The Flu Shot and the Dystonia Cheerleader

It seems that everyone has heard "something" about the cheerleader that had a flu shot then developed a case of dystonia, where her walk and speech patterns are totally screwed up but are normal while running or walking backwards.

It's screwy. It's tragic. It's fascinating. And it's perfect fodder for a group of zealots looking for poster child candidates, namely the antivaxxer's.

I had certainly heard about it. "One in a million reaction." "Something about having the flu shot and getting it." "The flu shot apparently triggered it."

I haven't made it part of my own agenda to follow up on the story; it was just another tidbit that floated by my consciousness and the collective consciousness of just about everyone I know in the area.

Thankfully I outsourced such critical followup to Steve Novella of the Skeptic's Guide to the Universe. He had a blog post that as I read through it I found myself stopping to realize that, yes, he has some really good points...such as, nowhere has it every actually been shown that there was a link between the shot and the dystonia. The illness she suffered that was believed to trigger the dystonia was never proven to even be the flu, and even if it was, was it the strain that she was injected with for her shot? For that matter, was the dystonia actually a verified diagnosis?

In fact, in Steve's blog post he points out evidence that she doesn't actually have dystonia but rather a psychological affliction.

In other words this woman had a very bad thing happen to her and now she's being used to exploit another group's cause through half-truths and distortions. At this point in the game she may have no choice but to rationalize the possible truth away and it's in her best interest to not reveal whether there exists the possibility that the condition isn't flu-vaccine-induced.