This story is commonly called “the flu shot cheerleader hoax” around the Internets, and I suppose that’s to be expected during a month when the Balloon Boy made a monkey out of Wolf Blitzer and about half of the planet. But I’m having trouble finding a motive for aspiring Washington Redskins cheerleader Desiree Jennings to be faking her very dramatic symptoms that she says were brought on by a flu vaccination shot.
Jennings, a “Washington Redskins ambassador,” whatever that means, says that she got a flu shot at a Reston, Va. Safeway, and a week later developed a rare neurological condition with no cure. Jennings now has trouble walking or forming sentences; except, strangely, when she’s running. Then she seems fine. Thus the charges of a hoax, I guess.
Video of Jennings, after the jump.
From NBCWASHINGTON.COM:
“I was hoping for Lyme, praying for lupus, even Graves’ disease,” Jennings said of the time she waited while doctors looked over her case. “Unfortunately they were all ruled out.”
Finally, doctors at Johns Hopkins figured it out, diagnosing dystonia, a rare neurological condition with no cure brought on by infections, brain trauma or, as is believed in her case, reaction to medication. It causes body jerks and abnormal or repetitive movements.
“A simple conversation with two people — you and I could converse on the couch, and if the phone were to ring it would send her into a violent convulsion,” said her husband, Brendan Jennings.
Strangely enough — as she can’t walk forward five feet without stumbling — with some effort, she can perform one of her life’s passions: running. And she walks backward with ease — oddly empowering, now. After her ordeal began, “My insurance wasn’t going to pay for another hospital visit. Matter of fact, they called us as we were driving to Johns Hopkins not to offer a specialist but instead to offer a hospital bed and a wheelchair for our house. I told them I wanted to know what was happening to me and that I didn’t want to be in a wheelchair.”
There are a lot of flu vaccination conspiracy theorists out there who think that flu shots actually do more harm than good. And they’re lining up to be heard on this story behind universal heath care proponents, who are claiming that Jennings isn’t getting the treatment she needs because of a lack of affordable health insurance.
Unfortunately, Jennings’ condition is getting worse; although she competed in an eight-kilometer race on Oct. 17, and finished it.
If you’d like to help Desiree, her GENERATION RESCUE web site can be found here. Be forewarned that the site links to much propaganda of the anti-flu shot variety. I suppose you can’t blame her for being the poster child for that movement, but the majority of scientific evidence seems to be in the other camp. Not that I’m a doctor or anything. Well, not since the “incident” in the Philippines.
2:26 pm on October 23rd, 2009
This isn’t a hoax. What moron suggested that it was?
Her reaction to the vaccine was a very rare one, supposedly one in a million, but still very real. Frankly, I’d rather get swine flu than take a chance on this vaccine.
2:58 pm on October 23rd, 2009
This is so sad and yet so true. How could anyone possible think this is a hoax?This H1N1 thing is such crap. Swine flu, cant wait for chicken flu next year. In June 2010 this swine flu thing will be done and we will be off on some other flu tangent. This just makes me sick to my stomach. How could putting any synthetic substance into your body be a good thing? I love how the Medical Community and hospitals try to say flu vaccinations and any vaccination is something you need. Follow the f*$king money…. It is all about money with these assholes. Desiree Jennings story is one of few that actually makes it to the mainstream media. A great reference for some true information on this topic is the website www.thedoctorwithin.com
3:00 pm on October 23rd, 2009
i like the remix.
6:27 pm on October 23rd, 2009
Too weird to be a hoax.
6:53 pm on October 23rd, 2009
Oh yay, the anti-vaccination nutjobs have found SbB!
8:57 pm on October 23rd, 2009
Someone needs to speak the truth. The only nutjobs are the clowns that actually think they are doing good by injecting a foreign substance into their system. Time to open your eyes and stop listening to every other commercial on the television.
12:31 am on October 24th, 2009
u guys are idiots. dont take vaccines: have fun with polio. foreign substance? the shit you eat is more foreign than vaccines.
9:26 am on October 24th, 2009
Foreign substances? Are you freaking kidding?
You want to know what actually doing good is? Eradicating childhood diseases that have killed or crippled people for untold generations. That is doing good.
You want to know what doing harm is? Using scare tactics and junk science to scare parents into exposing their children to those preventable diseases.
Children will die, DIE, because of the unscientific nonsense that you people spew. You want to risk your own lives on removing “foreign substances”? Fine, it’s your own life to risk in whatever stupid stupid way you wish. But to risk innocent children’s lives on your inane theories is downright evil.
