CNBC: Moderna vaccine side effect: rheumatoid arthritis

[Ms. Toad]

27. That is helpful.

The person who was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis had a pre-existing condition of hypothyroidism (the most common of which is Hashimotos - an autoimmune disorder). The report doesn't designate the person's hypothyroidism as Hashimoto's - but most are just treated, without being specifically diagnosed since the treatment is the same, regardess of the cause.) (I have Hashimoto's - my father was only diagnosed with hypothyroidsim, with the assumption being it is Hashimoto's.)

Most autoimmune disorders involve a genetic predisposition + an environmental trigger, and the truism is that if you have one autoimmune disorder, you may well develop more (about 25% do).

This person may well have been predisposed to develop another autoimmune disorder - which was triggered by the vaccine.

That's one of the reasons I avoid influenza vaccinations - I don't need my already overactive immune system sent into overdrive by the adjuvants that are frequently used to enhance the immune response when I rarely get influenza, and it is not a particularly risky disease for me when I do get it. That said, the calculation is significantly different for COVID 19 - which is far more deadly (both personally and societally), and far more contagious. Even if it is established that there is a miniscule risk of being an environmental trigger for another autoimmune disorder, that risk is very small compared to the personal and societal risk of not being vaccinated.