Hyunju Lee, Donghyok Kwon, Seoncheol Park, Seung Ri Park, Darda Chung, and Jongmok Ha
June 22, 2023
Osong Public Health and Research Perspectives

"Abstract ... The incidence of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) changed significantly during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Emerging reports suggest that viral vector-based vaccines may be associated with an elevated risk of GBS ... 

Discussion ... We conducted a nationwide time-series correlation study involving 1,856 cases of GBS during the pandemic following the vaccine rollout. We compared the real-world age-specific incidence of GBS with forecasted values based on pre-pandemic incidence data. Additionally, we assessed the temporal association between the time-series trends of GBS and SARS-CoV-2 vaccination, stratified into 3 categories of biological mechanisms. Our main findings include: (1) a significantly high number of GBS patients among older adults in June to August and November 2021 compared to forecasted estimates; (2) the observed incidence of GBS converging with the forecasted incidence in 2022 for all age groups; and (3) a relevant significant temporal association between viral vector-based vaccine and GBS incidence in older adults. We believe that our study supports the findings from large database-driven studies and demonstrates the utility of time-series analysis as an auxiliary tool in evaluating temporal associations ...

In September 2021, there was a notable increase in the incidence of GBS among individuals aged 30 to 59 years compared to predicted values. Moreover, a strong positive correlation was observed between mRNA-based vaccines and GBS incidence in this age group."

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adverse events,COVID-19,demyelination,mRNA,neurological disorders,vaccines