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COVID 19 vaccination and type 1 diabetes

S

sally mercer

Member
Messages
16
Type of diabetes
Family member
Treatment type
I do not have diabetes
COVID 19 vaccination caused by healthy 47 year old partner to get type 1 diabetes. It has been proven that this is a side effect and needs to reported. The COVID 19 enquiry is open now for people to give feedback on what happened to them. The more people that report it, the better the outcome. You can receive compensation.
 
Interesting, your profile says that you have Type One diabetes, and also says that your partner has Type One diabetes, if I read your message correctly. I think you would find it difficult to prove a connection to a vaccination.
 
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There is a tenuous link, but it is very rare. The point to keep in mind is you have to have the genetic susceptibility in the first place. If you don’t have the genetic predisposition no vaccine is going to trigger an autoimmune response and cause an autoimmune disorder such as TD1. It begs the question, would you have got it anyways, sometime in the future if your body had to mount an immune response to a naturally occurring virus.
 
Having been a Type1 from 1959-2013 and then receiving a Kidney/Pancreas transplant, I have been on immunosuppressants ever since. Since February 2000 I have had 10 flu vaccines and 9 Covid vaccines. My HbA1c has stayed at 34 for the last 11 years. Surely if the OP's statement were accurate, I would definitely be Type 1 again?
 
There is a pretty good line of thought that COVID 19 is better thought of as a metabolic disorder than a respiratory disease, and that it's the metabolic acute inflammation that produces the pneumonia-like cascade in the lungs that killed so many people in the early days - it's difficult to really remember the sense of terror that we all felt watching hospital wards on the verge of collapse, and it's why so many of the early casualties were people with diabetes of all types.

Of course, viewed in that way, diabetes sufferers of all types as a population have a greater statistical reason for feeling greatful for the development of the various vaccines, whether any individual chose to take it or not. I don't mean to minimise anyones experience, and in the millions of doses given, there will be some unfortunate cases, but having watched my Father die of Pneumonia, I personally believe the world owes a debt of gratitude for the development of those novel vaccines and for taking away the fear of those terrible deaths that we all forget now.
 
lovinglife said:
Haven’t heard of this - who is paying the compensation?
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I have been researching it for my partner, as we are convinced the jab caused his diabetes. I don't have diabetes, I'm just trying to help him. I came across the COVID enquiry feedback form on one of my many searches. I believe that if the link between the jab and the onset of type 1 diabetes can be proven or at least looked into people may be entitled to compensation through the vaccine damage payment. It would be nice if it was acknowledged. I'm sorry if I've spoken out of turn, I've never been on a forum.
 
You didn’t speak out of turn at all but you made big statements that need to be backed up by facts,I really had not seen anything saying that if proved your T1 was brought about by having Covid jab alone then you can get compensation. I’m sorry that your partner has been given a T1 diagnosis and it may well have been triggered by having the Covid jab but he may well have had a genetic propensity to it.

It’s admirable that you are doing so much to help him & he’s lucky to have you, but having a belief and fact are two different things, but it’s natural human nature to try and find out a reason why these things happen to us.

Now that your here stick around and ask any questions you have about your partners T1, I can’t help there as I’m T2 but we have lots of very knowledgeable, friendly T1 members that are always keen to help with advice and their personal experiences. Maybe even get your partner to join the forum

Edited to add missing words
 
I have seen that they think there is a connection between the two, particularly in children. Proving it is another thing. Truthfully I think a different virus caused mine. But the chances are something was going to activate it as my brother had had type 1 for many years before me.

At the end of the day we have it, are stuck with it and have to live with it. Acknowledgment of how I got it is irrelevant. As for getting compensation, for me it wouldn’t be worth the stress, or the years of waiting for it to happen.
 
There is almost certainly a connection but as @Melgar points out - quite rare and it seems to be triggering a genetic susceptibility - which is for sure going to feel like a causation, but is one step removed. I wish your partner well @sally mercer - and if there is any compensation for this, I wish you well with that.

Digging in a little deeper (my own GP talked about COVID seeming to "shock" the pancreas in some of her patients - ie, it seems clear that the actual viral infection itself has triggered many more people into an autoimmune reaction) - of the cases studied, some have managed without insulin, so if it were me, I'd be looking into the long term studies - is it really a type-1 situation, where you are having to supply external insulin forever, or is it some kind of temporary pathology that the pancreas will recover from.

I'm going nowhere near a diagnosis with this, but if it was me (with what I know now) - I'd be looking for a C-Peptide test in about 6 months (which would show the amount of naturally-produced insulin in his system) - as well as reading everything you can about how to interpret a blood glucose monitor trace in the meantime, because by the time that 6 month test comes around, you want to be expert in being able to figure out whether it's likely or not that you (rather your partner) still has a fully functional pancreas or not.

