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It took 21-year-old Michael Locke from Connecticut, USA, nearly 3 years to conclusively determine that the hell he was going through was due to the covid vaccine.

“We are often told that it is ‘anxiety’ as the cause. It is not. This is NOT a ‘mental disorder’. This is a full-body assault that results in mental changes,” he said.

Locke was a very muscular 215-pound competitive bodybuilder before he had the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.   He was squatting 500 pounds and bench pressing 340 pounds. “I had my share of issues, like anyone else, but the gym was my place to go as an outlet. It was my purpose in life – my ‘happy place’,” he said.

He was threatened with dismissal if he was not covid vaccinated. He reasoned that stable employment was more important than refusing to get vaccinated.  He says that he had covid-19 in early 2020 which he described as “horrendous.”  His bout of covid made him “mentally unstable” and he needed job stability at that time. So, on 6 March 2021, he took a vaccine.

A “covid-specific doctor” confirmed by testing blood samples that Locke currently has both covid antibodies and, three years after vaccination, antibodies to the covid vaccine spike protein.

On Real Not Rare, a website where vaccine-injured people can share their stories, Locke gave a detailed timeline of his life from January 2020 to the “present day” so that others can compare his experience with their own.  “It is intentionally long so full details can be seen,” he said.

Locke’s story was uploaded onto the website on 13 April 2024.  The following is a reproduction of his timeline.  You can read his full story including treatments that have helped or harmed his condition, and what he wishes others knew HERE.

Michael Locke Timeline

Part 1 (Covid)

January – March 2020: I started attending college at UCONN Storrs [University of Connecticut’s main campus is in Storrs, Connecticut]. First time away from home, so I initially thought what happened next was “anxiety.” In February, I noticed panic episodes and energy fluctuations, unlike anything I had experienced before. I also recall telling my mother that my body was “not working” when I was trying to workout at the gym. This was before I knew anything about covid. I recall being in a mental haze that was worse in the morning and during the daytime hours, and then I would get a sense of a “release” at nighttime along with a surge of energy (where I would feel better). It was miserable, and I had to drop out of school.

March 2020 – June 2020: I left UCONN (before the school closed for lockdowns) because something was physically wrong. No indication of having the flu or a sickness, but I was having what I thought was a “mental health” crisis. I thought I was bipolar because of the ultra-rapid energy swings and crashes. I saw a psychiatrist, and I started taking Lamictal and Latuda – I was prescribed this after a single visit when I suggested I may be bipolar. For the next 3 months, I slept 10-16 hours a day (mostly during the daytime), lost 20 pounds without trying to, and being awake was physically painful. I did not know how to describe it then. It was a panic and pain I had never experienced – a sense of physically-induced despair and fear that was truly hellish. I almost killed myself. I thought it must be the medications, but this had started before the medications. I did not have an answer.

June 2020 – June 2021: I enrolled in another school, slowly got back into the gym a few days a week and was somewhat functional. The “panic episodes” stabilised into a predictable cycle of sorts. I would wake up, have a surge of energy/adrenaline, feel groggy and unfocused for the daytime, have the same hellish experience of despair in the late afternoon/evening, then I would experience a physical release for much of the rest of the day. The evening time was the only time of day that I felt decent so that is when I would exercise. Bodybuilding had become my focus once again and was my outlet for my pain. Note: I was still not recovered from what happened in 2020 but I was functional and able to get by.

June 2021: I was vaccinated with the J&J shot. I was told I would be fired from work if I did not. Given my instability (which I thought was psychosomatic at the time), I reasoned that it would be worse to lose the structure/schedule that this job was giving me, so I got the injection.

Part 2 (Post Vaccination)

July 2021 – December 2021: I did not know what but something was different, and something was wrong. But I pushed on. I began preparing for my first actual bodybuilding competition, which would be just 4 months after the competition. Preparation for the competition started about 45 days after the vaccine, by coincidence. My body changed, which I attributed to the prep. I became constipated, had severe trouble focusing, gradually lost the ability to sweat, was fatigued and my workouts were not “there.” But again, I attributed this to the strain on my body for this competition (which was done without steroids or enhancements). After the competition, I was in bad shape. My bloodwork was also quite bad (hormones, A1C, liver enzymes, thyroid). I started eating more, but my body was not responsive – I could not exercise like I had before, I could not get a “muscle pump,” I was abnormally cold and so on. Full symptoms are listed below.