11:42 am on October 24th, 2009
Serious, People are jeopardizing there own existance with this vaccine crap. I just went to that website www.thedoctorwithin.com that the previous blogger mentioned. Click on newsletters on the left and then click on swine flu update. That is good information. An the moron from earlier, really Polio? Obviously you have no clue about vaccines because the last indiginous transmission of the Polio virus in the United States was in 1979! All cases since that time have either been imported or guess what, vaccine related. Know your facts ass clown.
12:01 pm on October 24th, 2009
I hear cases of lockjaw are way down, too. Time to implement the “No More Tetanus Shots, Free Rusty Nails for Everyone” program!
12:10 pm on October 24th, 2009
If you were the one with the neurological problems after a vax, you would be singing a different tune. It’s easy to sit back and spew your nonsense when this hasn’t happened to you personally. If you have been messed up by one of these things or your child has, you’d think differently about many things. These rare cases are not throw away people. They matter too.
The “you need to break a few eggs to make an omlet” philosophy is all fine and dandy until your egg gets broken.
12:10 pm on October 24th, 2009
I guess I am one of the flu vaccination conspiracy theorists or anti flu nut jobs then. At the end of the day any doctor will tell you that there is a chance that you can have an adverse reaction to any vaccination, no matter what it is.
1:59 pm on October 24th, 2009
Sarah, you are correct. There is a chance, however small, that someone, maybe you, might have an adverse reaction to a vaccination. Or to an antibiotic. Or beta blockers. Or acetaminophen. Or aspirin. Or morphine. Or alcohol. Or a head-on collision with an SUV (now that’s introducing a synthetic product into your body).
A friend of mine died while travelling in India. Seems he didn’t get his vaccination for hepatitis, and ate some fruit. Did that keep me from going to the subcontinent? No. But I got my hepatitis shots. And my encephalitis shot. And my polio booster. And took my malaria pills (for Cambodia).
Should we assume that those who oppose this vaccine will also refuse to get any inoculations at all, ever? Say, against mumps or measles? And no medications, either? Try recovering from a stroke without treatment to break up blood clots. Tell that transplant patient to just go ahead and die, because those immunosuppressors are just chock-full of “synthetic” chemicals. Dental work: no nitrous or anaesthetic, please. Need an operation? It will be very unpleasant while wide awake and with all pain receptors active.
How will you avoid catching the flu at work without using hand sanitizers (which include added chemicals) or soap (I highly doubt your workplace uses natural varities) to wash your hands after using the bathroom (watch out for that urinal cake, and the toilet paper probably went through some processing as well)?
How about traveling? Would you like to visit the Himalayas or the Great Wall of China, or Angkor Wat, or the Amazon rainforest, or Machupichu? How about the beaches of Bali? Or safari in Tanzania? What’s the bigger threat:
a) cholera, encephalitis, yellow fever, tuberculosis, typhoid, meningitis, malaria
b) the extremely rare chance you might have a severe reaction to the vaccinations (or prophylaxes) that prevent them.
Of course, you can still go just about anywhere you want without precaution. I imagine, though, that Victoria Falls wouldn’t be quite as stunning for someone with explosive diarrhea and a temperature of 104.
Anyhow, I have no problem with people choosing not to get a vaccination. It’s your life and your body. You have your reasons. Personally, my reasons for or against will always be informed by scientific data, personal research, and logic, and not by anecdotal evidence.
6:14 am on October 25th, 2009
owwwww badddd new
8:49 am on October 25th, 2009
Anonymous, yes who needs silly things like peer reviewed medical journals when you have newsletters from a blog?
A blog that, incidentally, claims in its second paragraph that “good health has been our birthright in the past”. That might be the single most ridiculous thing I have ever read, really just an astonishing level of ignorance of human history.
