Ask Dr. Drew
Brianne Dressen: COVID-19 Vaccine Trial Participant Sues AstraZeneca After Years Of ‘Electrocuting Pain’ & Mere $1300 Compensation Offer – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 426
Sun, 24 Nov 2024
In 2020, Utah mom & former teacher Brianne Dressen wanted to help her community through the pandemic, so she joined a clinical trial of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine – one of the first in the USA. But afterward, she says she developed such severe side effects, she began planning her own suicide to escape the “constant agony.” Within hours of beginning the trial, Brianne experienced adverse reactions including “blurred vision, a headache, ringing ears and vomiting” that worsened and required multiple hospitalizations. Now grappling with enormous medical expenses, Dressen is suing the pharma giant after it allegedly offered her a single payment of $1,243.30 in compensation despite her medical costs exceeding $400,000. Brianne’s case is covered in the upcoming book “Worth a Shot?: Secrets of the Clinical Trial Participant Who Inspired a Global Movement” available at https://amzn.to/4eEyykA Aaron Siri is Brianna Dressen’s attorney. He is the Managing Partner of Siri & Glimstad LLP and has extensive experience in a wide range of complex civil litigation matters and class actions. Find more at https://www.sirillp.com/aaron-siri/ Dr. Meryl Nass is a board-certified physician with over 40 years of experience in all areas of internal medicine. She is a nationally recognized expert on epidemics who has consulted for government agencies around the world, especially focussing on anthrax, Zika, Ebola, and biological warfare investigations. Follow Dr. Nass at https://x.com/NassMeryl and learn more about Door To Freedom at https://doortofreedom.org 「 SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS 」 Find out more about the brands that make this show possible and get special discounts on Dr. Drew's favorite products at https://drdrew.com/sponsors • CAPSADYN - Get pain relief with the power of capsaicin from chili peppers – without the burning! Capsadyn's proprietary formulation for joint & muscle pain contains no NSAIDs, opioids, anesthetics, or steroids. Try it for 15% off at https://drdrew.com/capsadyn • FATTY15 – The future of essential fatty acids is here! Strengthen your cells against age-related breakdown with Fatty15. Get 15% off a 90-day Starter Kit Subscription at https://drdrew.com/fatty15 • CHECK GENETICS - Your DNA is the key to discovering the RIGHT medication for you. Escape the big pharma cycle and understand your genetic medication blueprint with pharmacogenetic testing. Save $200 with code DRDREW at https://drdrew.com/check • PALEOVALLEY - "Paleovalley has a wide variety of extraordinary products that are both healthful and delicious,” says Dr. Drew. "I am a huge fan of this brand and know you'll love it too!” Get 15% off your first order at https://drdrew.com/paleovalley • THE WELLNESS COMPANY - Counteract harmful spike proteins with TWC's Signature Series Spike Support Formula containing nattokinase and selenium. Learn more about TWC's supplements at https://twc.health/drew 「 MEDICAL NOTE 」 Portions of this program may examine countervailing views on important medical issues. Always consult your physician before making any decisions about your health. 「 ABOUT THE SHOW 」 Ask Dr. Drew is produced by Kaleb Nation (https://kalebnation.com) and Susan Pinsky (https://twitter.com/firstladyoflove). This show is for entertainment and/or informational purposes only, and is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What happened to Brianne Dressen during the AstraZeneca trial?
Everything started at the beginning of the pandemic, just like anybody else. I was watching the news and I was really concerned about what I was seeing. I have a lot of medical professionals in my family and hearing what was going on in the hospitals was also alarming to say the least.
So I wanted to do my part to help get everybody out of the pandemic, and I enrolled in a clinical trial with AstraZeneca here in the United States. So November 4th, 2020, I got my one and only shot, and my reaction started within an hour. And I started with this severe, strange pins and needles sensation down the same arm as my injection. And it spread to my other arm, my body, head to toe.
And that same horrific pins and needles prickling sensation is with me to this day, every moment of every day. I landed in the hospital.
On the one side or down in your lower extremities?
