Covid vaccine causing dementia to worsen

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soler97
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Covid vaccine causing dementia to worsen

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My partner's cognition crashed ten days after receiving the Astra-Zeneca Covid vaccine. Has anyone else seen this happen? If so, does anyone know how to reverse the decline?

thanks

Tad
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Re: Covid vaccine causing dementia to worsen

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soler97 wrote: Tue Sep 06, 2022 4:34 am My partner's cognition crashed ten days after receiving the Astra-Zeneca Covid vaccine. Has anyone else seen this happen? If so, does anyone know how to reverse the decline?

thanks

Tad
Hi Tad,

I'm sorry to hear that the effort to protect your partner from the risk of a COVID infection resulted in such a drastic decline in their cognition 10 days later. The Astra-Zeneca vaccine was never approved for use in the US by the FDA, although it is similar in formulation to Johnson & Johnson's one-dose vaccine. As someone whose mother took a recommended drug to prevent miscarriages in her pregnancies which much later was found to cause a risk of rare, but significant birth defects in the children and grandchildren of those women, I am deeply sympathetic to what I assume is both anger and grief--and a need for answers. My guess is that finding an answer might involve subjecting your loved one to an annoyingly loud (and expensive) MRI, or possibly to a CAT scan, which might still not answer the question of what specifically changed from before.

I did find this 2021 article looking at side effects reported for all vaccines for two specific vascular changes to the brain: Vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia and cerebral venous sinus thrombosis I've taken out the footnote reference numbers, but they are in the original article here: Vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia and cerebral venous sinus thrombosis post COVID-19 vaccination; a systematic review
The Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine... is a viral vector vaccine to prevent COVID-19. Overall this vaccine efficacy more than 14 days after the second dose was about 66·7% .
Common side effects including injection-site reaction and pain, headache, malaise, and nausea, all generally resolving within a few days. However, there are few reports of VITT after vaccination .

According to the “European Medicine Agency's Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee,” from the 34 million people that received the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom as of April 4, 2021, 169 cases of [cerebral venous sinus thrombosis] CVST and 53 cases of splanchnic vein thrombosis were reported. Most of these cases occurring within the first two weeks of vaccination and in women <60 years .

Table 1 summarizes the articles that report [cerebral venous sinus thrombosis] CVST, associated venous infarct and hemorrhagic stroke, arterial infarct and ICH (intracerebral hemorrhage), and VITT after the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. In this group, we found 12 articles, which present the clinical features of 41 (36 CVST, 4 infarctions, 1 ICH) patients. Among 36 patients with CVST, 16 patients had an ICH and/or Subarachnoid Hemorrhage (SAH) (44%). From all reported cases (41 patients), 18 patients (44%) died.
It appears that these were clearly identified cases, perhaps with people who showed rapid physical as well as cognitive changes.

This article, from April 2022 in a Yale Medicine (Yale University) newsletter, focuses on the J&J vaccine, but explains a rare side effect of blood clots after COVID vaccination in both J&J and AstraZeneca:
The clotting condition associated with the J&J vaccine is called thrombosis with thrombocytopenia (TTS). Thrombosis occurs when blood clots block veins or arteries, and thrombocytopenia is a condition characterized by abnormally low platelet levels in the blood. The latter is unusual in someone with a major blood clot because platelets are colorless blood cells that have the function of helping blood clot.
“The mechanism of the action of these clots has been quite unusual and, frankly, that has surprised me,” says Dr. Bona. “There are definitely a lot of questions.”... A small number of serious blood clots has also been reported in people who received the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is not authorized for use in the United States. In March 2021, countries in Europe and elsewhere put a pause on that vaccine after a handful of people—mostly women younger than 60—also developed TTS. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) investigated the situation and concluded that these complications should be listed as very rare side effects of the AstraZeneca vaccine, and said the benefits still outweighed the risks. But several countries have restricted use of the vaccine because of the clots.
Both the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, as well as the Sputnik V vaccine in Russia (also not approved for use in the U.S.) are carrier—or vector—vaccines, which instruct human cells to make the SARS CoV-2 spike protein.
YaleMedicine:The Link Between J&J’s COVID Vaccine and Blood Clots: What You Need to Know

My paternal grandmother experienced a similar drastic change in cognition when she was hospitalized with salmonella at age 87--after being an avid ice skater and living independently to that point. My mother similarly suffered cognitive decline, though not as marked, when she had campylobacter (similar to salmonella) at age 80. In both cases, it seemed a small blessing that they were less aware of the changes than those who loved them. I hope that you see some improvement over time with your partner, and that you know that your support of her is the best "vaccine" she could ever receive.
Nancy
4/4 and still an optimist!
soler97
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Re: Covid vaccine causing dementia to worsen

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Dear Nancy,
Thanks very much for your quick and empathic reply. I appreciate the care you took to put this material together. I will speak to our integrative physician and mention the side effects you highlighted. The first article mentions ways of managing VITT, but obviously, this must be preceded by accurate diagnosis.

Tad
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