This guest post tells the story of a vaccine injured person. Perhaps most surprising is how little support she received from the public health establishment.
After working in flu vaccine production as a college student, and honestly never having a (documented) case of the flu, I generally didn't see the need for taking the vaccine. However, in 2005 I was forced by my employer to be vaccinated (to "keep us all safe" as they say here in Seattle) and had a severe (anaphylactic) reaction. Immediate transport to the ER was necessary to restore breathing and vision. Although my reaction certainly was not as severe, or as costly as Kari's, 20 years later I am still being asked to take the vaccine. I have to submit "declination" forms with medical records for review, appear on the list of employees who "refuse" the vaccine, and wear a mask 100% while at work during flu season because apparently I'm a menace to my coworkers while sitting in my office. VAERS did nothing; I didn't even hear back after submitting. Thanks for sharing your story. If you didn't receive support after that ordeal, I guess I'm not surprised I didn't either.
Definitely a missed opportunity for public health. The development of the Covid-19 vaccines was an amazing feat & I rushed to get my first dose as soon as I was able. Even my cohort of highly educated vaccine skeptical patients, the group everyone seems to have no memory of now, were willing to give it a try because of the steaks. When we (those in Medicine & Government agencies) were unwilling to be transparent with the public about the quickly apparent limitations & potential risks it “poisoned the well” for many in my other cohort of patients who had previously taken any vaccine recommended…along with many in the first cohort I mentioned…it’s a shame, trust has been damaged.
My son's mother-in-law developed and died from catastrophic antiphospholipid antibody syndrome Which presents like ITP. He had recently had Covid vaccination that could have been coincidence. I Assume this was tested for in this case but was negative
Thank you for sharing, a story that brings pain to recount.
Patients often lose trust in their doctor when a recommended procedure goes awry.
So, to answer the question you pose at the end of your article… No, it is not sensible, when an understudied vaccine is/was called “safe”, to expect people not to be skeptical.
Wow. A dramatic and well-written account of the possible effects from a medical intervention.
I agree with all here who state THIS is why the public trust in medicine as a profession, public health, and vaccines in particular, have been rocked.
I felt this all through the pandemic. Physicians who let politics color their focus and recommendations, to the point of coercion and derision, need to take a hard look at themselves and at medical advice in general. Doctors who badgered patients with "vaccines don't have side effects!" - patently untrue. Every medication or vaccine we put in our bodies has possible side effects. Our job as physicians is to inform patients of the potential risks vs benefits of any medical intervention and help them make the best decision for themselves.
I also understand that a pandemic is a unique circumstance and that sometimes we do have the "information we had at the time" to work with - but it became pretty clear early on that there was much each of us could do to protect ourselves and it did not mean we needed to fear and hate those that didn't do what we thought they should.
Let's remember that this is what has stimulated public distrust and vaccine hesitancy - public health and our political leaders conduct throughout the pandemic. The several weeks of RFKJr and Trump are not the issue as of yet.
Bottom line: questioning the status quo is a good thing. Looking at the current vaccine schedule in the US is a good thing. Better collection of reactions to both vaccines and medicines in general is required! The VAERS system is antiquated and unusable.
And I'm sorry that Kari was met with skepticism and denial by the physicians taking care of her. Living in the Seattle area myself, it actually doesn't surprise me.
Thank you so much for this very important article. While I am thankful you perfectly illustrated the irony of our VAERS system, it is not only Covid vaccine injury this happens with. The promise of VAERS and the compensation program was that vaccine injury was inevitable, and if we wanted population level participation, we needed a way to compensate and take care of those who were injured. I serve patients who have had actual, well documented MMR vaccine injury, but they cannot get the program to acknowledge, and to make matters worse, they have to listen non-stop to public health officials repeat the mantra that it doesn't happen. This Trauma creates activism. It is also a problem because the physicians are being told the reactions do not happen, so they do not admit patients and have treatment protocols in place for when it does. One of my patients had a documented immune deficiency when they were given the MMR, which is clearly defined in the package insert as a contraindication. When they got a 106 fever, a full measles rash, lost the ability to talk and walk, their doctor said, ( and I read the chart) "fever and rash are a known side effect of the MMR". This 16 month child who had been developing totally normal, confirmed by his chart, dove into Autism Hell. It makes me angry because he deserved what you got, Ivig, steroids, he deserved a hospital admission to save his brain from inflammation. The medical community could of helped him, but they didn't. It took us years to get him to where he is medically well, and can talk , but still will never live independently. His parents were previously avid supporters of modern medicine, at the end of their story, their dad began an Anti-vaxx campaign that was loud, aggressive and expansive. We cannot serve our patients if we lie to ourselves and to them. Adverse events happen, we need to study and understand and message better who is safe to vaccinate and who is not. We need to educate physicians on the front lines to diagnose and treat adverse reactions. You were lucky, ITP is a known thing, and you had it in the past, so the ER stepped into action right away. If it had been your first run with ITP, they may not have known what to do in a rural ER. Vaccines are so important, and every day we go by in this current state, we undermine their use.