I actually have it body wide. So it's, yeah, it's spread from one side to the other. And then it spread from my head down to my feet and it actually moves with my heartbeat. So, and I do understand what you're saying. Yeah. So it's the first thing I feel when I wake up in the morning. It's the last thing I feel when I not off to sleep with a bunch of meds to calm down the severe pain. So yeah.
Have you had a nerve biopsy to see if they can identify what's going on in the nerve? Go ahead.
Yes. So the first time I had a nerve biopsy done, it was at the National Institutes of Health when they flew 20 plus of us out to be studied for neurological complications to the COVID vaccines. My first neuropathy test showed very minor, minuscule levels. I just had it rechecked. So three years later, and it's definitely progressing and getting worse. Okay.
So I've been diagnosed with post-vaccine neuropathy from the National Institutes of Health. That's been verified by several world experts, as well as dysautonomia, POTS, which is the heart dysregulation. It's basically a neuroimmune condition. where your immune system can't really help your nervous system regulate itself.
And it does end up in a multi-system cascade of syndromes from brain fog, fatigue, pins and needles, numbness, weakness, heart rate fluctuations, food sensitivities, hair loss. It sounds an awful lot like long COVID. Yeah.
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Chapter 2: What are the side effects experienced by trial participants?
But it's interesting because we really should be studying long COVID and post-vax syndrome or long vax so we can actually get both of the patient populations better.
Well, you know, there are isolated, I got to talk to your attorney about this, but there are isolated organizations out there doing so. It's just there's certainly no cohesive government-led sort of undertaking. Which leads me back to the NIH. Was this all AstraZeneca adverse events that you were on the plane with? Or was it all the vaccines that were being tested here?
I was the only patient from AstraZeneca in the trial. Everybody else was Pfizer, Moderna. There was one other person with J&J in the trial.
And when you say J&J, is that the same as AstraZeneca?
J&J is an adenoviral vector vaccine. So it's a very similar technology. Yeah.
Yeah. But I'm actually confused about that because if I understand correctly, we should probably review this, which is this is not an mRNA vector. This is an old platform. I took the J&J vaccine, and I'll tell you my story of woe in a few minutes. Okay. But I did it because I did it because I thought, well, you know, it's an old first of all, I only need one vaccine. And that that appealed to me.
And secondly, it's an old vector. It's old adenovirus. It's like a flu vaccine. It's literally how we do the flu vaccine. So I thought, I'll just take that. Is it in AstraZeneca is the J&J in Europe, right? Isn't that sort of how it worked?
Yeah, so AstraZeneca is an Oxford product. So it was the golden child in the UK. And the UK, at the very beginning of the vaccine rollout, they were telling the public, don't get the mRNA products. Just hang on for a couple more weeks. AstraZeneca is coming. This is the superior product of the UK.
I remember that.
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Chapter 3: What legal action is being taken against AstraZeneca?
But in Bree's case, unlike the case of almost everybody else in the country, AstraZeneca signed an agreement with her. And in that agreement, they made promises to her as a participant in the clinical trial, and they didn't uphold those promises. So we were able to bring a lawsuit for her in federal court, and we hope to get justice for her and hold AstraZeneca accountable.
Now, we like to hold these pharmaceutical companies accountable for everybody that's injured. That's the way it's supposed to work. The reason that cars, planes, drugs, almost every product out there is safer is because the companies have an economic interest to assure its safety. They want to make money.
And if they have to pay for harms, all right, then they'll assure the safety because they don't want to get upside down. But when it comes to these products, unfortunately, they can't be held accountable directly. In this one instance, we hope to do so.
What about, I mean, is the cost, I mean, I imagine the damages are going to be the cost of all the medical care that she's having to get. Was that, when she was being cared for by the NIH, was that being covered? And if so, why aren't we holding the government responsible for withholding the care that she also deserved? Or is that going to be a separate lawsuit?
I would love to be able to bring that lawsuit if there was a law that allowed me to do so. The federal government, you typically can only sue if they have waived immunity. The federal government, if they've waived immunity, allowed you to sue them. And so for sure, I would love to. I mean, look, when you think about it, what are the two ways we assure product safety?
