Although the side effects of the COVID vaccine may seem alarming, medical experts have warned that they are generally mild to moderate, last only 48 hours and are, in fact, an indication that your injection is working. During a January 28 interview with MSNBC, the White House’s top COVID advisor Anthony Fauci, MD, recently cited two side effects in particular that he thinks should be seen as a welcome sign that his immune system is responding to his vaccination. Read on to find out what side effects are good news and for Fauci’s first-hand account of getting the COVID vaccine, check out Dr. Fauci Says He Had These Side Effects From His Second Vaccine Dose.
Fauci explained that the two unpleasant side effects in particular are not a cause for concern, but a guarantee. “The vaccine, because you are giving it to the arm, gives a systemic reaction. You know this because sometimes after the second dose you feel a little sore, a little cold, which means that the immune system is really speeding up,” Fauci explained .
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), this is because the two COVID mRNA vaccines currently approved in the United States, by Pfizer and Moderna, do not inject inactivated viruses into recipients. Instead, they teach our own cells to mimic certain characteristics of the COVID virus so that our immune systems can train to fight it later, if necessary.
Specifically, COVID vaccines work by instructing our cells to recreate their own version of the “peak protein” found on the outside of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. As more cells create these peak proteins, our immune system “recognizes that the protein does not belong to it and starts building an immune response and producing antibodies, like what happens in the natural infection against COVID-19,” says CDC. So, if you feel those pains and chills that Fauci mentioned, rest assured: this is just your immune system firing to take down a perceived threat.
Want to know what other side effects you can expect after receiving your injection? Continue reading for the most common side effects of the COVID vaccine reported by Moderna patients and for more news on essential vaccines, make sure you are over 65, you should not get this new vaccine, experts warn.
Joint pain, known medically as arthralgia, is the fourth most common side effect reported by vaccine recipients: almost half of those enrolled in the Modern tests – 46 percent, to be exact – experienced this specific side effect hours or days after being shot. . And for more information on what you shouldn’t do before you get the vaccine, check If you take these OTC drugs, you have to stop before getting the vaccine.
Headaches were reported a little more frequently than joint pain, with 64% of patients on Moderna tests experiencing this specific side effect. According to the CDC, headaches tend to be more common after the second dose.
Although a study published in the Journal of Virology warned that taking over-the-counter painkillers before the injection could decrease the effectiveness of the vaccines, experts say it is okay to take them later to treat the vaccine’s side effects, including headache. And for another possible delayed reaction to the injection, check out This side effect of the COVID vaccine may appear a week after the injection.
If you experience sudden exhaustion after taking your COVID injection, you are not alone: about 70 percent of Moderna vaccines reported feeling fatigued after vaccination, making it the second most common side effect.
For this reason, you may want to schedule the scene when you know you will have time to rest afterwards, if possible – for example, on a lighter workday or at the end of the workweek. In fact, after personally experiencing side effects of COVID injection, infectious disease epidemiologist Saskia Popescu, PhD, recently defended: “We need to ensure that people have the ability to take time off after the injection.” And for more regular COVID news delivered straight to your inbox, subscribe to our daily newsletter.
The most common side effect reported by users of Moderna was pain at the injection site: 92 percent of vaccinees experienced this sensation.
“There are two types of side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine”, Teresa Bartlett, MD, senior medical officer at Sedgwick Medical Claims Company, recently said Urgency. Although systemic side effects affect broader bodily functions (fever, chills and pain are basic examples), “local side effects are more common and involve redness, swelling and perhaps some swelling of the lymph nodes in the vaccinated arm”. And for more information on the last side effect she mentioned, see The rare side effects of the COVID vaccine that doctors want you to prepare for.