that immuno-compromised individuals be forced to receive the Covid vaccination, but this is a small segment of the population that will almost certainly die from contracting the virus, particularly the new Delta variant. I support ANH, but feel that this article deliberately failed to make the above facts clear.

    1. As an immunocompromised person I think being made a flippin pariah over a health decision is going too far. I’m immune compromised because of a vaccine reaction of a vaccine thats been in use for decades, why would i risk my life for something thats untried (yes its tried unproven and when somethingbad happensyou can’t sue. Why do they have immunity (?). That people would trivialize that and demand we all be lemmings or die for the cause is baloney.

    2. Not negating the number, and not belittling the catastrophe of a 600,000 US death toll, how many of those deaths fall into that category that you refer to as minuscule who would “die anyways if they contracted Covid-19”? Also, the discussion is still exclusively focused around the false assumption that the only medical response available to Covid-19 is the vaccine, it is not. More and more proof backed by proper scientific studies is revealing the efficacy of already existing medicines in treating the disease successfully & it seems quite quickly when treated early on and not left untreated for the 2 weeks that patients are instructed to isolate at home without any treatment when exposed or test positive! Keeping that in mind, the article isn’t biased, it’s simply highlighting the lack of knowledge surrounding the effects of the vaccine. The burden of proof is on the vaccine producers to present solid research showing safety & efficacy short and long term, not on the patients to prove that it is harmful or ineffective! Why didn’t the studies include representations of immune suppressed individuals? Ultimately that is who we’d have been trying to protect in society globally, the vulnerable, from this disease that has a 99.8% chance of recovery?

      1. You mean Ivermectin? Lots of info on that now by highly reputable doctors all over the world including the inventor of the mRNA teachnology

  2. During my first 20 years I had disease most of my days. After I learned about the cause, I refused all drugs and vaccines and never got flu again – 50 years! (I do take herbs to solve and prevent problems, and eating the right food is essential.)
    marvin

  3. This patient is currently on Mycophenolate for a complicated form of interstitial pulmonary fibrosis.
    Two doses of the Pfizer vaccines have already been administered.
    Should this patient participate in any ongoing studies?

  4. I wish I had seen this yesterday, before getting Pfizer dose #2. My doctors’ only advice had been to hold my weekly doses of methotrexate the week after each each injection and, if possible, the week before, as well. Prednisone wasn’t even addressed. Oh well…

  5. My doctor and I made an informed decision that I should not get the injection for medical reasons. Vaccines are a personal medical choice, and no one has to right to force injections of drugs/chemicals on me or anyone. I am disgusted by the “all the cool kids are doing it” advertising and social media pushes; it sounds like an After School Special gone wrong. Having everyday people who are NOT DOCTORS and NOT YOUR DOCTOR give medical “advice” to their peers is wrong on so many levels. When pushed by nosy people on why I should get the injection, I ask 1. If they’re a doctor, 2. Have access to my private medical records, and 3. Understand them.
    I also think it’s medical discrimination to use taxpayer money to fund lotteries to reward people for undergoing certain medical treatments. What if we do a taxpayer-funded lottery only for people who have had their wisdom teeth out? How would that fly?
    I don’t have the answers; I’m not a doctor. I can only do what is best for me and my family, which is eat healthy, exercise, drink water, and keep my vitamin D and other levels up. Staying healthy or striving towards a healthy lifestyle seems the better road to take than rewarding unhealthy behaviors, such as “get the jab and get free donuts”! We have wasted so much taxpayer money that could have gone to buying healthy foods for those who can’t afford it/don’t have access to it and/or don’t understand how nutrition works. Those million dollar lotteries would feed a lot of people, and test and supplement their D levels when needed, D being a known factor for proper immune support. Tests on long-haul COVID sufferers have shown many to be seriously low in vitamin D, and and even vitamin C.
    I’d rather build the fence at the top of the cliff than put an ambulance at the bottom, as Joseph Malins wisely wrote in 1895. But over a century later, we’re still parking ambulances at the bottom instead of preventing the falls from the top. Good thing I don’t want to go near the general populace, but will continue to keep my distance, as I don’t think the “keep your unhealthy lifestyle and just take drugs” push is the answer.

  6. What about those with EBV – Epstein Barr Virus? Can the vaccine reactivate a flare up?

  7. Finally good to read common sense news article. People have unique genetic makeup and should be treated as individuals not as a herd.