And at the end of the day, I just want to assure everybody vaccines are just products. They're products like any other, right? There's nothing really special per se. They're a product. They have a safety and efficacy profile, and there's a reality to that. And unlike every other product, we assure their safety by the fact that the company, as I mentioned before, is in economic interest.
There's a second way we assure safety, and it's far weaker. It's not as effective, but it's regulators. They serve a role, but they're never as effective. You think cars in America are safer because of regulators? Or do you think it's because of class action lawyers who sued them whenever they had a problem?
Look at other countries where you can't bring those kinds of lawsuits and look at the safety profile of products there. And you can see very clearly economic forces work. With that said, there's no economic forces assuring their safety. And then when it comes to the regulator, to answer your question, I know that took a long road. But when it comes to the regulators, they're hopelessly conflicted.
On the one hand, they have to promote these products. And on the other hand, they have to assure their safety. And those two things come into tension. And they're not separated.
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Chapter 4: How are vaccine injuries addressed in the U.S.?
Is that for me?
Oh, sure. Go ahead.
I'll give you the answer to that. Because Brie is a good person. She's a good person. And she kept trying to work with them. engage with them, have them, give them every single opportunity to do the right thing. Frankly, she went above and beyond what I think most folks would have done in terms of being patient, reasonable, and just, you know, she's just a good person.
And so, you know, that process played itself out over a period of time. And eventually, when they would not agree to do the right thing, we brought a federal lawsuit.
And Bree, what was the issue? The contract was the contract. The cost was the cost. Was there a timeframe issue or what was it they were claiming?
They were claiming nothing. The sad reality is as soon as I was injured, they couldn't get away from me fast enough. There were two times that I heard from them for any kind of amount of money. And at that point, it wasn't about money. I was trying to get some answers to what was going on in my body. but they wouldn't respond to anything.
And they both, the two times they responded were because reporters came after them and they offered me $590 for the first time.
Hey, perfect. Yeah.
Yeah. You know, it can pay for maybe one, one 10th of a ER visit. And we actually told them, no, don't send us that money. Go back and look at our records and try again. And they wired the money to us anyway. And we didn't hear from them again until another reporter hit them up. And the second settlement letter was for $1,200. they're not taking this seriously. And yeah.
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Chapter 5: What is the role of informed consent in clinical trials?
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Stock up now for the holidays at DrRu.com slash Paleo Valley for 15% off your first order or 20% off when you subscribe. We are speaking with Brianne Dresden. She was vaccine injured in the AstraZeneca clinical trials for the vaccine development. And Erin Siri, who is her attorney. Please welcome them back. You can follow Brianne on X, Brianne Dresden, D-R-E-S-S-E-M.
And Erin is Erin Siri, S-G on X. Erin, informed consent. I understand that's an area of interest for you. I don't know if you noticed, I was looking desperately for the transcript, which I had, of Deborah Birx this weekend on Face the Nation, where she essentially said, we didn't do a good enough job of telling people what the vaccine, I think the quote was, did and did not do.
That to me is an explicit statement This repudiation of the ability, first of all, that they did give informed consent. And given how obfuscating the information flow has been, even if we had attempted to, and as she admitted, they did not tell people what it did and not do. But let's say we did attempt. They did not give us the information in order to do it.
And this has been a grave concern of mine from the beginning when patients ask me what the risks are, particularly now with the boosters. I'm like, I have no idea. We have no idea because the variant that we're boosting for, you're taking the booster for a variant that existed eight months ago. So what the hell are we doing? Aaron, go ahead.
Well, the way that I, you know, we've got 40 folks at our firm that just do vaccine-related work. I believe we have the largest vaccine practice in the world that doesn't represent pharmaceutical companies. 15 of those folks do vaccine injury claims. We don't sue pharmaceutical companies typically. We just sue in that program.
And we sue the federal government in a program called the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. That's a very limited program. We'll compensate very limited things. But when we do that, We want to assess the safety and efficacy of the product, particularly obviously the safety.
