Increased Incidents of Eye Disease Occurring in the Vaccinated: Texas Optometrist

Dr. Seema Nanda, an optometrist, has spoken out about correlations between eye diseases a the COVID-19 vaccine. Courtesy of Dr. Seema Nanda

An optometrist in Houston, Texas, is seeing an increase in incidents of eye disease in patients who opted for the COVID-19 vaccine.

Dr. Seema Nanda spoke with The Epoch Times, discussing three conditions: optic neuritis, retinal vascular occlusion, and corneal transplant rejection, which she said can be broken up into subcategories, such as increased pressure from glaucoma.

Because she has her own practice, the Nanda Dry Eye & Vision Institute, she said she can speak more freely about her findings without  fear of repercussion, unlike many in the health care system who are muzzled by the threat of losing their licenses and becoming ostracized for openly discussing adverse events from the COVID-19 vaccine, which she doesn’t call a vaccine, instead referring to it as a “viral instruction.”

“It’s instructions to make a virus,” she said. “A vaccine by traditional standards is either attenuated, a toxoid, or dead ... This is a viral infection with instructions to make the spike protein, which is the most virulent part of the virus, but it’s not a vaccine.”

Her only concern in speaking out was losing some of her patients, who she said came from different walks of life.

“I’ve had patients who’ve taken multiple doses of the vaccine with no problems, and I’ve had patients who’ve had issues with it but they haven’t made the connection,” she said. “I’m not here to scare anyone. I’m just here to inform them, and I think that’s what’s missing from the equation for all of this. It’s like, don’t shoot the messenger because I’m seeing these symptoms.”

Other physicians need to be aware that there are possible correlations between these adverse events and the vaccine so that steps can be taken to mitigate the symptoms, she said.

Optic Neuritis

In one case, she’s seeing optic neuritis, “itis” meaning inflammation, and “neuro” meaning nerve, “so, inflammation of the optic nerve,” she explained.

“You technically see this in adults 20 to 40, mainly women more than men, and more likely in Caucasians, supposedly occurring because of a genetic mutation of the optic nerve development,” she said. “But this individual is a 15-year-old Indian boy, which goes against everything we’ve learned. Everything that we’ve learned as far as optic neuritis as far as risk factors is now incorrect.”

A deep dive led her to several related cases suggesting a link between optic neuritis and the COVID-19 vaccine.

“I read case after case, and in this one report of optic neuritis following the COVID-19 vaccine, a healthy 78-year-old woman got blurred vision one day after receiving the Pfizer [BioNTech] COVID shot,” she said, referring to a case report detailed in the Journal of Ocular Immunology and Inflammation in October 2022.

According to the study, an examination revealed “optic disc swelling and retinal thickening of the macula with subretinal fluid in the left eye,” which the study said was the “first report of unilateral neuro retinitis following COVID-vaccination, implying a potential association between the mRNA vaccine and neuro retinitis.”

“Then I started reading more and it said 55 patients who were diagnosed with optic neuritis from all three vaccines had a negative history of neuroinflammation, and yet after the vaccine, the 55 patients ended up with optic neuritis,” she said.

In comparing this data with what she’s seeing in her clinic, she said it’s impossible to pretend that the eye problems are not an issue.

“I think a lot of people are not correlating this to the vaccine,” she said.

One 15-year-old patient was forced to take the vaccine to go to school, she said, and a few days later, his vision was blurred. A high dose of steroids restored some, but not all, of his former vision, she said.

‘Putting Their Heads in the Sand’

Nonetheless, she said, people are “putting their heads in the sand.”

“You can’t make anyone believe it’s a side effect when they want to believe it’s a coincidence,” she said. “Even most of the articles out there—in order to be published—have to say it might be a coincidence so that they can get published.

She also found a connection between those who took the vaccine and Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS), which one study reported had been “previously observed in individuals who received the meningococcal, tetanus-toxoid, human papillomavirus (HBV), and most prominently, the influenza vaccines.”

GBS, she said, which is a side effect more commonly associated with the flu shot, is a nerve demyelination.

“For electricity to travel through our bodies, the nerves must be protected by a sheath, called myelin, and that myelin sheath protects the nerves from any damage,” she explained. “If that myelin sheath becomes degenerated—let’s say by a virus attack—it breaks down.”

It can result in paralysis of limbs, and even quadriplegia, or in less severe issues such as sixth nerve palsy, another symptom of GBS which causes twitching of the eye and the facial muscles.