All good points. All reasons why I think a better review of vaccines and their side effects is needed. Rather than deny that vaccines have side effects, we need to look for these signals that will only happen at the population level. And not that we stop vaccination as the effects of these illnesses themselves are generally worse than the vaccines, BUT, your point that we acknowledge and even TREAT these effects quickly, is an excellent one.
No one likes being a guinea pig. The assumption that immunocompromised individuals could safely receive the COVID-19 vaccine made “asses of you and me.” This assumption was never tested and when it blew up in the faces of vaccine developers, they ran for the Welsh hills. The original paper in the NEJM said nothing (I don’t have it in front of me, this is just from my recollection of it) about immunocompromised patients. In fact, I think that might have been an exclusion criteria for the study (I’ll check that later). Mercy, science took that one on the chin.
Propaganda targeted promotion of agendas instead of scientific debates have polluted many things in our society. Why would anyone not hesitate to follow advice from our current medical establishments?
As a neurologist, I reported 20+ vaccine injuries, some of which with „measurable“ damage (GBS, nerve palsy, plexus lesions, exacerbation of stable myasthenia, stroke/intracerebral bleeding, massive worsening of polyneuropathia asf.), some with more diffuse symptoms similar to long-covid.
None of them were recognised as connected to the vaccine. Maybe the patients should have said, it was related to a covid infection, then they would have possibly received some sort of recognition.
Never in my 30 year career as a medical doctor have I had this feeling, that patients were treated according to two different standards (and this is really disappointing) - it was a political virus from the start.
This is a sobering and necessary reminder that, no matter how big or small a procedural/ treatment risk is, those affected by a complication nonetheless suffer real harm and injury.
And as part of informed consent and premium non nocere, it behooves us to not merely focus on potential upside benefits, but to acknowledge, disclose, and balance against those downside risks.
Some large health care organizations are still pushing COVID-19 vaccination for all ages > 6 months.
Recently one of them released a statement about GBS-risk signal (7 and 9 per 100,000) after the two RSV vaccines and then assured the readers it was “not a problem” and go ahead and get it.
I saw some information for physicians to use encouraging RSV vaccination which included NO potential adverse effects, just the risks of RSV infection in adults.
I saw a presentation telling primary care physicians not to let patients out of their offices until hesitant patients agreed to be vaccinated including “don’t take no for an answer!”
Make-work-for-bureaucrats Mpox, H5N1 scares are choreographed before our very eyes and there is a vaccine at the end of each story.
What a horror story, and well analyzed and presented!
In my 36 years of primary care internal medicine + rheumatology twice I encountered systemic necrotizing vasculitis from vaccinations. Both patients had pyoderma gangrenosum (PG).
The first was a previously healthy 30 y.o. lady employed as the dispatcher at an ambulance service. Though she had no patient contact her employer required all employees to have hepatitis B vaccination. After the first dose she had transient cutaneous lesions. Following the 1 month booster these recurred and she was treated with prednisone. After the 6 month booster she developed full blown PG. She had just started a multi state vacation. This was when I saw her. We were in the mid 1990s, before TNF inhibitors. She was showing response to prednisone + leflunomide when I transferred her care to a rheumatologist in her home state.
The second was a healthy man in his early 60s. In September 2008 he was referred to me with deep necrotic and infected ulcers of both legs. He responded to high dose glucocorticoids and rituximab and then had a series of skin grafts. The only suspicious event immediately preceding PG onset was an annual flu shot. I directed that his chart be labeled "Allergic to Influenza Vaccine". After a year he was in remission on low dose alternate day prednisone. At two years PG recurred. Despite my instructions to him never to have another influenza vaccination and the big red label on his chart, his primary care physician had given him a seasonal flu shot. PG recurred days later. Again I had him on rituximab + high dose prednisone. He was still on this regimen when I retired. A year later I read his obituary.
