Mrs. Neckelmann said she told her husband’s story to warn people about the possible “side effects” of the vaccine and “that it is not good for everyone and in this case it has destroyed a beautiful life, a perfect family and affected so many people people in the community. ”
Dr. Jerry L. Spivak, a blood disease specialist at Johns Hopkins University, who was not involved in Dr. Michael’s care, said that, based on Ms. Neckelmann’s description, “I think it’s a medical certainty that vaccine was related. “
“This is going to be very rare,” said Dr. Spivak, an emeritus professor of medicine. But he added: “It happened and it can happen again”.
Even so, he said, this should not prevent people from being vaccinated.
The condition that Dr. Michael developed, acute immune thrombocytopenia, occurs when the immune system attacks the patient’s own platelets, or attacks the cells in the bone marrow that produce the platelets. Covid itself can cause the disease in some patients.
A long list of medications, including quinine and certain antibiotics, can also cause the disorder in some people. Dr. Spivak described the reactions as “idiosyncratic”, which means that they strike certain individuals without rhyme or reason, possibly based on unknown genetic characteristics, and there is no way to predict whether someone is susceptible.
“If you vaccinate enough people, things will happen,” he said.
Vaccines stimulate the immune system and, in theory, could, in rare cases, cause him to mistakenly identify some of the patient’s own cells as enemy invaders that should be destroyed.
Dr. Spivak said several things made the vaccine the most likely suspect in Dr. Michael’s case. The disorder arose quickly after the injection and was so severe that it caused his platelet count to “skyrocket” – a pattern similar to what occurs in some cases, caused by drugs such as quinine. In addition, Dr. Michael was healthy and young, compared to most people who develop chronic forms of the disease from other causes. Finally, the majority of patients – 70 percent – are women. A sudden case in a man, especially a relatively young, healthy man, suggests a recent trigger.