“The conduction of the nerves is not there, so, instead of sending a perfect signal to blink, it’s sending the signal haphazardly, and then her face around the lips and eyes twitches,” she said.

When Dr. Nanda asked how long the symptom began after the vaccine, she was met with denial, she said.

“No one wants to admit that they could have done something to hurt themselves,” she said.

Retinal Vascular Occlusions

Another post-vaccine anomaly is the micro-hemorrhage, or blood clot, which can only be detected by a D-dimer test, a test that looks for D-dimer, a protein fragment made when a blood clot dissolves in the body.

“I’ve heard from other doctors when we tried to get D-dimer tests that too many people were ordering them, which to me raises a red flag,” she said. “And this was early on when the labs in the hospitals were refusing to do them because the numbers were obviously astronomical.”

The only part of the body where one can see the active flow of blood vessels without having to operate is in the eyes, she said.

“You dilate the pupil, open up the eyes and we look inside,” she said. “It’s amazing. The eyes are the window to the soul, and when we look inside we can see pulsating blood vessels around the optic nerve.”

What she’s seen in one patient who took the vaccine are the small hemorrhages that her research found to be connected to central retinal artery occlusion and central retinal vein occlusion.

“The vein is when the blood flow goes back to the heart and the arteries going from the heart to the rest of the body, so if it’s from the heart to the rest of the body. That’s going to be more severe, and in the cases I was studying, I found it to be combined,” she said. “In one case I read, a patient had both artery occlusion and vein occlusion, and that’s absolutely insane.”

Occlusion, she explained, is a word derived from “occult,” or closed off, which means oxygen isn’t making it to the retina; therefore, part of the retina is dying off and causing vision loss.

According to a 2023 study in the journal Nature reported on by The Epoch Times, there was a 2.19-fold increased risk of retinal vascular occlusion after COVID-19 vaccination.

In the study, researchers reported that there was “a higher risk and incidence rate of retainal vascular occlusion following COVID-19 vaccinations, after adjusting for potential confounding factors.”

Acute Corneal Graft Rejection

Another complication after the vaccine is “a huge increase of rejections of corneas after a transplant.” Cornea rejection, according to Dr. Nanda, used to be very rare.

“The likelihood of a cornea rejecting a transplant is incredibly low,” she said. “Out of the thousands of transplants, I’ve seen maybe one or two rejections.”

She later found a study, published in the Journal of Clinic Medicine in August 2022, which corroborated what she was seeing.

The study looked at 21 patients who had acute corneal graft rejection one day to six weeks after the vaccine.

“It could be a transplant from a month or 30 years ago,” she said.

The article said the vaccination significantly increased anti-spike protein-neutralizing antibodies, she said.

“It’s a hyper-response to it, and that doesn’t happen with the cornea,” she said. “Yet it’s happening.”

An Underground Network

In one patient, she has seen the spike protein weaken the immune system to such a degree that multiple side effects have free reign, among them being becoming blind in both eyes.

“I’ve got many doctors working with me to see if we can get that case solved,” she said.

To do this, she said she has had to seek out an underground network of people who can help in mitigating the symptoms.

Because many physicians take funding from pharmaceutical companies to push their products, it’s not likely that they will be motivated to bring attention to the correlations with the vaccine, she said.

“It’s a disservice to patients and the profession,” she said. “They are being paid to look the other way, and it’s sad. Everyone has deep pockets.”

How to Combat Shedding

Because of shedding, Dr. Nanda recommends maintaining a strong immune system.

A 2015 FDA document on shedding reported on by The Epoch Times defined shedding as the release of the COVID-19 mRNA spike proteins from the patient through “one of the following ways: excreta (feces); secreta (urine, saliva, nasopharyngeal fluids etc,); or through the skin (pustules, sores, wounds).”

“Shedding raises the possibility of transmission of VBGT [Virus or Bacteria-Based Gene Therapy] or oncolytic products from treated to untreated individuals (e.g., close contacts and health care professionals),” the report stated.

The viral proteins, now fairly ubiquitous after the mass mandates, can be warded off by a healthy lifestyle, she said.

“If you increase your immune response by eating the right foods, exercising, and getting your rest, then you can fight shedding without having any issues,” she said.

This includes maintaining a positive attitude and not giving in to fear, she added.

“Fear does nothing except make the enemy stronger,” she said.

Marina Zhang and Zachary Steiber contributed to this report.