In both cases neither the patients nor their primary care physicians recognized the relationship of vasculitis to vaccinations, because they did not think and take histories carefully. I suspect vaccination as a triggering event before a new onset autoimmune disease is often overlooked.
I am so sorry to hear about what you have been through and the lack of support and justice from our healthcare system and government agencies.
Sadly, many vaccine injured have felt unheard and unseen and many physicians and other medical practitioners have been silenced with the threat of loss of licensure or other fines and reprimands by their licensing boards which has added to this catastrophe.
You may find some helpful resources from Physicians and Patients Reclaiming Medicine (www.reclaimingmed.org)-we have a quarterly free newsletter with lots of information and resources for things like Direct Primary Care physicians who may feel less constrained than those in larger healthcare groups in terms of speaking openly about vaccine injury with their patients.
Direct Primary Care (DPC) may be our only hope against insurance driven therapies (corruption and back-pocket fraud) and control/denials of things we need. My husband had a physical by a D.O. who exited a large health system to have a DPC practice of her own. It was by far the best physical he ever had!
I’m very sorry you had this experience. I would like you to think about this with a different lens. As someone who has been through ITP herself, I turned to functional medicine to take care of me because allopathic medicine gave me no answers when my ITP was recalcitrant to all treatments including $24,000 worth of RhoGAM injections. I ended up seeing a functional medicine specialist after reading a book about toxicity and about functional medicine in general. For me, this all started with a hangnail that turned into an infection. The lens I would like you to think about is that the vaccine was your tipping point. It was not the cause of everything that happened afterwards. I think that you need to find someone that will test you for both heavy metals, and environmental toxins. And possibly Lyme. I still very much believe in vaccination, but I do not think that the allopathic community is doing enough to make sure that people who get vaccines are not dealing with an underlying toxicity that will cause their system to decompensate when the vaccine is given. I had ITP and breast cancerand rosacea, and we found out that my thyroid antibodies were over 3,000! Unfortunately, wellness care in the United States is nonexistent except with functional medicine providers. And the problem with functional medicine is that insurance companies don’t cover these costs when in a perfect world everyone would get these tests and we would head off chronic illness before it starts. I would be happy to talk to you further if you would like to ask me questions, but I am an RN that used to run an intensive care unit and my husband is a general surgeon. We both fervently believe that functional medicine is the future of actual medicine in this country. We just need to catch the reimbursement system up so that this does not become an untenable cost to families.
Once we did the testing on me, we realize that I was toxic with both mercury and some mold. Once we treated the mercury, my ITP disappeared within six weeks. My platelets have been normal for 14 years now and I feel better than I ever did. My mercury levels are normal now and my inflammatory markers are down to normal. The key to this is inflammation. Whatever is going on in your body is creating an inflammatory environment that needs to be treated.
All my symptoms, the rosacea, the Hashimoto’s, the ITP, are all gone. I’m now a 20 year breast cancer survivor. I started this functional medicine journey in 2008. You can follow my story on my blog. Let me know if you would like to see it.
Kari, thank you for sharing your story. I hope you may continue to heal and stay in good health.
Unfortunately, this is the same story parents have told for many years about their vaccine injured kids, but the kids are young, and everyone casts doubt on the situation because it happened to a kid, not an adult with a decades long medical record who can speak for themselves. Some parents were even blamed for injuring their kids when it was the vaccines and investigated by CPS, and some have been thrown out of their pediatricians practices for suggesting the injury was from the vaccine or refusing more vaccines. The gaslighting must stop, and telling your story is part of that process. Thank you.
"B Moon" previously mentioned the documentary "Follow the Silenced" (coincidentally, being released today at the Santa Monica Film Festival). https://followthesilenced.com/ The founder of React19 (an organization that advocates for the Covid-19 vaccine injured ) Brianne Dressen plays a central role in the film. https://followthesilenced.com/
A few months ago, during my family's winter break vacation, I read the book "Worth a Shot?": Secrets of the Clinical Trial Participant Who Inspired a Global Movement — Brianne Dressen's Story." A short book that is well worth reading. Especially moving was CH 4 "The Darkness" that tells how she came very close to suicide. Here's a recent interview with her from Dr. John Campbell about her book: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Em5IJUZR8Ro
After working in flu vaccine production as a college student, and honestly never having a (documented) case of the flu, I generally didn't see the need for taking the vaccine. However, in 2005 I was forced by my employer to be vaccinated (to "keep us all safe" as they say here in Seattle) and had a severe (anaphylactic) reaction. Immediate transport to the ER was necessary to restore breathing and vision. Although my reaction certainly was not as severe, or as costly as Kari's, 20 years later I am still being asked to take the vaccine. I have to submit "declination" forms with medical records for review, appear on the list of employees who "refuse" the vaccine, and wear a mask 100% while at work during flu season because apparently I'm a menace to my coworkers while sitting in my office. VAERS did nothing; I didn't even hear back after submitting. Thanks for sharing your story. If you didn't receive support after that ordeal, I guess I'm not surprised I didn't either.
