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Vision Impairments in Patients after COVID-19 Vaccination, Doctors Caution Possible Risks #MRNAeyes

On By A1PNews Editor

Vision Impairments in Patients After COVID-19 Vaccination, Doctors Caution Possible RisksBy: Marina ZhangMarch 19, 2023: House Rep. Mike Blecher (R-N.H.) has been suffering from ocular migraines for almost two years.He took his first Pfizer COVID-19 mRNA immunization in April 2021, and things have not been the same since.Around 12 hours after the shot, Belcher recalled developing symptoms of severe flu and neurological symptoms soon manifested in a matter of days.One unusual symptom stood out: His vision became strange. He started to notice that the red and green color balance in his eyes would shift, and dark spots would appear in his field of vision.Belcher would soon be tormented with painful headaches preceded by a blinding light that would cause searing pain at the back of his eyes.This came along with more serious symptoms, including impaired balance (he was unable to walk in a straight line) and memory problems.After being transferred from specialist to specialist, Belcher was finally hospitalized in May 2021.“I was hospitalized for maybe four days, and I was discharged with the diagnosis of protracted ocular migraines with some other names stacked on,” Belcher said. “I had never had a migraine before, and at that point, I had a migraine for [around] 20-something days straight.”Image Above: Undated photo of Michael Belcher. (Courtesy of Michael Belcher)Reports of Unusual Visual and Neurological Symptoms in the VaccinatedAlabama-based neurologist and neuroradiologist Dr. Diane Counce told The Epoch Times that since the vaccine rollouts, she has also seen many patients who, after vaccination, would develop migraines, or experience a worsening or increased frequency of symptoms. These migraines would often manifest with temporary blindness.Counce’s clinic has treated around 300 long-haul and postvaccine patients, and she has noticed that her long-COVID patients tend to have symptom presentations that are more understood, “more textbook presentation,” while the patients who developed symptoms after vaccination may develop more severe and unexplainable symptoms.A rather puzzling symptom she saw in her vaccinated patients was vision fluctuation, which would be accompanied by other neurological problems. The patients’ visual acuity would decline, but the decline would fluctuate from day to day, with no obvious physical abnormality observed in the eye.The constant changes in symptom severity make it hard for patients to change their eyeglass prescription, “because they’ll be different the next day,” Counce said.Ophthalmologist Dr. Lynnell Lowry from Alamo Eye Institute in Texas has also observed a rise in unusual eye problems.She told The Epoch Times about a patient who, for several weeks, had her field of vision interrupted by snow-like disturbances, but Lowry could not find anything remarkable upon examination.Most of Lowry’s vaccinated patients seemed to have developed vision problems related to a shingles flare-up or thyroid-related deficiencies.She has also seen an increase in rarer ocular problems. She would typically see central serous retinopathies around once every five years but has seen three cases in vaccinated people in 2022. She normally sees around one case of cranial nerve palsies every two years but has seen three cases in vaccinated people in 2022.Eye Complications Recorded in Database and LiteratureAccording to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), around 70 percent of eye pain, blurry vision, and visual impairment reports were filed for COVID-19 vaccines, as well as over 50 percent of all eye swelling reports.While VAERS cannot determine whether an adverse event was caused by a vaccination, patterns in reporting may suggest a need for further evaluation to assess potential safety concerns.The United Kingdom, which rolled out vaccines around the same time as the United States, reported over 9,000 cases of neurological symptoms including muscle spasms, myalgia, paresthesia, headaches, and dizziness to its VAERS database by late April 2021.A New Zealand study that tracked about 3,000 vaccinated patients who developed uveitis before the vaccine rollouts found that patients had an increased risk of uveitis flare-ups after vaccination.The baseline rate of uveitis flare was 12.3 per thousand patient months. This number increased to 20.7 after the first dose, 15.0 after the second dose, 12.8 after the third dose, and 23.9 after the fourth dose.In November 2022, the American Academy of Ophthalmology posted a review of ocular manifestations postvaccine that were reported in the literature. Eye complications fell into four broad categories:Ocular inflammatory diseases occur when tissues in the eye become red, swollen, and pained. Postvaccination inflammation has been documented in the conjunctiva, the outermost layer of the eye; the sclera, the white layer covering the eye; as well as inflammation in the inner layers including the episclera and uvea.Optic neuropathies occur when the optic nerves that transfer visual information from the eye to the brain become damaged. This may occur when blood clots stop or limit blood flow to the nerves and also when the body starts attacking its own optic nerves, which may lead to flickering lights in the eyes, vision loss, and pain.Anterior segment conditions are related to eye complications in the front part of the eye such as the cornea, irises, and lens, as well as the muscles that control these areas. Since the vaccines rolled out, there have been several reports of keratitis, which is inflammation in the cornea. Reports of corneal transplant rejections have also been documented, though reporting rates are not higher than rates of other vaccines. Eye infections from shingles have also been reported and may occur with or without rashes.Retinal conditions include tearing and detachment of the retina. Since the retina is responsible for detecting