Less than a year ago, four different vaccines were marketed in the Netherlands. The MEB has mapped out which side effects have been discovered.
“Billions of people have now been vaccinated and what we always see with vaccines is that side effects occur in the first weeks,” says MEB chairman De Boer. “The later occurrence of side effects, while you have already had the two injections, you do not expect that at all. The vaccine has long since left your body.”
Serious side effects very rare
When the vaccines were launched, the four leaflets of the vaccines listed a total of 31 side effects. 36 were added in the past year. According to the MEB, eight of these can be classified as serious. Medical intervention is necessary here, because the condition is life-threatening and can be fatal. For example, there is a very small chance of a rare form of thrombosis with the vaccines from AstraZeneca and Janssen. And with the vaccine from Pfizer or Moderna there is a very rare risk of inflammation of the heart. In both cases, the chance is less than 1 in 10,000.
The most notable side effect is the very rare combination of a low platelet count and clotting problems (TTS) after the injection of Janssen and AstraZeneca. This is a side effect that the MEB has encountered for the first time. This side effect occurs in less than 1 in 10,000 injections. Three people have died in the Netherlands as a result of this side effect. The AstraZeneca vaccine is no longer administered in the Netherlands.
–
–
Explanation:
The light blue blocks show the side effects that were known when the vaccines were approved almost a year ago. After the vaccines have been put into use, new, often rare, side effects have been found that have been added to the package inserts of the vaccines in recent months. These side effects are shown in the dark blue blocks.
A serious side effect requires medical intervention because the condition is life-threatening and can be fatal. The other side effects are usually mild to moderate for relatively healthy people and are of short duration. But for some old and frail people, such a relatively mild side effect can be serious. For example: dehydration due to diarrhea.
Side effects that fall into the ‘very rare’ category are the lowest category as agreed in Europe. In practice, according to the MEB, ‘lower than 1 in 10,000’ is still an overestimation of the frequency.
–
–
The other side effects are usually mild to moderate for relatively healthy people. Complaints that often occur are the known side effects associated with an immune response, such as fever, chills and muscle and joint pain. Usually these are over after a few days.
First days
Most side effects occur within the first few days to weeks after vaccination. Then the immune system of the body is put to work by the vaccine and complaints can occur. According to the MEB, the vaccine has disappeared from your body after about three weeks.
“If you take stock of the four vaccines and look at the effectiveness in preventing hospitalizations and deaths and, on the other hand, the side effects, then it is positive for the vaccines,” says De Boer.
–
–
Several experts who spoke to RTL Nieuws endorse this. The advantages outweigh the disadvantages; even among teenagers who have relatively little to fear from corona, says Emmeline Buddingh, pediatrician-infectiologist/immunologist at the LUMC. “Because about 1 in 5000 unvaccinated children who do become infected with the corona virus, will develop a severe inflammation about a month later. The whole body actually, several organs can be affected.”
These young patients have a high fever and may have inflammation of the heart muscle. “These serious cases are rare, there were 200 such patients in the Netherlands in the recent period. Yet they are more common than teenagers who get a heart infection due to a corona vaccine. Can you check how rare the serious side effects of the vaccine are,” he said. says Buddingh.
–
–
Quickly in the picture
Worldwide, around 4.5 billion vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Janssen are expected to have been put in place by the end of the year. There are currently 24.1 million vaccines administered in the Netherlands. Because vaccination has been carried out on such a large scale within a relatively short period of time, the rare side effects have now also become visible quickly, says the MEB.
Another explanation for the fact that new side effects have been discovered after the vaccines have been approved has to do with the participants in the clinical studies. Before the vaccine can be used on a large scale, it is first tested for effectiveness and safety. According to the MEB, the participants in those studies are relatively healthy and fit and may react differently than someone who is in a care home, for example.
–
–
According to the MEB, the common side effects of the corona vaccines, such as muscle and headache and elevation, correspond to side effects of the annual flu shot and travel vaccinations.
Menstrual disorders
Many women in the Netherlands have reported menstrual disorders after receiving a corona vaccine at the side effects institute Lareb. But neither the European Medicines Agency EMA nor the vaccine manufacturers that have studies underway see any connection with the vaccine.
A temporary change in the menstrual cycle is very common for a variety of reasons. And so it can easily happen that a woman links that sudden change to the jab she had earlier that day. It is something that the side effects center Lareb and the EMA will continue to monitor.
–
–