Troubling to hear your story.
Definitely a missed opportunity for public health. The development of the Covid-19 vaccines was an amazing feat & I rushed to get my first dose as soon as I was able. Even my cohort of highly educated vaccine skeptical patients, the group everyone seems to have no memory of now, were willing to give it a try because of the steaks. When we (those in Medicine & Government agencies) were unwilling to be transparent with the public about the quickly apparent limitations & potential risks it “poisoned the well” for many in my other cohort of patients who had previously taken any vaccine recommended…along with many in the first cohort I mentioned…it’s a shame, trust has been damaged.
Some more information about injury compensation:
https://www.uscfc.uscourts.gov/sites/cfc/files/covid_vaccine_claim_information.pdf
Lawsuit Challenges Federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program | MedPage Today
My son's mother-in-law developed and died from catastrophic antiphospholipid antibody syndrome Which presents like ITP. He had recently had Covid vaccination that could have been coincidence. I Assume this was tested for in this case but was negative
Thank you for sharing, a story that brings pain to recount.
Patients often lose trust in their doctor when a recommended procedure goes awry.
So, to answer the question you pose at the end of your article… No, it is not sensible, when an understudied vaccine is/was called “safe”, to expect people not to be skeptical.
Wow. A dramatic and well-written account of the possible effects from a medical intervention.
I agree with all here who state THIS is why the public trust in medicine as a profession, public health, and vaccines in particular, have been rocked.
I felt this all through the pandemic. Physicians who let politics color their focus and recommendations, to the point of coercion and derision, need to take a hard look at themselves and at medical advice in general. Doctors who badgered patients with "vaccines don't have side effects!" - patently untrue. Every medication or vaccine we put in our bodies has possible side effects. Our job as physicians is to inform patients of the potential risks vs benefits of any medical intervention and help them make the best decision for themselves.
I also understand that a pandemic is a unique circumstance and that sometimes we do have the "information we had at the time" to work with - but it became pretty clear early on that there was much each of us could do to protect ourselves and it did not mean we needed to fear and hate those that didn't do what we thought they should.
Let's remember that this is what has stimulated public distrust and vaccine hesitancy - public health and our political leaders conduct throughout the pandemic. The several weeks of RFKJr and Trump are not the issue as of yet.
Bottom line: questioning the status quo is a good thing. Looking at the current vaccine schedule in the US is a good thing. Better collection of reactions to both vaccines and medicines in general is required! The VAERS system is antiquated and unusable.
And I'm sorry that Kari was met with skepticism and denial by the physicians taking care of her. Living in the Seattle area myself, it actually doesn't surprise me.
Thank you so much for this very important article. While I am thankful you perfectly illustrated the irony of our VAERS system, it is not only Covid vaccine injury this happens with. The promise of VAERS and the compensation program was that vaccine injury was inevitable, and if we wanted population level participation, we needed a way to compensate and take care of those who were injured. I serve patients who have had actual, well documented MMR vaccine injury, but they cannot get the program to acknowledge, and to make matters worse, they have to listen non-stop to public health officials repeat the mantra that it doesn't happen. This Trauma creates activism. It is also a problem because the physicians are being told the reactions do not happen, so they do not admit patients and have treatment protocols in place for when it does. One of my patients had a documented immune deficiency when they were given the MMR, which is clearly defined in the package insert as a contraindication. When they got a 106 fever, a full measles rash, lost the ability to talk and walk, their doctor said, ( and I read the chart) "fever and rash are a known side effect of the MMR". This 16 month child who had been developing totally normal, confirmed by his chart, dove into Autism Hell. It makes me angry because he deserved what you got, Ivig, steroids, he deserved a hospital admission to save his brain from inflammation. The medical community could of helped him, but they didn't. It took us years to get him to where he is medically well, and can talk , but still will never live independently. His parents were previously avid supporters of modern medicine, at the end of their story, their dad began an Anti-vaxx campaign that was loud, aggressive and expansive. We cannot serve our patients if we lie to ourselves and to them. Adverse events happen, we need to study and understand and message better who is safe to vaccinate and who is not. We need to educate physicians on the front lines to diagnose and treat adverse reactions. You were lucky, ITP is a known thing, and you had it in the past, so the ER stepped into action right away. If it had been your first run with ITP, they may not have known what to do in a rural ER. Vaccines are so important, and every day we go by in this current state, we undermine their use.
