Yes, dear Mybat, some people have gotten Guillaum-Barre syndrome. Some of them would have gotten it anyway, since it is a body’s reaction to a viral infection. Those cases, and there are currently about 10 cases of G-B worldwide, after 65 million vaccines have been given. This is much less than the expected number, one in a million.
Some of the people who got G-B may have gotten it anyway, even without the vaccine.
Take these situations:
A, A person with heart disease gets the flu shot. He walks outside, and dies of a heart attack. Would he have had the heart attack anyway? Or did the vaccine cause the heart attack.
B. A person gets the flu vaccine, walks outside, gets hit by a car.
Out of the 65 million people who got the flu vaccine, a few got married shortly thereafter, some got divorced, some became fathers, a few got the flu, and maybe one or two won the lottery, and about 10 got Guillaume-Barre syndrome, and perhaps a few had heart attacks.
Some of those things happpened just because things happen in our lives, and 65 million people is a large group – you can statistically predict what will happen within such a large group. These things would have happened whether or not they got the flu vaccine.
It is very likely that some of the people who got G-B got it because of the flu vaccine, and some got it because they would have gotten it anyway as their body’s reaction to some infection other than the flu vaccine.
Scientists are watching those cases very carefully to determine which are related to the vaccine.
A batch of flu vaccine was recalled this morning, because it caused higher than usual allergic reactions. This is being watched very carefully.
But it does not change the point: Your chances of getting temporary paralysis due to Guillame-Barre syndrome is one in several million. Your chance of dying of the flu is somewhat over one in a thousand in a normal year. There’s still really no comparison.