    1. That right there is the real “pandemic” left to devastate the world for the last few decades! Each individual is different, a one size fits all treatment which was created by Big Pharma’s and their business model based mass-producing of synthetic chemical remedies! Remedies and fixes not cures, because what profit driven business model would result in a product being the cause of losing customers? If we are ever going to enjoy healthy populations that must change, individual driven treatments, and moving the pharmaceutical industry from profit making private companies to non-profit organizations or institutions, either way the tax payers for the larger part of the R&D bill yet the only ones that reap the benefits of exclusivity and the profits after approval are Big Pharma! The whole system needs to be overhauled

  8. I HAD A LEFT LUNG TRANSPLANT I0/11/2018. I PROUDLY HAD THE VACCINE BOTH DOSES OF THE PFSIER . WHEN I HEARD FROM NPR NEWS THAT THE DRUGS WE TAKE FOR REJECTION AND INFECTION KEEP US FROM HAVING ANTIBODIES TO FIGHT THE COVID–19.
    I HAVE SINCE DOUBLE MASKED WHENEVER I GO OUT. JUST CAUGHT A SLIGHT COLD FROM MY 7 MONTH OLD GREAT GRANDDAUGHTER AND ANOTHER OF MY DRS. TOLD ME TO GO FOR A COVID TEST. THANK GOD IT WAS NEGATIVE, BUT II WAS SCARRED. WE HAVE TO NOT PUT OURSELVES IN A POSITION THAT WOULD COMPROMISE US. THANK YOU FOR WORKING ON THIS.

    1. I’d rather LIVE my life than to hide from it. Masks don’t work & they know it. It’s ALL about CONTROL. GOD SAYS “FEAR not,” 365 times in the Bible This whole Plandemic is about GOOD vs evil. You’re letting evil win. I’m sorry they Deep State has brainwashed you.

  9. I have Hashimoto’s autoimmune thyroiditis. I was wary of getting a covid vaccine, but it was just a gut feeling – I had neither heard nor read anything at all about the caution from doctors and scientists who study autoimmune diseases about vaccines being potentially dangerous or even catastrophic for people like me. To my everlasting regret, I did get vaccinated, with the Pfizer vaccine. I was okay after the first dose – I had a moderately sore arm plus intermittent fevers and chills for a day or two – but I got multiple, severe, disabling symptoms after the second dose.
    It’s been 8.5 weeks since then and I still feel very sick. I have cardiac symptoms (persistent arrythmias, tachycardia, orthostatic hypotension, shortness of breath, chest pain), neurological symptoms (dizziness, ringing in my ears, visual disturbances, – everything in my visual field shimmers and is unstable, as though I’m on LSD, – spaciness, difficulty concentrating, difficulty focusing my eyes, insomnia), nausea, headaches, extreme weakness, fatigue, muscle aches, joint pain, and lower back pain. I feel as though I’ve suffered a concussion or a stroke, or microstrokes. I still have intermittent fevers and chills. The glands in my neck are persistently sore and swollen.
    I also had two extremely painful reactions, which have since mostly gone away, though not completely. Three weeks after the 2nd shot, I got an excruciatingly painful sore throat. It caused an ulcer in the back of my throat which took over a week to go away. My throat and mouth still feel somewhat inflamed, though the intensity varies from day to day.
    Sixteen days after the 2nd shot, over the course of the night, my right (vaccinated) arm became intolerably painful. The pain spread from my deltoid muscle into my entire shoulder joint, and down my arm to my forearm, wrist, and right hand, up my neck, all around my shoulder girdle, and even throughout the right side of my rib cage. This horrific, excruciating pain lasted for well over 2.5 weeks. I barely was able to sleep at all during that time, and then only with the help of an opioid drug, Percoset. Even so, the mind-bending pain repeatedly woke me up, every night, after about one hour of light, disturbed sleep. The pain was so intense it made me desperate and suicidal. At this point, the pain in my right arm has mostly subsided, but my entire right arm is still noticeably weak, achy, and it tires very easily. My right hand is weak, uncoordinated, klutzy, withered (contracted), and swollen. I often get numbness and “pins and needles” in my right hand. It turns a weird purple color at times, which is freaky and weird. The vaccine reignited an iatrogenic injury I got two years ago, after I broke three bones in my right wrist and arm. I was given a cast that was too tight, and despite my repeated complaints to the doctors and technicians who were treating me, they didn’t heed my complaints. The overly tight cast caused vascular damage to the capillaries of the blood and lymph vessels in my right arm and hand, and now I’m re-experiencing all the symptoms that the too-tight cast caused. The iatrogenic injury symptoms are not going away, though the intolerable pain I felt for two and a half weeks or so has mostly gone away.
    I’ve had other strange, anomalous symptoms besides these: I had a sty on my left upper eyelid, as well as conjunctivitis in my left eye, for several days, around the time of the excruciating sore throat, and stranger yet, my hair is full of static electricity when I brush it, and I tend get more electric shocks when I touch metal objects. My chronic athlete’s foot is worse than it usually is. My head feels like it’s full of static and chaotic energy. I am unable meditate, which I used to be able to do, due to the chaos I feel in my head. (I still try, but it’s a more or less hopeless endeavor.)
    I am chronically extremely thirsty, despite drinking a lot of filtered water every day.
    My health care provider has been worse than useless. I have no hope of ever getting my previous level of health back. Needless to say, I will never get another vaccine for the rest of my life.

    1. Why did u continue with the 2nd injection?:. I’m sorry but EXPERIMENTAL should have given u heads-up, don’t do it. This was a PLANDEMIC.

    2. Hello you need to consult Dr.Mark Sircus as well as take New Eden from WellnessQuest. Dr. Reg MacDanials enhanced the Mannatech proprietary Ambrotose which gives the body cell to cell feedback.My wife has the same throid condition so I keep the New Eden in stock at home.P.S. I used this product to get rid of my acute rheumatiod arthritis in6 months.