All good points. All reasons why I think a better review of vaccines and their side effects is needed. Rather than deny that vaccines have side effects, we need to look for these signals that will only happen at the population level. And not that we stop vaccination as the effects of these illnesses themselves are generally worse than the vaccines, BUT, your point that we acknowledge and even TREAT these effects quickly, is an excellent one.
There was a push for vaccine genetic differences several years ago, but that went radio silent because they demand zero admittance that injury occurs
No one likes being a guinea pig. The assumption that immunocompromised individuals could safely receive the COVID-19 vaccine made “asses of you and me.” This assumption was never tested and when it blew up in the faces of vaccine developers, they ran for the Welsh hills. The original paper in the NEJM said nothing (I don’t have it in front of me, this is just from my recollection of it) about immunocompromised patients. In fact, I think that might have been an exclusion criteria for the study (I’ll check that later). Mercy, science took that one on the chin.
Propaganda targeted promotion of agendas instead of scientific debates have polluted many things in our society. Why would anyone not hesitate to follow advice from our current medical establishments?
As a neurologist, I reported 20+ vaccine injuries, some of which with „measurable“ damage (GBS, nerve palsy, plexus lesions, exacerbation of stable myasthenia, stroke/intracerebral bleeding, massive worsening of polyneuropathia asf.), some with more diffuse symptoms similar to long-covid.
None of them were recognised as connected to the vaccine. Maybe the patients should have said, it was related to a covid infection, then they would have possibly received some sort of recognition.
Never in my 30 year career as a medical doctor have I had this feeling, that patients were treated according to two different standards (and this is really disappointing) - it was a political virus from the start.
Sorry about your experience.
This is a sobering and necessary reminder that, no matter how big or small a procedural/ treatment risk is, those affected by a complication nonetheless suffer real harm and injury.
And as part of informed consent and premium non nocere, it behooves us to not merely focus on potential upside benefits, but to acknowledge, disclose, and balance against those downside risks.
This is enraging.
Some large health care organizations are still pushing COVID-19 vaccination for all ages > 6 months.
Recently one of them released a statement about GBS-risk signal (7 and 9 per 100,000) after the two RSV vaccines and then assured the readers it was “not a problem” and go ahead and get it.
I saw some information for physicians to use encouraging RSV vaccination which included NO potential adverse effects, just the risks of RSV infection in adults.
I saw a presentation telling primary care physicians not to let patients out of their offices until hesitant patients agreed to be vaccinated including “don’t take no for an answer!”
Make-work-for-bureaucrats Mpox, H5N1 scares are choreographed before our very eyes and there is a vaccine at the end of each story.
Something has to give.
What a horror story, and well analyzed and presented!
In my 36 years of primary care internal medicine + rheumatology twice I encountered systemic necrotizing vasculitis from vaccinations. Both patients had pyoderma gangrenosum (PG).
The first was a previously healthy 30 y.o. lady employed as the dispatcher at an ambulance service. Though she had no patient contact her employer required all employees to have hepatitis B vaccination. After the first dose she had transient cutaneous lesions. Following the 1 month booster these recurred and she was treated with prednisone. After the 6 month booster she developed full blown PG. She had just started a multi state vacation. This was when I saw her. We were in the mid 1990s, before TNF inhibitors. She was showing response to prednisone + leflunomide when I transferred her care to a rheumatologist in her home state.
The second was a healthy man in his early 60s. In September 2008 he was referred to me with deep necrotic and infected ulcers of both legs. He responded to high dose glucocorticoids and rituximab and then had a series of skin grafts. The only suspicious event immediately preceding PG onset was an annual flu shot. I directed that his chart be labeled "Allergic to Influenza Vaccine". After a year he was in remission on low dose alternate day prednisone. At two years PG recurred. Despite my instructions to him never to have another influenza vaccination and the big red label on his chart, his primary care physician had given him a seasonal flu shot. PG recurred days later. Again I had him on rituximab + high dose prednisone. He was still on this regimen when I retired. A year later I read his obituary.