2022: I decided to move to Florida right after the competition in January 2022. Little did I realise, however, that would be the most painful experience of my life. My body severely stopped working properly. My chest was tight, my fingernails were purple, I got dizzy and had headaches, my bones and muscles felt trapped and tight in my torso, my feet tingling and radiated, and were numb. The left side of my torso, face, and my left leg were frequently numb (the same side as the covid injection site). I then attributed this to muscular imbalances because my left leg is nearly ½ an inch longer than my right leg.

I had “panic episodes” still. Eventually, I developed food intolerances and caffeine issues, a pressure in the left side of my chest, discoloured hands and so on. My thoracic spine and the back of my head pounded, and I could no longer lay flat on my back when sleeping. Not only was I unsure of what was happening to me, or why, but I was also alone and constantly floating between doctor’s offices while trying to keep myself together. I could not escape the environment, the light, the noise, or sleep due to the headaches, physical pain and mental anguish, nor could I escape whatever was happening to my body despite no negative bloodwork or abnormal scans. I turned to food as an emotional crutch, and then I noticed an association between diet and the symptoms but could not determine what it was. It is not blood sugar or insulin-related.

2023: I went to doctor appointment after doctor appointment, desperately searching for answers including neurological causes, vascular compression, spine injuries or brain injuries, different primary care doctors, jaw doctors, physical therapists, chiropractic, psychologists, sleep doctors and naturopaths. I looked over my history again and again and again and again and again and again and again, but I could not find a definitive cause for these symptoms, other than the timeline of events established. The compression I felt in the left side of my chest and face led me to a vascular surgeon for Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, and I thought the compression there could have caused the numbness, discolouration, headaches and so on, and potentially could have even caused dysautonomia.

2024 – Present Day: I discovered on my own that I likely have a form of dysautonomia because my heart rate changes at least 30+ bpm when changing positions (sitting to standing). I had a first rib resection and scalenectomy to relieve the presumed compression of the nerves between my clavicle and first rib, but the surgery did not stop the symptoms whatsoever. Research on dysautonomia led me to POTS, which led me to find how previously healthy people got covid and then the vaccine, and subsequently developed nervous system disorders with nothing visible on testing they had done. Their stories are nearly identical to mine in terms of presentation, timeline, lack of other diagnoses and progression. I began working with a long covid/ long vaccine doctor and am currently getting bloodwork. We have confirmed (with bloodwork) I currently have both covid and covid vaccine spike antibodies (3 years after vaccination).

The Current Symptoms

Intense attacks of chest pain tightness/pain. Feelings of hypoxia/inability to breathe. Feelings of being stuck in a fight/flight/adrenaline response. My body feels like it is constricting. Unconsciously clenching and tight, depending on the time of day (see below on the “Daily Cycle”).

Daily Cycle: I wake up, stand up, heart rate shoots up 110+ bpm, fingers and extremities get cold/purple and visible arm/leg veins go away, later in the day towards the evening I have a surge/flushing of some kind (possibly triggered by food, MCAS, etc.), then I “release” and I get extremely vascular, warm and red. No longer tense.

1. Mental Fog. Cannot focus. Disassociation and derealisation. Personality changes.

2. Nearly immediate response to food/drink including left side of face and body tingling and stinging, going numb (same side as vaccine injection). Intense nausea and brain fog. Dizziness. Often flushing and changes in body temperature. Nose starts running.

3. Pounding heartbeat/palpitations. Increase heart rate when standing and lowered when sitting.

4. Temperature regulation issues: cold hands/feet.

5. Lost the ability to sweat from arms and other body parts.

6. Difficult to recover from any workouts now. Joints hurt. Muscles ache. Endurance is very low.

7. Face, hands and feet tingling, vibrating and numb. Much worse on the left side. Much more notable after eating and much less notable when fasting. Ketogenic diet is very useful when followed.

8. Complete loss of feeling in arms: I have woken up before and had both arms completely numb. When I walk, my arms also go numb. They feel like limp noodles. Nothing I can do when this happens other than wait.

9. Notable spots on the body are very painful and sore to the touch, especially when having an episode. These include under the armpits or the lat muscles [latissimus dorsi muscle], in the front of my neck muscles and my calves/legs.

10. Lights and sounds bother me immensely when having an episode.

My Life Now

I am working full time in a job I very much enjoy but I must not stand up too long. I must follow a strict diet (ketogenic and red meat) along with regular fasting because food triggers a large response. I no longer weightlift, and I am struggling. But having answers on what caused this and potentially how to “fix” myself is my goal now. There are answers. We just have to find them.

Featured image: Michael Locke, Real Not Rare (left).  Johnson & Johnson’s covid vaccine produces virtually NO antibody protection against Omicron variant in lab study, Daily Mail, 15 December 2021 (right)