  10. I’m grateful you’re taking up this cause: defending the choice to refuse a vaccine for medical reasons. It makes me feel I’m not alone in my choice.
    The risks to the autoimmune are being glossed over. I believe they are serious, even life-threatening.
    This study: https://academic.oup.com/cid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/cid/ciab465/6279075, shows as early as one day after vaccination, antigen is in the plasma. So it’s going everywhere.
    And this article: https://medicine.temple.edu/news/sars-cov-2-spike-proteins-disrupt-blood-brain-barrier-potentially-raising-risk-neurological, shows disruption of the blood, brain barrier by the spike protein.
    “This neurological damage could be extensive in COVID-19 patients with pre-existing health conditions in which the vasculature has already suffered some amount of injury.”
    As an MS patient, I don’t want that spike protein in my brain, for good reason. I appreciate your taking up this cause: defending the autoimmune.

  11. I am a cancer patient and an autoimmune Type 1 diabetic. I had my second shot on Feb. 5 and have had no side effects of any kind. I feel that I am fully vaccinated, but I still wear a mask because I am immune compromised taking chemo therapy pills. I am not sure how much the pills compromise me as opposed to regular chemotherapy.

  12. Out of respect for everyone I think that at the very least masks should still be required in essential stores such as grocery and pharmacy. We are not completely out of the woods yet.

    1. Masks do nothing but harm the user. They knew it but Blocked ALL those who tried to tell the public. This is a PLANDEMIC, a fight between Good & evil.
      The Deep State one world govt. Brainwashed many, notice how they suppressed those who did not agree?

  13. I had an extended period or more likely back to back periods that lasted two weeks from being exposed to vaxxed people. Now my period stopped. Have you heard of more cases like this? How donyou explain this?
    Thank you!

  14. I have several autoimmune diseases and I’m 68 years old. I’m on several Medications,. I have Bechets, Fibromyalgia, Polly Neurology, Asthma, RA and Osteoarthritis. I’ve been fully vaccinated with Physer Vascination. Please tell me if I can go out unmasked etc. I’m very concerned.

  15. What about people like me, who have an autoimmune condition such as Hashimoto’s, and are NOT receiving immunosuppressants? What is our status relative to COVID-19 “vaccinations”?

  16. It is unfair to discriminate against those who choose not to vaccinate.

  17. I am autoimmune comprised with RA, PMR and PsA. These studies are only for those with a certain drug treatment? What about people like me? Fully vaccinated with Pfizer and had COVID-19 from November 2020-February 2021.

  18. Check out the Covid study of people with autoimmune conditions by Washington University in St. Louis. It is less bleak than your summary.

  19. There are many of us that are ALLERGIC to the vaccine ingredients as well as having too compromised immune systems. Both my allergist and my PCP say I’m NOT eligible for the vaccines. It’s not that we choose not to but is that we CAN’T get the vaccines.

  20. “relief for many…but only for vaccinated”
    That screams of discrimination!
    Our freedom to make health decisions for our unique, individual conditions is being taken away from us.
    We ALL are exposed to the One Size Fits All mentality.
    Seems like the un-injected will be punished and shamed for their INFORMED choice.
    Looks, sounds and feels like bio-fascism.
    Are we concerned yet? Are intelligent Americans still asleep?

  21. Good information, but I’d hate to think this will cause unnecessary fear where people will avoid being vaccinated when they need to do so. Please publish the list of medications that are contraindications for getting the vaccine. People should not be discouraged with the advent and increase of the Deviant COVID. The numbers are increasing, and this is no time to let our guard down.

    1. That is the job of the vaccine producers and regulators! Which should have been provided BEFORE issuing any approval including emergency use authorization! It’s their responsibility, not the public’s responsibility to agree to a medical intervention who’s risks have clearly not been evaluated pre-launch! They knew this from the early days of clinical trials and Gates was asked about this and his response was “for the majority the adverse reactions are not permanent or deadly” For that statement alone he should be behind bars or sentenced to death for pushing this vaccine and it’s passport and dictating that we will not return to normal unless everyone is vaccinated globally! But for some reason the majority are adamant about following his instructions as opposed to recommendations from MD’s, Medical specialists & expert scientists many of whom have always been well respected and honored with achievement awards and recognition from the scientific community! Honestly can’t comprehend what is going on!

  22. Thank you for your ongoing efforts to spread the truth about Covid vaccines. I believe that the media is tying to oversell us on dangerous and still unproven vaccines with unknown long term safety profiles. At the same time they are dismissing proven and safe methods of preventing infections, such as adequate intake of vitamins D 3 and C, zinc, and other health promoting measures. I do feel that as an informed consumer I am being discriminated against in public policy decisions. This is wrong in so many ways. Thank you for all you do to inform those who will listen.

  23. https://youtu.be/Tb_7E12VDE4
    This YouTube video, about 15 minutes long, is a three panel discussion about the data coming out about where the spike protein is showing up in vaccinated people. One of the panelists is thee doctor who created the mRNA technique that is now being used in vaccines.

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