Neurosurgeon, 37, and nurse, 54, claim they were left brain damaged and ... trends now
Americans who claim they were badly injured by the Covid vaccines feel they are being ignored and gaslighted by the government.
Over 13,000 formal complaints about adverse reactions to the shots have been filed since 2021 - but only 19 percent have been reviewed.
Just 12 patients have been compensated at an average of about $3,600, a figure which some have called insultingly low given the lasting health issues they have to live with long-term.
Experts say that researchers who've tried to investigate the little-understood side effect profile of Covid vaccines have been blocked by government officials and scientists who fear that even entertaining the possibility that vaccines can cause harm would fuel the anti-vax, which become bigger and louder during the pandemic.
Still, people are suffering from a range of conditions that came on soon after getting their first shot, including brain damage, tinnitus, neurological syndromes, facial paralysis, heart trouble, and shingles.
Michelle Zimmerman, 37, a neuroscience PhD, had to move back into her parents after she was diagnosed with brain damage after getting the Covid shot
Shaun Barcavage, a 54-year-old nurse practitioner in New York, said that merely standing up would make his heart race ever since he got his first Covid shot, which suggests a syndrome that causes disupted blood flow throughout the body
Unlike several countries like Australia, Canada, and Denmark, which have centralized health records compiled on a single database, the US has no such thing, leaving scientists to sift through reports of mild to severe side effects, of which there are more than four million lodged to the CDC’s voluntary adverse reporting website.
Before Michelle Zimmerman, 37, had to say goodbye to her career as a neuroscientist, her regular 20-mile bike rides, and her lectures on the latest in AI, she had received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in 2021.
No longer able to stand up on her own for long periods of time, and eventually diagnosed with brain damage, Dr Zimmerman had to move back in with her parents. She is convinced the vaccine she got came from a contaminated batch.
She told the New York Times: ‘When I let myself think about the devastation of what this has done to my life, and how much I’ve lost, sometimes it feels even too hard to comprehend.’
Dr Zimmerman submitted her application for the Covid vaccine compensation program in October 2021, but it took two years for that claim to be acknowledged by the federal government. She has yet to receive any help from government officials.
She is far from the only one who has submitted such a claim. The Health Resources and Services Administration’s Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP), 13,116 claims have been filed, of which more than 10,000 are still in review.
Twelve claims have been compensated at an average of about $3,600. This is because the office recognizes so few side effects as stemming from the Covid vaccine.
Shaun Barcavage, a 54-year-old nurse practitioner in New York, said that merely standing up would make his heart race ever since he got his first Covid shot.
His symptoms suggested postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), a condition in which the body cannot regulate the flow of blood properly, causing lightheadedness, fainting, and rapid heartbeat.
POTS has been tenuously linked to the vaccines, but more often with Covid infection itself.
Mr Barcavage, who in his career has worked on clinical trials for both HIV and Covid, said: ‘I can’t get the government to help me. I am told I’m not real. I’m told I’m rare. I’m told I’m coincidence.’
And Dr Gregory Poland, 68, who edits the journal Vaccine, has had a loud whoosing sound in his ears accompany every single second since he got his shot, and now fears never having a silent moment again.
His colleagues at the CDC did not take on his pleas for further research into the post-vaccine phenomenon.
Dr Gregory Poland, editor-in-chief of the journal Vaccine, has had tinnitus since he got his vaccine
Dr Buddy Creech, a vaccine researcher at Vanderbilt University, has suffered tinnitus and a racing heartbeat after each dose
Covid vaccines from Pfizer and BioNTech as well as Johnson and Johnson – which is no longer available – have been credited with averted at least three million deaths in the US