light and color, its damage can lead to impairment and loss of vision.Mark from California suddenly started to see floaters in cobweb-like formations in his left eye within the first two weeks after receiving his first Pfizer dose. This came after suffering from chest pain within hours of vaccination.A referral to an eye specialist showed that his retina was bleeding. The gel in his left eye, which gives eyes their spherical shape, was pulling on the retina, causing the tissue to bleed. If the gel tears or causes the retina to detach, it may lead to permanent vision loss.More Evidence Needed to Prove CausalitySince COVID-19, doctors have become more cautious when discussing vaccine adverse events.Mark said his ophthalmologist told him that the spike protein produced by his first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine may have aggregated in his eye, leading to inflammation and damage, but other eye specialists have told him the opposite.Mark had laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) to correct his vision over 20 years ago, so other ophthalmologists told him that he was at risk of retinal detachment to begin with, though studies have generally reported retinal detachment within the first few years after a LASIK surgery.While ophthalmologists are now becoming more aware of vaccine adverse events, some argue that the current evidence that supports ocular complications from the vaccine is not strong enough.Since ocular complications after vaccinations tend to be quite rare to begin with, some experts think it is unknown whether reported cases of suspected ocular problems after vaccinations are side effects or only a matter of coincidence.Ophthalmologist Dr. Abelrahman Elhusseiny, who has co-authored several studies documenting ocular adverse events after COVID-19 vaccinations, said that though the literature on this topic has increased since 2021, he has seen very few cases of possible vaccine adverse events in his clinic.He also said that many of his vaccinated patients who then developed ocular problems had underlying health problems such as autoimmune disease, diabetes, or high blood pressure, which would already put them at risk of ocular symptoms and may increase the risk of vaccine adverse events.While extensive literature has shown that the COVID-19 vaccines can cause myocarditis, pericarditis, and thrombocytopenia, links between COVID-19 vaccines and ocular adverse events have been quite weak.“There is evidence, but the evidence is not as strong as with other conditions such as, say, cardiovascular issues. This is mainly due to [the] small number of events and lack of well-controlled studies specifically on ocular adverse events,” ophthalmic epidemiologist and professor Mahyar Etminan from the University of British Columbia told The Epoch Times over email.The most compelling evidence so far is from a Japanese epidemiology study that matched vaccinated to unvaccinated people. After comparing about 80,000 double-dosed individuals against the same number of unvaccinated people, the authors found that risks of ocular complications increased after the second dose. However, analyzing the same sample using a different technique resulted in an insignificant link between vaccination and ocular symptoms.There are also several case studies reporting possible links, though this type of study is less convincing as evidence to prove causality.Nevertheless, Etminan believed that it is possible to investigate the possible link between ocular complications and vaccinations, adding that the study should be well-designed with a large sample size.“Since these vaccines are under the microscope, we have to be careful not to link everything and the kitchen sink associated with these drugs. This data should only come from well-designed studies,” he said.Ophthalmologists Now Discussing Vaccine Risks With PatientsTo err on the side of caution, some ophthalmologists are now actively bringing up possible risks of vaccines to their patients.Lowry said that now she considers a person’s vaccine status and evaluates its potential temporal association with the symptoms of which her patients complain.Elhusseiny similarly said that he lets his patients know about the risks of vaccinating so they can make their own decisions.One of Elhusseiny’s patients lost his spouse to COVID-19 and continued getting vaccinated without further adverse reactions, while another patient had a relative who experienced a vaccine adverse event, and therefore, decided to stop getting vaccinated.Lowry highlighted the importance of physicians bringing up vaccine risks with their patients.Coming out of the pandemic, she noticed that while some patients suspect that the vaccines may have been involved in some of their symptoms, they seem afraid to mention it voluntarily.“There’s a huge stigma,” Lowry said. Patients who got vaccinated and had adverse events are “almost afraid to blame it on the vaccine.”Especially since most people now have experienced both vaccination and infection, there is an added level of complexity for doctors to come to a diagnosis, with Lowry comparing doctors now to detectives.Looking to the FutureWhen looking to the horizon, the bright light triggers a pulsating effect on his eyes, Belcher said. “The vision kind of fades in and out just a little bit. That’s a constant feature.”Belcher said that many of the doctors he saw during and leading up to his hospitalization were quite certain that the vaccine was a contributor to his condition.Thankfully for Belcher, most of his neurological symptoms are now under control.Though his ocular migraines need daily medication to prevent breakthrough cases, in recent weeks, he’s seeing a decrease in frequency.Belcher hopes that future examinations will inform him of the pathological reasons behind his ocular symptoms.Source: The Epoch Times (Premium) Follow More Breaking News at:Colin Wright @ExtremelyAmerican.com on GETTRwww.ExtremelyAmerican.com

Three Years to Slow the Spread Marked the Advent of Push-Button Tyranny & Perpetual Fear Porn