12:05 pm on October 25th, 2009
You spew off diseased you WON’T get as you travel the world because you were vaxxed. Unfortunately you missed a crucial piece of information while you were collecting all of that “scientific data”. TRUTH-NO vaccine is 100% effective. This means that if you receive a vaccine you still have a 50/50 chance of contracting it and on top of those odds you have now added on whatever the odds for possibly being 1 of the few who can & will have adverse side effects, maybe severe, maybe even lethal. TRUTH-most cases of reported adverse side effects to vaccines are neurological disorders, some subtle, some common, some severe, some fatal. TRUTH- I was pro vaccines until I became the mother of a vaccine injured child. So, in closing, until its you or someone you love & you learn the hard way, you keep getting your shots. Allow yourself to believe you’re “so protected”, but others who HAVE researched & been on BOTH sides–we know otherwise. You keep on traveling the world with your super stong immune system & we’ll keep preaching that really, your crazy
10:08 pm on October 26th, 2009
I’ve seen side effects(allergic reactions in child that have been severe enough to cause hypoxia and brain injury/diability) and I’ve seen the benefits (a couple that were torn on receiving the vaccine..in the end the husband went for it and the wife didn’t– she developed pneumonia related to her flu and died)
Vaccines are used to protect, just like seatbelts. But there can be side effects, just like if you wear your seat belt and get in a car accident it can cause internal injury upon impact. You can gamble with your health, but it is pushed by government to create herd immunity, meaning if people are immune then there will be less of chance an outbreak can spread to epidemic and pandemic proportions. Doctors do not get any money from this, if anything you would realize the compensation for a primary care physician is a drop in the bucket of healthcare.
Everyone is ultimately responsible for their own choice and well as their families. CDC is responsible for the health of the population and attempt to aim for the best epidemiological outcomes.
That being said, people have a much longer life expectancy than prior to medication and vaccinations. I do support vaccines.
10:50 pm on October 26th, 2009
Oh wow. Where do I start with the last post. The only thing I will agree with is the fact that everyone (parents) are responsible for their choice. You need to educate yourself and that does not mean the local tv news and newspapers. Ask questions and get the facts on both sides.
Your seatbelt analogy is horrible. Drugs and surgeries are a wonderful thing if you are in a tramatic accident. If I got in a car accident and got my arm torn off you can bet I would want pain meds and surgery. This is called Crisis Care and should be used in an emergency situation. We in America view this wrong in the fact that we call it health care. True healthcare is in lifestyle. Eating well thinking well and moving well. By doing these things and taking care of your immune system your life expectancy will of course be high. Why does are healthcare system rank at the bottom when compared to others in the world? Because our children are fatter, dumber and more lazy then ever before. Why is this? Because we drug them instead of look for natural answers. For you to say that doctors get no Money for pushing vaccines, shots and prescribing drugs, you are out of your mind. Absolutely there is money tied to this. Follow the money… Because with big pharma it is always about the money and the next synthetic substance we can shove down someones throat.
3:43 pm on October 29th, 2009
The chance of being injured by a vaccine (and yes, like any treatment, there is a side effect) is miniscule, far less then the risk of being injured by the disease you are vaccinating against.
Compare the death toll of swine flu in america right now versus the amount of people injured like this woman has been. Yes it would suck to be her, but it’d also suck to be one of the fatalities that the vaccine could have prevented.
Do people, such as this woman, get injured by vaccines? I am sure some do. It’s a risk you take when you get any treatment.
And yes, no vaccine is 100% effective, but that doesn’t mean you have a “50/50″ chance. They are somewhere around 70 to 95% effective as long as boosters are maintained. (varies per disease and whether you got the shot or spray).
I would say that anyone who says vaccines don’t work should find me a person with polio first and then I’ll listen to them. An endemic disease has faded into obscurity (while you’re at it, find me someone with mumps too).
And while I don’t think anyone should be forced to take vaccines, I also think that if you are going to be part of society you should have to do what is best for the society as a whole, which is get vaccines. Herd immunity is part of the reason we don’t have people crippled by polio.
don’t want your precious snowflake immunized? Fine, but then home school it and keep it away from my kid. I also think that if you choose not to immunize yoru kid and they get someone else infected, you should be held accountable, because YOUR choice lead to the detriment of someone else.
10:29 am on November 1st, 2009
Let’s see - this girl with a one-in-a-million reaction is still able to be with her family, run her races and live her life (be it far from normally - sympathy for that)….
Whereas, the 13 year old happy, healthy, hockey-loving boy from Ontario will get NONE of that… because he was DEAD within 48 hours of complaining of his sore throat.
Believe what you want, do what you choose, but for the love of God, open your damn eyes people - vaccinations have done a million times more good than evil… I’d love to see the world from your point of view, but I just don’t think I can get my head that far up my ass.
9:53 pm on November 2nd, 2009
Seems more like a neurologic disorder then an autoimmune disorder. A Head CT or MRI should have been done. Could this have been brought on by years of cheerleader stunts? It seems more likley.
