The number of serious complications after vaccinations against Sars-CoV-2 is 40 times higher than previously recorded by the Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI). This is one of the results of a long-term observational study by the Berlin Charité. Study director Professor Harald Matthes is now calling for more contact points for those affected.

The study “Safety Profile of Covid-19 Vaccines” (“ImpfSurv” for short), which focuses on the effects and side effects of the various vaccines, has been running for a year. Around 40,000 vaccinated people are interviewed at regular intervals throughout Germany. Participation in the study is voluntary and independent of how the vaccines work in the subjects.

One result: eight out of 1,000 vaccinated people struggle with serious side effects. “The number is not surprising,” explains Prof. Dr. Harald Matthes, head of the study: “It corresponds to what is known from other countries such as Sweden, Israel or Canada. Incidentally, even the manufacturers of the vaccines had already determined similar values ​​in their studies.” With conventional vaccines, such as against polio or measles, the number of serious side effects is significantly lower.

Serious side effects are symptoms that last for weeks or months and require medical attention. These include muscle and joint pain, heart muscle inflammation, excessive reactions of the immune system and neurological disorders, i.e. impairments of the nervous system. “Most side effects, including severe ones, subside after three to six months, 80 percent heal. But unfortunately there are also some that last much longer,” reports Professor Matthes.

Side effects related to a COVID-19 vaccine can be reported online to the Paul Ehrlich Institute. The aim here is to be able to identify previously unknown risks after vaccination.

Around 179 million Covid 19 vaccine doses have been vaccinated in Germany so far. “In view of around half a million cases with serious side effects after Covid vaccinations in Germany, we doctors have to take action,” emphasizes Prof. Matthes, who, in addition to his work at the Berlin Charité, is on the board of several medical specialist societies and has been seeing the effect for years of medicinal products are systematically examined. “We have to come to therapy offers, discuss them openly at congresses and in public without being considered anti-vaccination.”

It is particularly depressing for those affected that their complaints are often not taken seriously. Doctors in private practice would too often not associate the symptoms with the vaccinations because they were either not prepared for them or because they did not want to position themselves in a heated political mood.

This is also evidenced by the many letters to the head of the study, Professor Matthes, in which those affected describe their often months-long search for effective medical help and recognition. They show that suspected cases are not officially reported. And so the numbers of serious vaccination reactions at the Paul Ehrlich Institute, at 0.2 reports per 1,000 vaccine doses, are also significantly lower than in the Charité study.

Special outpatient clinics for vaccination victims required

There are already a number of facilities that would be able to take on at least the initial care of patients with vaccination complications: “We already have several special outpatient clinics for treating the long-term consequences of Covid disease,” explains Prof. Matthes. “Many clinical pictures that are known from ‘Long Covid’ correspond to those that occur as side effects of vaccination.” The doctors in such clinics are therefore experienced enough. Now it is about opening the outpatient clinics to patients with vaccination complications. Depending on the extent of the complication, patients could then be referred to specialist departments such as neurology or cardiology. And intensive care units and dialysis centers could also be involved in the treatment: “They have experience with blood washing”

Both at the Charité and in other clinics, effective treatments for people with vaccination complications are being developed: “The presence of too many autoantibodies in the blood plasma of those affected is often the cause of the problem,” explains Prof. Matthes. “Therefore, it must first be determined which and how many of these autoantibodies are present.” Laboratories that can carry out the relevant tests must therefore also be brought on board.

As soon as the diagnosis is clear, the aim is to remove the excess antibodies from the blood by means of immune suppression drugs or a special blood wash. The method has been known for a long time, but is too unspecific: “We only want to reduce incorrectly formed autoantibodies, i.e. those that have developed against Sars-CoV-2.” The problem, however, is that the treatments for long Covid, including rehabilitation measures, are now paid for by the health insurance companies, but comparable treatments for vaccination complications only in very rare cases. The committed doctor emphasizes that there is an urgent need for improvement here and advises patients and their family doctors: “If the insurance company refuses to cover the costs of a measure, file an objection, if necessary a second time.”