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Originally Posted by nimh
What is the mechanism behind this phenomenon? At present, it is unknown but researchers at the NIMH are pursuing a theory that the mechanism is similar to that of Rheumatic Fever, an autoimmune disorder triggered by strep. throat infections. In every bacterial infection, the body produces antibodies against the invading bacteria, and the antibodies help eliminate the bacteria from the body. However in Rheumatic Fever, the antibodies mistakenly recognize and "attack" the heart valves, joints, and/or certain parts of the brain. This phenomenon is called "molecular mimicry", which means that proteins on the cell wall of the strep. bacteria are similar in some way to the proteins of the heart valve, joints, or brain. Because the antibodies set off an immune reaction which damages those tissues, the child with Rheumatic Fever can get heart disease (especially mitral valve regurgitation), arthritis, and/or abnormal movements known as Sydenham’s Chorea or St. Vitus Dance.
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Good luck with that, it would appear that flumist is not associated with this. This disease has a "sudden onset" nature, which naturally causes parents to look for something they did in the last 24 hours that caused it. But correlation does not imply causality and researchers believe that strep is the cause and not some vaccination for something unrelated. "Data points" also lead us to confirmation bias.
A Google search to correlate the terms PANDAS and FluMist only turns up one result, a thread of concerned parents trying to decide what to do.