28 Types of Kidney Complications Reported Following COVID-19 Vaccination
By Marina Zhang – An Epoch Times Health Article
A healthy 20-year-old man took his first dose of the Pfizer vaccine, and six days later, he was admitted to the hospital.
His kidney function had deteriorated, and he was subsequently diagnosed with drug-related acute interstitial nephritis, a type of kidney disorder.
28 Kidney Injuries
Twenty-eight different kidney injuries have been reported following COVID-19 vaccination, according to a 2023 review published in the Indian Journal of Community Medicine.The paper reviews all the kidney-related complications reported in the literature following COVID-19 vaccinations, consulting nephrologist Dr. Richard Amerling, who was not involved in the review, told The Epoch Times.
Kidney complications can be a flare-up of a previous condition or occur suddenly in patients with no previous kidney disease.
The authors found that some of these patients also had recurring injuries after a subsequent dose of the vaccine, thereby raising concern “about whether it is safe to receive the subsequent dose of vaccine.”
“Physicians, especially nephrologists must be aware of the renal complications and counsel the patients to look out for the renal symptoms … post‑vaccination,” the authors concluded, highlighting that the vaccine is still recommended, as the benefits outweigh the risks.
The authors considered four mechanisms that could lead to kidney injury: a dysregulated T-cell response, a transient but systemic inflammatory response, a late allergic reaction, and an autoimmune reaction.
A Vulnerable Organ
Dr. Amerling said that the kidney is a fairly vulnerable organ because it filters all the blood in the body. Therefore, any toxin in the blood, such as spike protein, can potentially embed itself in the organ and cause direct or immune damage.“There are theories” about how vaccine injuries may occur, he said.
“Let’s say you have a spike protein complex with an antibody. … These can be of a size that they might get stuck in this filtering mechanism.” This could trigger an “inflammatory cascade” and damage the kidneys.
Dr. Amerling has communicated with colleagues who have treated patients with vaccine-related kidney conditions.
“Nephrologists see it. Whether they recognize it or not is another matter,” he said.
“It’s something that mainstream nephrology, like mainstream medicine, is simply going to deny the existence of, and they will continue to do that until someone forces them to open their eyes,” Dr. Amerling said.
“My fear is the [sic] with so many pressing medical problems including myocarditis, cardiac arrest, stroke, and blood clots, that renal damage may be overlooked, and when the medical community and patients discover it, it may be too late to intervene,” Dr. McCullough wrote.
Dr. Amerling said that for people concerned they may have kidney damage, the easiest way to test for this is to test for protein in the urine.
Other Findings
Researchers at New Zealand’s health agency published a preprint that linked myocarditis, pericarditis, and acute kidney injury to COVID-19 vaccines.The authors found that those who took the Pfizer vaccine tended to have the worst outcomes, with a higher proportion of individuals dying as a result, followed by the Moderna vaccine.