COVID Vaccines and Parkinson's Disease Part I
The curious autopsy report and the search for answers.
I’ve been waffling on suggesting that I would either discuss viral parkinsonism or a hypothesis related to the adverse reactions seen with the COVID vaccines. However, the renewed discussion surrounding the paper on an autopsy conducted on an individual previously diagnosed with Parkinson’s and receiving 3 COVID vaccines has made me curious. As I mentioned, this may be the fault of having a short attention span! Note that this series is not intended to provide an answer but some ideas that should explain why the death can’t be explicitly stated to be either from a SARS-COV2 infection or from the vaccines, but to understand the interplay between the vaccines and a comorbidity.
In the search for COVID vaccine adverse reactions most information that comes to light generally comes in the form of case reports or very limited information, such as myocarditis reports in children. This leads many of us to have to speculate on how these adverse reactions manifest.
A few months ago a case report was published1 in which a 76-year old man with Parkinson’s Disease passed away weeks after receiving a 3rd dose of a COVID vaccine (1 ChAdOx1 and two BNT162b2).
This case report was a rare scenario in which the family of the deceased asked for an autopsy report in order to gain insights into his cause of death given the ambiguities leading up to the incident.
Several people reported on this case at the time of its publication such as Joomi Kim:
However, in recent weeks the case report began to circulate once again, being picked up by various people such as Bret and Heather on their Darkhorse Podcast where they refer to John Campbell’s video in which he goes over the report.
Given that several people have already covered this case report I defer to others so as not to rehash the findings. It’s also likely many people have seen the article covered at some point already.
Now, this resurgence in the vaccine discourse over this case report has led to a few videos to come out which intend on adding some additional context to the report.
Of note, MedCram released a video in which they raise some warranted remarks with respect to the lack of nucleocapsid protein being found within the brain and heart of the deceased, citing this study2:
Interestingly, this discussion has led to a rebuttal of the Mörz, M. argument that the vaccines are the cause for the histological findings associated with the autopsy, with some people arguing that John Campbell is grifting with his video because the idea of a SARS-COV2 infection causing the autopsy presentations cannot be ruled out given that the lack of nucleocapsid in the heart is not indicative of ruling out a SARS-COV2 infection.
To that, Joomi Kim and Alexandros Merinos did a livestream looking at the different perspectives and doing some fact checking.
Now, what this entire discussion has highlighted something critical to the COVID discourse that continues to get overlooked. In any given case, it’s easy to look at the perspective of one case report or study and assume that the information presented is the only information needed. We tend to see many posts that may focus on one article but may not present additional information.
That isn’t inherently the fault of writers or publishers, but it does create a false perspective of looking at information in a vacuum.
As a case in point, the Mezache, et al. piece, which looked at the heart and lungs of those infected and died of COVID-19, does not actually suggest that nucleocapsid protein should be found in the heart of those who died of COVID. Rather, it suggests that translocation of spike from the lungs via macrophages may carry the spike to distant parts of the bodies. The intent of the study wasn’t to argue that direct infection of the heart from SARS-COV2 is occurring, but that damage to the heart could be due to inflammation and migration of various markers that induce cytotoxic damage to the heart:
The focus of this study was to address a critical question on the common problem of cardiac disease in severe COVID-19: does the pathophysiology of the disease represent direct viral infection of the heart or the systemic manifestations of the cytokine storm and hypercoagulable propensity of the end stage disease state? This study strongly suggests that direct infection of the myocardium by SARS-CoV2 is not a factor in the pathophysiology of cardiac dysfunction. Although it is likely that the systemic manifestations of severe COVID-19 directly impact cardiac function, the primary and novel finding of this study is that there is substantial in situ expression of cytokines and complement activation in the heart secondary to endocytosis of circulating spike proteins by cardiac interstitial macrophages and pericytes which, in turn, induces a myocarditis.
It’s rather ironic, given that the Mezache, et al. piece has been argued to indicate that no nucleocapsid in the heart cannot rule out a SARS-COV2 infection, and yet the argument that is actually made is that one may not expect to find nucleocapsid in the heart (or non-respiratory organs) in the first place.
Thus, the argument may suggest that one cannot argue in either direction given this level of uncertainty.
Unfortunately, Mörz, M. does not provide any histological findings of lung tissue, which would actually rule out the possibility of a SARS-COV2 infection as one would expect a high level of both spike and nucleocapsid presence in the lungs.
But more important to the discussion is the fact that two points appear to have been overlooked:
The deceased had a diagnosed case of Parkinson’s Disease: The histological findings provided by Mörz, M. confirm the fact that this individual had a case of Parkinson’s. Although this may seem trivial, it tell us that the assessment of this autopsy should be looked at from the perspective of someone with Parkinson’s and not someone who was healthy prior to vaccination. In short, what factors related to Parkinson’s Disease may have influenced the events that led to the eventual death of the individual, and how exactly could the vaccines have influenced these events.
