To date, data collected on the COVID-19 vaccines suggest that most reactions to injections are mild – including headaches, fever, fatigue and nausea. But with more than 38 million people in the United States now fully vaccinated, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continues to collect information on how those who receive the vaccines are responding through an application – still little known – called V-insurance .
The CDC describes V-safe as a “smartphone-based tool that uses text messages and web searches to provide personalized health checks after you receive a COVID-19 vaccine.” The program asks you to report any side effects you experience after the vaccine and, depending on its severity, you can ask someone at the CDC to ask for more information. This week, the app received criticism because it’s only available on smartphones, excluding the millions of people in the U.S. who don’t own it.
But for the vast majority of those who do, says Dr. Carolyn B. Bridges, associate director for adult immunization at the Immunization Action Coalition, it can be an extremely useful resource. Here’s what you need to know.
Anyone vaccinated can apply for V-safe, and your vaccination center should have information about it.
Bridges says vaccine distribution centers should provide information about V-safe. “When you get the vaccine, they should give you a brochure with a QR code, which you can use to sign up,” she says. “They will send you questions about the types of side effects you are having for a period of time after receiving the vaccine … and if you have something more unusual or serious to report, then you can get a follow-up call. “For those who do not receive the handout, the CDC provides guidance on the registration process on its website.
The information collected in the V-safe is complementary to VAERS, the Vaccine Adverse Event Notification System
The CDC has long been tracking serious reactions to vaccines through VAERS, the Vaccine Adverse Event Notification System, which requires doctors to record any pertinent clinical reactions. Bridges says the V-safe is not a replacement, but just an additional way to track side effects through self-reporting. “All of these vaccine tests were large, about 40,000 people, but that may not detect something that occurs in one in a million,” she says. “So while VAERS is in progress, V-safe is complementary and involves receiving a text message to which you reply.”
Since the U.S. vaccination program has progressed at an unprecedented rate, producing several vaccines in less than a year, V-safe helps fill in the gaps, and Bridges says it may even make some feel better about choosing one. “I think it is important for people to participate in V-safe if they want to contribute,” she says. “I think it will be important for people who may not have been so comfortable with vaccinations at first, just to give them a little more control and more information.”
Almost 4 million Americans started reporting on V– safe, recording side effects such as headache and fatigue
During a meeting on March 1, Dr. Tom Shimabukuro, deputy director of the CDC’s Office of Immunization Security, shared the first data on V-safe, revealing that 3.8 million people started using the app in 16 of February. The number represented only a small fraction of the 55 million individuals who received one or more doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines (the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was not yet available) at that time, but their publicly available presentation shows valuable information obtained from the data .
For example, like the volunteers in the Pfizer and Moderna vaccination studies, those who received the vaccines reported three main symptoms after the injections: fatigue, headache and myalgia (muscle pain). These side effects were followed by other common ones, including chills, nausea and fever. The reactions increased significantly after the subjects received the second dose of Pfizer. (At the time, information for the second dose of Moderna was not available.)
More than 16,000 people reported becoming pregnant after vaccination
Of all the myths circulating about the COVID-19 vaccine, the one that suggests that vaccines can cause infertility in women appears particularly damaging. But in mid-January, V-safe data, according to Shimabukuro’s slides, included 30,000 pregnant women, providing data that led the CDC to conclude that “adverse events seen among pregnant women with V-safe did not indicate any problems. of security. “
Bridges says this is an example of why V-safe is so valuable, especially considering that neither Moderna or Pfizer clinical trials included pregnant women. “All pregnancies registered, it is extremely useful to have this data,” she says. “[There has been] misinformation and what we all want and need is real data – accurate information. So, I think this is a great way, if people are willing to volunteer. “
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