VAERS

I have completed and uploaded a VAERS report about my wrist pain, just in case it's connected to the vaccine (vaccine dose was 1/17/22, and the pain started in late March or early April).

I don't think this is likely, but in the interests of thoroughness I mentioned it under "any new symptoms" for the V-Safe six-month check-in, and someone called the following day and urged me to report it via VAERS.

VAERS stands for Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System -- it's designed to collect lots of data, without filtering for accuracy or plausibility. The idea is to catch unusual but significant effects, and sort out later which are, or might be, related to a vaccine. It's not designed, at that stage, to figure out whether those events are more common in people who had a given vaccine -- if you have a vaccine and then something goes wrong, it's easy to assume that the two facts are connected. If people ask you, a week after a vaccine, "do you have any new or worsening symptoms?" you may mention something like a sore ankle without adding "I twisted my ankle two days ago."

If anyone decides my report of a sore wrist is worth investigating, one thing they'll probably do is ask me about accidents or wrist injuries. If I understand this correctly, they will also look at how many people reported wrist pain after the SpikeVax vaccine, compared to what's known about wrist pain in otherwise-similar people who didn't have the vaccine.

Biogen and kickbacks to doctors

Biogen has agreed to a $900 million settlement of a drug kickback lawsuit. This was specifically about kickbacks to doctors to get them to prescribe specific MS drugs. Three drugs, all of which I've taken for MS in the past. (Avonex, Tysabri, and Tecfidera.)

As usual with these things, Biogen isn't admitting wrongdoing--but they thought the case against them was strong enough that they agreed to pay $900 million rather than go to trial.

The lawsuit was filed in 2012 under the False Claims Act, which allows whistleblowers to sue companies on the government's behalf to recover taxpayer money paid out based on fraudulent claims.

The Justice Department may intervene in such cases following an investigation, though in 2015 it opted against doing so in [ex-employee Michael] Bawduniak's case. Under the law, he is entitled to 25% to 30% of any money Biogen pays.

My current MS drug, Ocrevus, is made by a different company, Genentech, which at the moment feels somewhat reassuring.

My neurologist in New York, Brian Apatoff, prescribed the Avonex and then the Tysabri. My Washington neurologist continued the Tysabri for a few months, and then switched me to Tecfidera, because it wasn't safe for me to stay on the Tysabri for more than 18 months, for cumulative safety reasons (which I knew about when I started taking Tysabri). My first neurologist here in Massachusetts continued the Tecfidera; I don't remember whether he or Dr. Katz looked at an MRI and advised me to switch to Ocrevus instead. Nor do I know whether any of the doctors who advised me to take the Biogen drugs got the kickbacks; it seems unlikely that none of them did.

[via RetractionWatch]