Remember that irrespective of the findings the deceased was noted as having experienced various adverse reactions. Note that the individual had several doctor’s visits after the first dose of the adenoviral vaccine due to possible cardiovascular problems, which raises questions as to the presentation of myocarditis based on samples taken from the heart (emphasis mine):
This report presents the case of a 76-year-old male with a history of Parkinson’s disease (PD) who passed away three weeks after his third COVID-19 vaccination. On the day of his first vaccination in May 2021 (ChAdOx1 nCov-19 vector vaccine), he experienced pronounced cardiovascular side effects, for which he repeatedly had to consult his doctor. After the second vaccination in July 2021 (BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine/Comirnaty), the family noted obvious behavioral and psychological changes (e.g., he did not want to be touched anymore and experienced increased anxiety, lethargy, and social withdrawal even from close family members). Furthermore, there was a striking worsening of his PD symptoms, which led to severe motor impairment and a recurrent need for wheelchair support. He never fully recovered from these side effects after the first two vaccinations but still got another vaccination in December 2021. Two weeks after the third vaccination (second vaccination with BNT162b2), he suddenly collapsed while taking his dinner.
Altogether, what can be made clear is that this situation lacks a lot of context that can help assess the given information.
As such, the intent for this series of posts is not to provide anything that can suggest a causative role relating vaccination to this individual’s death, but to provide an understanding of the complexities due to the circumstance that this individual appears to have had due to the diagnosis of Parkinson’s prior to the vaccination.
Thus, several questions may need to be answered given the autopsy results, such as the following:
Are the immune cells found in the brain of the deceased individual related to Parkinson’s or the presence of spike protein?
How did spike protein get into the brain of the individual, and is that significant?
Why did the individual appear to have worsening symptoms of PD after the mRNA vaccines?
What factors can cause PD to become exacerbated?
Also, are viral infections correlated with increased risk of PD? What exactly may increase one’s risk of PD?
Plenty more questions can be asked (readers can propose some in the chat), and in no ways will this series provide conclusive evidence.
However, again the intent of this series is to take a look into Parkinson’s, look at the various factors that related to Parkinson’s, and see how these factors may contribute to the case report presented here.
Although tentative, the following outlines what the next few series of posts will entail:
Part II: Taking a look at Parkinson’s in a broader lens.
Part III: Viral parkinsonism will be looked at in more detail.
Part IV: COVID-19 and parkinsonism- detailing whether there is evidence of increased risk of developing parkinsonism after a bout with COVID, and whether there may be some concerns in the near future.
Part V: Inflammation, immunity, and their roles in Parkinson’s
Part VI: Concluding remarks?
Like I said, the above is a tentative timeline, and several points may be taken together or even further separated.
But the intent here is once again to highlight nuance in the discourse.
Of course, before diving into the nuance it’s worth looking at what Parkinson’s is exactly and some of the factors related to it, which will be looked at in Part II.
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Mörz M. (2022). A Case Report: Multifocal Necrotizing Encephalitis and Myocarditis after BNT162b2 mRNA Vaccination against COVID-19. Vaccines, 10(10), 1651. https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10101651
Mezache, L., Nuovo, G. J., Suster, D., Tili, E., Awad, H., Radwański, P. B., & Veeraraghavan, R. (2022). Histologic, viral, and molecular correlates of heart disease in fatal COVID-19. Annals of diagnostic pathology, 60, 151983. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anndiagpath.2022.151983
On the ground, we're seeing a worsening of longtime relatively stable Parkinsons and MS patients. Known patients show up with sudden new symptoms -- a common one is incontinence. Welcome to your new life -- in diapers. That's no small impact.
The thing is, because all of these patients already have a diagnosis, they are not being considered for Spike-based injuries. Rather, it is described as a sudden worsening of their already existing disease. Therefore injury databases and publications covering this phenomenon are totally missing.
Another problem for these patients with already having a diagnosis: Guillain Barre Syndrome, for instance, could also cause this worsening of symptoms that they are seeing and is a common complication of the Spike shot. An acute bout of GBS would be treated with a strong round of medications and have a chance of going away. To identify whether GBS is at play, you need to do a spinal tap and look at certain parameters. Parkinsons and MS patients get regular spinal taps, but that little test they would need to see the GBS parameters is not done, because they already have a diagnosis. To get the test, the doctors would simply need to check off one more box on the ordering form for the spinal fluid that they're already sending in. Instead, none of this is being done, patients are not identified as having a potentially treatable episode of GBS on top of their existing neurological issues, their existing medication regimes are slightly adjusted (but that won't cure the GBS), and they're stuck in diapers while trying to maintain their dignity as a functional adult.
This same situation is likely at play for patients in any department who are dealing with a chronic disease and have a preexisting diagnosis. Those people are the most vulnerable to Spike shot complications, and their data is totally absent. Instead we're relying on 16-year-old soccer players to collapse and let us know something's wrong.
How many are dying from shot but blamed on other things they have? Without an autopsy and looking for spike protein they would never know the reason for death!