On By A1PNews Editor

Three Years to Slow the Spread Marked the Advent of Push-Button TyrannyBy: Jordan SchachtelMarch 19, 2023 (Updated): This week marks the three-year anniversary of the infamous “15 Days To Slow The Spread” campaign.
By March 16, yours truly was already pretty fed up with both the governmental and societal “response” to what was being baselessly categorized as the worst pandemic in 100 years, despite zero statistical data supporting such a serious claim. I was living in the Washington, DC Beltway at the time, and it was pretty much impossible to find a like-minded person within 50 miles who also wasn’t taking the bait. After I read about the news coming out of Wuhan in January, I spent much of the next couple weeks catching up to speed and reading about what a modern pandemic response was supposed to look like.
What surprised me most was that none of “the measures” were mentioned, and that these designated “experts” were nothing more than failed mathematicians, government doctors, and college professors who were more interested in policy via shoddy academic forecasting than observing reality.
Within days of continually hearing their yapping at White House pressers, It quickly became clear that the Deborah Birxes and Anthony Faucies of the world were engaging in nothing more than a giant experiment. There was no an evidence-based approach to managing Covid whatsoever. These figures were leaning into the collective hysteria, and brandishing their credentials as Public Health Experts to demand top-down approaches to stamping out the WuFlu.To put it bluntly, these longtime government bureaucrats had no idea what the f—k they were doing. Fauci and his cohorts were not established or reputable scientists, but authoritarians, charlatans, who had a decades-long track record of hackery and corruption. This Coronavirus Task Force did not have the collective intellect nor the wisdom to be making these broad-brush decisions.
Back then, there were only literally a handful of people who attempted to raise awareness about the wave of tyranny, hysteria, and anti-science policies that were coming our way. There were so few of us back in March in 2020 that it was impossible to form any kind of significant structured resistance to the madness that was unfolding before us. These structures would later form, but not until the infrastructure for the highway to Covid hysteria hell had already been cemented.
Making matters worse was the reality that the vast majority of the population — friends, colleagues, peers and family included — agreed that dissenters were nothing more than reckless extremists, bioterrorists, Covid deniers, anti-science rabble rousers, and the like.
Yet we were right, and we had the evidence and data to prove it. There was no evidence to ever support such a heavy-handed series of government initiatives to “slow the spread.”
By March 16, 2020, data had already accumulated indicating that this contagion would be no more lethal than an influenza outbreak.
The February, 2020 outbreak on the Diamond Princess cruise ship provided a clear signal that the hysteria models provided by Bill Gates-funded and managed organizations were incredibly off-base. Of the 3,711 people aboard the Diamond Princess, about 20 percent tested positive with Covid. The majority of those who tested positive had zero symptoms. By the time all passengers had disembarked from the vessel, there were 7 reported deaths on the ship, with the average age of this cohort being in the mid-80s, and it wasn’t even clear if these passengers died from or with Covid.
Despite the strange photos and videos coming out of Wuhan, China, there was no objective evidence of a once-in-a-century disease approaching America’s shores, and the Diamond Princess outbreak made that clear.
Of course, it wasn’t the viral contagion that became the problem.
It was the hysteria contagion that brought out the worst qualities of much of the global ruling class, letting world leaders take off their proverbial masks in unison and reveal their true nature as power drunk madmen.
And even the more decent world leaders were swept up in the fear and mayhem, turning over the keys of government control to the supposed all-knowing Public Health Experts.
They quickly shuttered billions of lives and livelihoods, wreaking exponentially more havoc than a novel coronavirus ever could.
In the United States, 15 Days to Slow The Spread quickly became 30 Days To Slow The Spread. Somewhere along the way, the end date for “the measures” was removed from the equation entirely.
3 years later, there still isn’t an end date…
Anthony Fauci appeared on MSNBC Thursday morning and declared that Americans would need annual Covid boosters to compliment their Flu shots.So much of the Covid hysteria era was driven by pseudoscience and outright nonsense, and yet, very few if any world leaders took it upon themselves to restore sanity in their domains. Now, unsurprisingly, so many elected officials who were complicit in this multi-billion person human tragedy won’t dare to reflect upon it.
In a 1775 letter from John Adams to his wife, Abigail, the American Founding Father wrote: “Liberty once lost is lost forever. When the People once surrender their share in the Legislature, and their Right of defending the Limitations upon the Government, and of resisting every Encroachment upon them, they can never regain it.”Covid hysteria and the three-year anniversary of 15 Days To Slow The Spread serve as the beginning period of a permanent scar resulting from government power grabs and federal overreach. While life is back to normal in most of the country, the Overton window of acceptable policy has slid even further in the direction of push-button tyranny. Hopefully, much of the world has awakened to the reality that most of the people in charge aren’t actually doing what’s best for their respective populations.Source: Brownstone Institute Follow More Breaking News at:Colin Wright @ExtremelyAmerican.com on GETTRwww.ExtremelyAmerican.com