In both cases neither the patients nor their primary care physicians recognized the relationship of vasculitis to vaccinations, because they did not think and take histories carefully. I suspect vaccination as a triggering event before a new onset autoimmune disease is often overlooked.
I am so sorry to hear about what you have been through and the lack of support and justice from our healthcare system and government agencies.
Sadly, many vaccine injured have felt unheard and unseen and many physicians and other medical practitioners have been silenced with the threat of loss of licensure or other fines and reprimands by their licensing boards which has added to this catastrophe.
You may find some helpful resources from Physicians and Patients Reclaiming Medicine (www.reclaimingmed.org)-we have a quarterly free newsletter with lots of information and resources for things like Direct Primary Care physicians who may feel less constrained than those in larger healthcare groups in terms of speaking openly about vaccine injury with their patients.
Direct Primary Care (DPC) may be our only hope against insurance driven therapies (corruption and back-pocket fraud) and control/denials of things we need. My husband had a physical by a D.O. who exited a large health system to have a DPC practice of her own. It was by far the best physical he ever had!
I’m very sorry you had this experience. I would like you to think about this with a different lens. As someone who has been through ITP herself, I turned to functional medicine to take care of me because allopathic medicine gave me no answers when my ITP was recalcitrant to all treatments including $24,000 worth of RhoGAM injections. I ended up seeing a functional medicine specialist after reading a book about toxicity and about functional medicine in general. For me, this all started with a hangnail that turned into an infection. The lens I would like you to think about is that the vaccine was your tipping point. It was not the cause of everything that happened afterwards. I think that you need to find someone that will test you for both heavy metals, and environmental toxins. And possibly Lyme. I still very much believe in vaccination, but I do not think that the allopathic community is doing enough to make sure that people who get vaccines are not dealing with an underlying toxicity that will cause their system to decompensate when the vaccine is given. I had ITP and breast cancerand rosacea, and we found out that my thyroid antibodies were over 3,000! Unfortunately, wellness care in the United States is nonexistent except with functional medicine providers. And the problem with functional medicine is that insurance companies don’t cover these costs when in a perfect world everyone would get these tests and we would head off chronic illness before it starts. I would be happy to talk to you further if you would like to ask me questions, but I am an RN that used to run an intensive care unit and my husband is a general surgeon. We both fervently believe that functional medicine is the future of actual medicine in this country. We just need to catch the reimbursement system up so that this does not become an untenable cost to families.
Once we did the testing on me, we realize that I was toxic with both mercury and some mold. Once we treated the mercury, my ITP disappeared within six weeks. My platelets have been normal for 14 years now and I feel better than I ever did. My mercury levels are normal now and my inflammatory markers are down to normal. The key to this is inflammation. Whatever is going on in your body is creating an inflammatory environment that needs to be treated.
All my symptoms, the rosacea, the Hashimoto’s, the ITP, are all gone. I’m now a 20 year breast cancer survivor. I started this functional medicine journey in 2008. You can follow my story on my blog. Let me know if you would like to see it.
Kari, thank you for sharing your story. I hope you may continue to heal and stay in good health.
Unfortunately, this is the same story parents have told for many years about their vaccine injured kids, but the kids are young, and everyone casts doubt on the situation because it happened to a kid, not an adult with a decades long medical record who can speak for themselves. Some parents were even blamed for injuring their kids when it was the vaccines and investigated by CPS, and some have been thrown out of their pediatricians practices for suggesting the injury was from the vaccine or refusing more vaccines. The gaslighting must stop, and telling your story is part of that process. Thank you.
"B Moon" previously mentioned the documentary "Follow the Silenced" (coincidentally, being released today at the Santa Monica Film Festival). https://followthesilenced.com/ The founder of React19 (an organization that advocates for the Covid-19 vaccine injured ) Brianne Dressen plays a central role in the film. https://followthesilenced.com/
A few months ago, during my family's winter break vacation, I read the book "Worth a Shot?": Secrets of the Clinical Trial Participant Who Inspired a Global Movement — Brianne Dressen's Story." A short book that is well worth reading. Especially moving was CH 4 "The Darkness" that tells how she came very close to suicide. Here's a recent interview with her from Dr. John Campbell about her book: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Em5IJUZR8Ro