A new study has identified a potential link between the Covid vaccine and TAFRO syndrome, an extremely rare and life-threatening immune disorder.
The severe inflammatory condition causes high fever, widespread swelling, critically low platelet counts, kidney failure and enlarged organs. Fewer than 500 cases are diagnosed worldwide each year.
A team at Nagasaki University Hospital in Japan found that the small number of patients studied who recently received the Covid vaccine appeared to have a higher likelihood of developing the condition.
Dr Jessica Rose, who was not part of the new study, told the Daily Mail she thought the connection between Covid vaccines and a myriad of serious health problems was undeniable.
‘The thing that pisses me off the most about this is that we’re learning that we have no idea what’s in each vial,’ claimed Rose, who has a master’s degree in immunology and a PhD in computational biology.
The Canadian researcher, who has studied Covid and vaccine injuries since the start of the pandemic and published her own findings, said she had several concerns about how the vaccine interacts with humans, including suggesting that the jabs may disrupt connective tissue – the body’s supportive framework, including tendons and cartilage.
According to Rose, for some patients, the vaccines may even pose greater risks than a natural Covid infection would because they deliver higher doses of the virus’s spike proteins to stimulate immunity.
Study author Dr Masataka Umeda told the Daily Mail that multiple rare immune problems, including certain types of blood vessel inflammation and immune cell dysfunction, appeared more frequently after vaccines began rolling out in Japan.
Japanese researchers suggested there could be a potential link between COVID-19 vaccine injections and a dangerous inflammatory conditions called TAFRO syndrome
At Nagasaki University Hospital, researchers found that new cases of severe TAFRO syndrome had increased significantly – two cases were recorded in the six years before the pandemic, compared with 11 cases from April 2020 to October 2024.
Of the 13 total TAFRO patients, four had been vaccinated against Covid within a month of symptom onset. All four required ICU care, compared with just two of the remaining nine unvaccinated patients (including those diagnosed before the pandemic).
Umeda and co-author Atsushi Kawakami, principal investigator at the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, emphasized that the study, published in Immunology Letters, examined only a small group of patients and could not definitively attribute TAFRO cases to Covid vaccines.
While results have suggested a possible link between Covid vaccination and severe inflammatory reactions, they have not proved causation. Experts say a larger study is needed for further conclusions.
‘One hypothesis discussed in our paper is that immune activation, whether triggered by infection or vaccination, may contribute to excessive cytokine responses in susceptible individuals,’ Umeda explained.
This cytokine response can cause severe inflammation even in otherwise healthy people and has been linked to other Covid vaccine-related complications in previous studies, including heart damage. While a cytokine response is not unique to Covid jabs, studies have shown it is typically rare and mild with flu and other vaccines.
The study also noted a slight increase in cases of iMCD – a milder form of TAFRO – after the pandemic, although none of the 12 iMCD patients had been vaccinated before falling ill.
The COVID-19 virus (pictured) is covered in what scientists call spike proteins. These spike proteins are also used in the Covid vaccines to build immunity
TAFRO syndrome is often linked to or overlapping with iMCD, triggered when the body releases an excessive number of inflammatory signals, a phenomenon commonly referred to as a ‘cytokine storm.’
Accounting for iMCD cases, there were seven TAFRO diagnoses reported between 2014 and 2020. Between 2020 and 2024, that number jumped to 18 cases.
The Japanese team reviewed ten years of hospital records both before and during the pandemic to spot this pattern, but did not examine which versions of the Covid vaccine patients during the pandemic had received.
Dr Jessica Rose (pictured), who was not part of the Japanese study, said the COVID vaccine’s high doses of spike proteins may be responsible for many vaccine injuries
‘We believe our findings should be interpreted carefully. Our data indicate the need for further validation through larger multicenter studies, prospective investigations and registry-based research,’ Umeda told the Daily Mail.
Despite the rarity of TAFRO, the study authors urged doctors to monitor for signs of the disorder after vaccination to ensure rapid treatment if complications arise.
Rose – who has previously published research linking Covid vaccine injections in the US to myocarditis, a type of heart inflammation that can weaken the heart’s pumping ability – suggested that TAFRO-like problems could stem from broader issues with Covid vaccinations, including the buildup of abnormal protein clumps called amyloids that can damage tissues and organs.
She specifically noted that Pfizer and Moderna vaccines introduce Covid spike proteins that, in her view, could trigger widespread clotting and tissue damage.
Rose and other researchers continue to examine the effects of Covid vaccinations in the human body, but Umeda and the Japanese team believe that getting the Covid boosters is still the best way to protect against the virus.
