Despite over 70,000 reported side effects from covid-19 vaccines in Denmark, patients often still face skepticism when reporting symptoms. Dr. Christine Stabell Benn warns that vaccine injuries risk not being taken seriously due to the heavy politicization of the debate.
Christine Stabell Benn is a doctor and professor at the University of Southern Denmark and also the head of the Danish part of Bandim Health Project's research station in Guinea-Bissau, where research is conducted on, among other things, the nonspecific effects of vaccines.
She tells the Danish Medical Journal that she has received over 100 reports from patients in a short period who believe they have been vaccine-injured from injections of covid-19 vaccines. Symptoms patients have experienced include heart inflammation, pain, allergies, tinnitus, and shortness of breath.
Patients in question have been met with skepticism from healthcare providers when seeking help and also testify to having been dismissed with the derogatory label "anti-vaxxer" when raising the subject in other contexts, something she points out is a "recipe for mistrust of vaccines."
– If you know someone who has been diagnosed with a serious illness, try asking yourself: What if they were just met with the answer that 'it's probably just something you're imagining,' says Stabell Benn to the Medical Journal.
– What if there was no healthcare system that could catch them, recognize them, and offer them treatment for their specific disease. In some cases, even their own family and friends do not trust their experiences. It can give you an idea of what vaccine patients are going through, she adds.
"There must be help available"
Furthermore, the doctor argues that the "cognitive bias" she perceives around vaccines contributes to professionals not being sufficiently critical of Phase III studies of covid-19 vaccines. It is overlooked that these are studies and not an established picture of the drug's effects and side effects.
– I am afraid it has come to a point where doctors and authorities do not take vaccine side effects seriously enough and people with real injuries are not getting help.
– As long as we only have limited knowledge and few studies on covid-19 vaccines, all inquiries from patients about vaccine side effects should be taken seriously and reported to the authorities. The authorities must then follow up on the inquiry and ensure that help is available, Stabell Benn continues.
