We have been injecting the corona vaccines for more than two months and the vaccination rate is accelerating. More and more Dutch people are protected against covid-19 and are faced with side effects. What can you expect after an injection?
Side effects are a logical consequence of vaccinations. Vaccines put our immune system to work so that we can deal with new pathogens. New vaccines will only enter the market if the European Medicines Agency EMA finds that the benefits outweigh the disadvantages.
Headache, muscle pain, fever
The most common side effects of the corona vaccines are according to the Lareb side effects center puncture site reactions, headache, tiredness, muscle pain, joint pain, fever, nausea, chills, and swollen lymph nodes in the armpit, neck, or collarbone.
“In the vast majority of people these side effects are mild,” says vaccine expert Leonoor Wijnans of the Medicines Evaluation Board (MEB). She makes a decision on vaccines on behalf of the Netherlands at EMA. “A minority suffers more from side effects and most complaints. disappear after 1 to 3 days. “
Still, side effects can limit functioning. The RIVM guideline for corona vaccinations states that while the common side effects are harmless, “they are a nuisance and can lead to temporary ineligibility for work in the first 24-48 hours after vaccination,” the guideline said.
More or less burden
How many side effects you get depends on several factors. According to the RIVM, the complaints are more pronounced in young people than in the elderly. People with the vaccines from Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna also suffer more and more from side effects after the second injection. At AstraZeneca, this is just after the first shot, says vaccine expert Wijnans.
In general, according to the MEB, the corona vaccines also appear to have more side effects than, for example, the flu vaccines and vaccines against meningococcus. “A possible explanation for this is that the corona vaccines induce a stronger immune response.”
There are also differences between the corona vaccines. “The side effects of the AstraZeneca vaccine appear to be slightly more likely to be experienced as severe,” says Agnes Kant, director of Adverse Reactions Center Lareb. Anyone can report suspicions of side effects there and Kant draws this conclusion from the reports so far.
‘Difficulty comparing each other’
The vaccine package inserts also point to differences. For example, fever was most common in the large-scale study of Modern. About 15 percent of the participants developed a fever compared to 10 percent in the study Pfizer/BioNTech and 8 percent with AstraZeneca. Incidentally, 34 percent of the people who received an injection from AstraZeneca felt ‘feverish’.
“You have to be careful with these kinds of comparisons,” says vaccine expert Wijnans of the MEB. “There are differences between the populations in which the different vaccines have been studied, for example in age, health and risk factors. That makes comparison difficult now.”
Side effects in practice
The percentages in the information leaflets will reasonably correspond with practice, Wijnans suspects, but we have to take into account a margin. “We get more information about the practice through large-scale studies that take place after approval, but no conclusions can be drawn from that at the moment.”
The Lareb side effect center is working on such a study. To map out the differences, it follows about 5000 people per vaccine that is used here. Lareb will come up with the first results next week.
Allergic reactions
In addition to the common side effects, some people experience rare side effects. The best known of these is probably the severe allergic reaction that occurs in rare cases and can be treated.
Estimates of how often this so-called anaphylactic reaction occurs vary. The US CDC reported in January that this response was about 11.1 times per million Pfizer shots occurs and approx 2.5 times per million Moderna shots. Recently researchers came in the trade magazine JAMA out for a much higher number: 2.5 times per 10,000 shots from Moderna or Pfizer.
After admission
Even now that the vaccines are on the market, all kinds of organizations are keeping a finger on the pulse. According to the MEB, the chance of new serious side effects after the vaccine has been approved is small. “Yet we can never rule it out completely. The studies were not large enough for very rare side effects. That is why we keep a close eye on the vaccines, even after approval.”
At the beginning of this year, the EMA Pharmacovigilance Committee (PRAC) examined reports of frail elderly people who died after a shot with the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine. The committee concluded that no specific security risks are in frail elderly. PRAC concluded that at the beginning of March diarrhea and vomiting can also be side effects of the Pfizer vaccine.
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