A bad thing has happened, for sure; but this by it's nature is quite new ground, and it's complicated - type 1 and type 2 are opposite in the way that they need to be thought of - Type 1 means not enough insulin, Type 2 typically means too much. However, if your partner has had something reversible happen to his pancreas (the organ that creates insulin normally) - it could be that the treatment with insulin could mask any recovery that the pancreas is going through (that's pretty much what happened to me, so I'm not making that up).

@becca59 is totally correct - type 1 simply has to be acknowledged and managed - however - you need to be sure first that it is type 1. For me - I became increasingly confused that some of the things I was seeing could not be explained without some level of insulin in my body, but the system could only treat me as type 1 until there was proof to the contrary.

Good luck....
 
Thank you for your response, I really appreciate that and I will ask him to get checked to see if his pancreas is working. He is always low and his alarm is going off constantly. I do the research for him, as he struggles with writing and expressing what he wants to say. Since the diagnosis he has been in quite a dark place. I just want him to know that he is not alone.
 
sally mercer said:
He is always low and his alarm is going off constantly.
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I would focus on diabetes management rather than the cause or even getting compensated.
Why is he going low constantly, how are is insulin doses determined and adjusted?

Before there was covid 19 or jabs, people got T1 as well. It's by definition a surprise diagnosis, and more often than not there is no family history.
While it's very tempting to link a new diagnosis to something that happened shortly before, don't forget about coincidence.
 
I just want to be clear, he has never had COVID, he was rushed into hospital shortly after having his second jab and came out a type 1 diabetic. I think he was admitted for ketosis and he was very poorly.
 
Thank you for your reply. I know there is coincidence but he has met five other people in his daily job that have experienced the exact same thing, can that really be coincidence? As the other person said maybe, he's taking insulin and his pancreas is also creating it now. He has a review coming up, so that's something to talk about. He has just had his blood taken, so maybe that would show if he's taking insulin when he doesn't need to.
 
All I wanted to do is say that the COVID 19 enquiry is open and they are asking for feedback. If you feel your type 1 diabetes happened after your first or second jab, please report it. It's the same with any drug, we need to report adverse reactions to help the pharmaceutical companies work on those findings. I have been in the Pharmaceutical industry for 10 years and without reports they can do nothing about it.
 
Early in a T1 diagnosis, the pancreas still produces insulin, if often in an unpredictable manner. It's called the honeymoon period.
For most, this simply means they sometimes need more insulin and sometimes less, without a way to predict if a given day is a day where we need more or less. For some, it means temporarily not needing insulin at all.

However, the amount of insulin needed in a T1 is not based on labwork showing how much insulin we produce, but on blood glucose as measured multiple times a day. So even if he does still produce some of his own insulin, there's a need for injected insulin as well if his blood glucose goes high.

There has been an increase of diabetes after covid (although I haven't read the same about the jab), and it looks like sometimes diabetes after covid behaves as T1 for a while, including the need for insulin until things get better. Makes sense to me, long covid is something attacking multiple systems in the body, possibly including the pancreas for some. Who knows, this may be what happened to @Chris24Main .

But no matter the cause, it's managing day to day blood glucose that matters in diabetes, and if he's going low all the time I'd urge him to contact his diabetes team on how to adjust his doses before the review.
 
A few observations. The progression of type 1 diabetes in adults tends to be far slower than for child onset Type 1. It can literally take days for kids to develop T1, not so in adults. In adults it can be months to years. I believe it is to do with the type of antibody, but I could be wrong.

Secondly, starting insulin therapy is seen as protective for your islet beta cells. So if this is a temporary insult on the pancreas then insulin would assist the beta cells recover by giving them a ‘rest’. I base this statement on those diagnosed with LADA commencing insulin therapy early to preserve the beta cells for a longer period, even though their eventual demise is inevitable.

As @Chris24Main states, COVID as a metabolic disease, that is the virus attaches the metabolism system. So it makes sense that organs can suffer a degree of damage. Look at long COVID.
 
sally mercer said:
I have been researching it for my partner, as we are convinced the jab caused his diabetes. I don't have diabetes
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Could I ask that you amend your profile to show as a family member rather than as a person with type 1. It can lead to confusion in replies and constant explanations on your part otherwise. Just click your avatar picture top right, choose account details and scroll down til you find the appropriate type. Any issues just tag a mod (type @nameofmod) which alerts that person or send us a message using the envelop next to your username and we can talk you through it

edit to amend accidental link
 
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i got diagnosed in 2020 with T1 it was bang in with the Covid then to i did wonder at the time was there anything to do with it but i was taken in with DKA i have declined my last 2 covid jabs i had about 6 though. i must say the hospitals in 2020 were a scary place to be!
 
Diagnosed in 2023 with symptoms starting in 2022 after having 3 COVID jabs. My DSN did tell me that contracting covid could potentially act as a trigger for T1D. Interesting point but I believe I've always had the potential to be diabetic and something triggered it, not appearing out of nowhere due to a vaccine.
 
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