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Tephnos t1_j7avffy wrote

Reply to comment by iayork in Did the 2009 H1N1 outbreak in the US increase the incidence of type 1 diabetes in adolescents? by legendary_kazoo

> To help explain what "inconclusive" means, similar studies were able to conclusively link a 1 in 20,000 risk of narcolepsy to a specific vaccine. So presumably if there's any risk it's lower than 1 in 20,000.

Can you elaborate on why then more recent research has shown that it seems H1N1 was causing narcolepsy itself? Countries that did not use that specific vaccine were seeing surges of narcolepsy incidents as well. Is this not a case of awareness bias, or whatever it is called? How can we be sure it was purely the vaccine?

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iayork t1_j7b7m06 wrote

Post-vaccination monitoring is active and aggressive (especially in the Scandinavian countries where the link was made). Unfortunately viral surveillance, while a part of normal public health, is underfunded and understaffed, but hey, what could go wrong?

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Lyrle t1_j7biu6p wrote

In genetically susceptible humans, one of the proteins in H1N1 triggers an autoimmune attack by T cells against specific brain cells, and those brain cells dying causes narcolepsy.

Most flu vaccines by happenstance never included that protein. The vaccine that caused narcolepsy in susceptible people included the triggering protein.

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