We want to see if a mother calls you and says, look, I gave my two month old a Hep B shot or a few vaccines and then ended up with a grand mal seizure within ten minutes. Well, how do we determine causation? How can we show whether the vaccine caused that issue?
Well, normally the way you do it is you have a prospective trial that compares an exposed group to an unexposed group, commonly known as a clinical trial.
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Chapter 6: What challenges do those injured by vaccines face?
They didn't look at deaths at all. No, they did.
It was in the study, but they didn't use it as an endpoint, if I remember right, no?
Well, the severe outcomes was an endpoint. Death is a severe outcome. So it would certainly have been on the safety front. It measured serious adverse events. If you go to the FDA definition of serious adverse event, it has a list. It's the fine term for the clinical trial. Death is one of them. So it did look at deaths as a safety outcome, safety outcome.
And in that regard, if you look at all cause death mortality in the trials, there were 21 deaths. excuse me, one, I believe, deaths in the vaccinated group for the Pfizer trial and around 15 deaths in the placebo group. But did they do a statistical comparison? By the way, this again, not me. This is in the FDA documentation. You can pull it up yourself.
It's on the FDA website in the summary documentation. But did they do a comparison, statistical comparison? No. Instead, they let Pfizer explain away each death individually and say, well, none of them were related to the vaccine or to the placebo.
Aaron, they got a guy. They got a guy that goes out and looks at it. The guy looks at it. The guy. I'd love to talk to that guy sometime. There are probably a few guys like that. Yeah. The guy is Peter Park. Well, no, no, he isn't. No, he isn't. He sends a guy out to look at it and reports to him. But they got a guy. So that's how they do it. So, yeah, there is a mess.
So when you look at all this, and Brianne, I'm going to give you a chance once I finish with Aaron here. I'm sorry to keep you sort of silently listening to all this. But what... what has gone wrong? What's going on? Is it the PrEP Act? Is it, when you lie in bed and I think, well, how are we going to fix this? What do you imagine?
Here's how we fix it. We just treat vaccines like every other product. I mentioned before Pfizer's drug products, right? Why do they do multi-year placebo-controlled trials? Because they want to know the safety, Dr. Drew, before it goes on the market. Because if they put a drug on the market and it hurts 100,000 people, they're on the hook. They don't want to end up financially upside down.
It's not nefarious. It's just good business. They're there to make money. They're there to make money for their shareholders. And so if vaccines were under that same economic regime, oh, they would do the proper trials because they want to know, not the FDA. But with vaccines, they're not on the hook. I'm going to say something incredible, but your viewers will have to check it themselves, okay?
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Chapter 7: How does Brianne want to change the conversation around vaccine injuries?
Last question is just sort of wrap this up. Is it not odd that this has become your life? And I'm wondering what you were doing before.
This was not on my bingo card. Let's just say that. Yeah, I was just an everyday preschool teacher, retired project manager, just living my life, being a good citizen, teaching my kids how to take care of others around them. And now this has turned into this crazy thing. you know, a firestorm that I never would have expected.
But at the end of the day, I really appreciate the fact that I see things crystal clear now. I see what the media does. I see what the corporations do. Isn't it crazy?
Is it not crazy? COVID did us this favor of laying bare
you know things that we didn't know but uh you know it's it's in in a way we've just been swimming it at like a fish swim in water and we found out what the water was and here it is and it was it was weirdly laid bare i i'm i'm still amazed at what i've learned but um okay give us the website one more time and then i'm gonna let you go and get dr nas here to give us an update
Great. So react19.org. And you can hop on Amazon and buy this book if you would like. 100% of the proceeds go to the nonprofit. We're not pocketing any of the money. This is a non-confrontational nonprofit. narrative that you actually can give to your family members if you would like them to just start considering what could really have been going on during the COVID pandemic.
It really is bringing out the human aspect of this side because we've all just been hammered with the political narrative. And now it's time for us to take a step back you know, have a disarming conversation and really start looking at this logically. So yeah, so yeah, you can pick that up on Amazon if you want.
Fair enough. Thank you so much, Brie. And good luck with everything. And hopefully we'll talk to you soon.
Great. Thank you.
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