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Covid Vaccine Side Effects: What To Know And Why Not To Worry
Side effects have been reported for all three emergency vaccines approved in the US, but most are mild and short-lived. As more people become eligible to get a coronavirus vaccine, many are wondering what side effects to expect and whether there are any differences between the side effects of the vaccines. The short answer to both questions is “yes” – the details are given below – although all complaints pale in comparison to completing Covid-19. We used clinical trial data collected by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to investigate the types of side effects most commonly associated with the three emergency vaccines currently in use in the U.S. allowed are. These vaccines were developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, Moderna and the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (Niaid), and most recently Johnson & Johnson. What are the most common side effects? With all vaccines, the most common side effects are: Pain when the vaccine is injected. Fatigue. Headache and sore muscles. Less common side effects may also include nausea, chills, and fever. The vast majority of symptoms cause discomfort, but not a total disruption of your daily habits. Are Covid-19 Vaccines Safe? Yes. Their safety is tested in large studies with tens of thousands of people. Subsequently, the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will continue to monitor the vaccine’s safety data, including side effects, after the vaccines are approved. These are sometimes referred to as phase IV studies. This monitoring goes hand in hand with reporting on multiple vaccine safety registries. These ongoing studies can help identify the rarest side effects and identify people who may be particularly sensitive to the vaccine, such as: B. the potential for an allergic reaction. One of the key numbers in the graphs below is the rate of people who experienced side effects after receiving a “placebo” or injection of saline instead of the vaccine. The people involved in the studies did not know whether they had received the vaccine or not. This helps researchers understand the background rate of these side effects in the population. Side effects of the Moderna vaccine Formally referred to as mRNA-1273, this vaccine was developed by Moderna in collaboration with the Niaid. However, most people simply know it as the Moderna vaccine, which is a 28-day, two-dose regimen. A clinical study of more than 30,000 participants in 99 locations across the US found the vaccine to be safe and effective, protecting people from Covid 94.1% of the time. Among those study participants, 15,168 people received the vaccine and the rest received a placebo. Side Effects of Moderna Dose 1 We used the results of the vaccine studies to describe the likelihood of people aged 18 to 64 years having a specific side effect within one week of a vaccine dose. On average, these symptoms disappeared within three days, and often less. Standard Side Effects of Moderna Dose 2 A key feature of the two-dose regimen is that people are more likely to experience side effects after the second dose. Standard Pfizer Vaccine Side Effects A vaccine developed by Pfizer under the pharmaceutical name BNT162B2 uses mRNA technology, similar to Moderna’s vaccine. Their process involved 152 locations around the world. While the majority (130) were in the United States, the trial sites were also in Brazil, Argentina, and South Africa. More than 43,000 people were involved in the process. The vaccine was found to be 95% effective in preventing Covid-19. Pfizer’s vaccine uses a regiment of two doses 21 days apart. Pfizer doses a side effect In contrast to Moderna, Pfizer looked at side effects in two different age groups: people between the ages of 16 and 55 and people over the age of 55. Since people over 55 years of age suffer from side effects less often, the side effects are the younger the group is presented here. Standard Pfizer dose two side effects As with the Moderna vaccine, some side effects were more common after the second dose. Standard side effects of Johnson & Johnson The last vaccine to be approved in the USA came from the Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Janssen. The Johnson & Johnson study included more than 40,000 people in 19 geographic areas. This mainly included South Africa, where the vaccine against the B1351 variant was found to be slightly less effective. The FDA found this vaccine to be more than 66% effective in preventing moderate to severe Covid-19. While this rate of effectiveness is lower than the two vaccines discussed earlier, it offers near-perfect protection against hospitalization and death, and offers benefits in fighting the pandemic. On April 13, the FDA and CDC recommended that states suspend administration of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine after reports that six women developed rare and severe blood clots, similar to those seen in a small number of people taking the AstraZeneca Have received vaccine elsewhere in the world. If linked to the J&J vaccine, these serious cases suggest an extremely rare side effect. At the time the break was announced, more than 6.8 million doses had been administered across the country. Johnson & Johnson Side Effects The Johnson & Johnson vaccine requires only one dose and generally has a lower rate of side effects. Standard What causes the side effects? Side effects are a sign that the vaccine is causing your body to trigger an immune response. They can be uncomfortable, but they can also be a sign that the vaccine is working as intended. Side effects are caused by the release of chemicals in the body that signal the immune system that it is time to start a response. These naturally occurring chemicals are called cytokines and chemokines. While there is no one-to-one correlation between side effects and an immune response, side effects are an expected part of the process. “What we are looking for as vaccinologists is Goldilocks’ answer,” said Dr. Greg Poland, editor-in-chief of the medical journal Vaccine and head of the Vaccine Research Group at Mayo Clinic. Poland also advises large vaccine manufacturers. “We don’t want too little immune response,” we don’t want too much, we want just enough, “said Poland. The balance that Poland describes is sometimes referred to as between “immunogenicity” and “reactogenicity” or the propensity to elicit an immune response versus the tolerability of side effects. Why should I trust this data? In vaccine science, these often mild side effects are referred to as “adverse events”. In Covid-19 vaccine studies, researchers gathered information on everything from hip fractures to heart attacks to monitor the safety of these vaccines. “We have a very, very robust system in the US for tracking adverse vaccination events,” Poland said. “This allowed us to pinpoint the risk of anaphylaxis in certain types of people at a rate of 2.4 to 4.5 per million, something that would never have been possible in the past.” Importantly, the vast majority of these side effects are not vaccine-related, but are still documented to make sure there is no pattern and to verify the safety of one of the few medical interventions given to healthy people. The FDA then does its own analysis of the vaccine trials. The data are submitted to an independent panel of experts, which reviews them and, based on the results, makes a recommendation on the approval of the vaccines. The FDA analyzes submitted to the committee are public and can be viewed here, as are the meetings of this panel of experts.
