James' World 2

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Within an hour of receiving a COVID-19 vaccination in November 2020, Utah preschool teacher Brianne Dressen felt pins and needles through her arms and legs. In the medical odyssey that followed, she suffered double vision, chronic nausea, brain fog, and profound weakness. Once a rock climber, she became a couch potato.

Although Dressen’s symptoms were rare in that season of hundreds of millions of COVID-19 vaccinations, they were common enough to draw the attention of a National Institutes of Health neuroscientist named Avindra Nath, who examined Dressen and more than 30 other people with a similar syndrome in 2021. He recommended Dressen take steroids and antibodies — treatments that saved her life, she said.

And then, according to emails reviewed by KFF Health News, Nath said he couldn’t help anymore. His clinical study was ending. He directed the patients to seek local help. But, Dressen said, there wasn’t any.

Nath declined to speak to KFF Health News for this article. The FDA searched international vaccine safety databases for small-fiber neuropathy, one of the most common symptoms he mentioned in a write-up of the patients, and found it was less prevalent in vaccinated than in unvaccinated patients, said Peter Marks, who led the FDA division responsible for vaccines until Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. forced him out in May.

While it’s possible that Nath’s patients suffered covid vaccine injuries, Marks said, their symptoms were so varied it was hard to characterize a possible syndrome.

But for Dressen and others convinced the vaccines injured them, their experiences were symptomatic of a well-intentioned but flawed U.S. system for monitoring the rare ill effects of vaccines. The system isn’t well-funded enough to answer questions that people urgently want answered, and that can feed vaccine hesitancy, safety experts say.

Its shortcomings were on particular display during the mass vaccination campaigns of the pandemic, when even rare, serious side effects could affect thousands of people.

Now, some leading vaccine scientists are calling for more resources to research vaccine safety and support people with claims of injury, and asking Kennedy, who has a history as an anti-vaccine activist, to step up.

“Spending money on vaccine safety is not saying vaccines aren’t safe; it’s showing a commitment to continued improvement,” said Y. Tony Yang, a professor of health policy at George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health.

So far, they’ve been disappointed. While Kennedy gives the public the impression that vaccines are harmful, he hasn’t talked about ways to make them safer. And he’s made the problem worse by cutting programs and dismissing scientists who are most knowledgeable about the problems, according to numerous vaccine experts.

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President Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” passed a key procedural hurdle after a long night of haggling with Republicans but is currently being held up by a marathon speech from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

Jeffries has already spoken for more than four hours, lambasting the opposition for betraying “everyday Americans” by slashing Medicaid and miring the country in debt, calling the bill an “immoral document.”

A floor vote on the bill cannot take place until he yields his time.

Trump’s costly legislative package aims to increase funding for defense and border security at the expense of welfare programs and has divided the GOP, whose narrow 220-212 majority in the House permits only three defections.

Earlier, Trump took to Truth Social to express his frustration, demanding to know: “What are the Republicans waiting for??? What are you trying to prove??? MAGA IS NOT HAPPY, AND IT’S COSTING YOU VOTES!!!”

The House passed an earlier draft in May, but it has since been drastically revised in the Senate, which required a tie-breaking vote from Vice President JD Vance to force through on Tuesday.

Trump has set a loose deadline of July 4 to sign the bill.

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Hakeem

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Creating the conditions of the sun on Earth has been a decades-long, global challenge — but if we crack it, it could mean limitless clean energy. Johanna Wagstaffe visits a Canadian company betting on a bold new approach to get there first.

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Fusion

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