9:59 pm on November 2nd, 2009
YES people need to do their homework using EVIDENCE BASED sources of information, or at least speak with a health care professional - you can’t believe everything you watch on the news or see on you tube… and by the way - correlations between vaccines and neurologic disorders do not provide solid evidence that the vaccine caused the disorder! (ie. just because someone gets a vaccine and then coincidentally happens to be diagnosed with a neurologic disorder does not guarantee that it was caused by the vaccine - plenty of people have the same disorders but were not vaccinated) That’s like blaming an infection on music because you listened to a certain CD the day you got sick! How about you take some research courses at university, do a four year health care degree, do a few literature reviews and then we’ll talk?
2:57 am on November 6th, 2009
OMG! This issue with the flu shot, cheerleader and neurologic disorder have gone far in anti vaccination campaigns. I agree to the responses that vaccines may cause harm (just like any pharmaceutical product) but it does more good than harm. Without the vaccines, then we will see more of the polio cases or mumps cases during these recent years, but thanks to them we haven’t had any epidemics or pandemics on most of these preventable diseases. The neurologic disorder of this cheerleader does not give a definite correlation to the vaccine, there is a chance that it could be due to something else. She’s already an adult, there is a possiblility that she have received other vaccines before(causing no probs), or maybe even last years flu shot vaccine. What I mean is, this may not be her first time. So the disorder may not be caused by the vaccine. It was just a coincidence that she received a vaccine few days prior to the onset of her dystonia. We can also look at the possibility that there could be genetic factor that was triggered on adult onset.Unless a comprehensive study is done to isolate the cause of her disorder, we cannot blame it on the vaccine. And there is no need for you people to call others nasty names for the reason of giving opinions based on facts and examples. I think the facts being laid out just outright fuels your immature understanding on vaccines because you know that these are TRUE and it’s more difficult to push your “anti” ideas when the facts are slapping you on the face.
7:18 pm on November 13th, 2009
I think it should be noted that the only one who is claiming she has dystonia is herself. She says doctors at Johns Hopkins, or at the Mayo Clinic, diagnosed her with dystonia - but here’s the thing, not a single one has ever been named, much less been interviewed in all this news coverage to confirm what she claims is her medical condition.
You also won’t find real dystonia sufferers coming to Jennings’ support, because none of them think she has actual dystonia. The major dystonia support organizations have come forward and said that her symptoms are nothing like those of dystonia. Why is it that people will circularly assert that she *must* be believed to have a real disorder, because thinking critically about it would be being too mean to a woman suffering from a crippling disorder (that’s some quality circular logic, there!) but at the same time they IGNORE what’s being said by the people who REALLY DO have the disorder she purportedly has??
1:00 pm on November 14th, 2009
You people are mostly idiots. At both sides of the argument. You present information that is not at all relevant to the subject and then jump to the conclusion that swine flu is either good or bad.
Vaccines have mostly or entirely eliminated polio and mumps. OK, but what the fuck does that have to do with the swine flu? The swine flu kills around 1 in every 1000 afflicted, max. And then it goes away entirely after a few days in the other 999. Comparing flu vaccine to polio vaccine is senseless — try again.
Oh, and the flu killed one person you read about in a news article, therefore we should all get vaccinated. Stupid shit logic if I’ve ever heard it. A child drowned in a pool the other day, should we drain all the pools in our country? Maybe it is sensible to get the vaccine, but not for the reason that you read about a case of someone dying. So be less stupid and fear-driven, and make informed decisions.
In any event, we should all be happy with the flu vaccine even if you choose not to get it yourself. The people that do get it reduce the spread of the disease, which benefits everyone. So maybe the vaccine does some terrible things to people occasionally and you don’t want to get it. Great, then don’t get it. But you’ll still benefit from others getting the vaccine, so stop whining.
And if some people don’t want to get the vaccine, stop fucking bagging on them. There are totally legitimate reasons for choosing to opt out. Swine flu is mostly deadly to a specific subpopulation. If you are not part of this group, getting the vaccine is incredibly less worthwhile, to the extent of being basically worthless. Healthy twenty-something men and women aren’t at risk of dying enough to bother with a vaccine. If I am in a not at-risk population and my chances of dying from the swine flu are 1 in 1,000,000 whereas my chances of contracting a crazy neurological disease from a vaccine are 1 in 1,000,000, I should promptly realize that the vaccine does not benefit me.