Several candidates for coronavirus vaccines have been authorized for emergency use worldwide. Most Western countries use a combination of Pfizer / BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccines. The Johnson & Johnson drug has just undergone a regulatory review and is now also available in several countries. In addition, Russia and China are using their own vaccines and exporting their drugs to other markets. Nearly 276 million doses of the vaccine were administered worldwide on Thursday morning, with 58 million people receiving the full two-dose regimen.
Several new studies have offered much additional evidence that vaccines effectively prevent severe COVID-19 and deaths. Drugs are also well tolerated, with minimal side effects. The list of adverse reactions includes pain at the injection site and brief flu-like symptoms. An extremely low number of allergic reactions has also been observed in certain vaccines. And now, doctors have begun to notice a strange new side effect from the COVID-19 vaccine that may take more than a week to appear in some people. Fortunately, it is extremely light and not a cause for concern.
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The new symptoms appear several days after the second injection. The arm may be red, sore, itchy and swollen, The New York Times reports. The reaction appears to be harmless and should not be confused with an infection. A letter in The new English medical journal addresses the symptom, as seen in people who received the Modern vaccine at Massachusetts General Hospital.
The letter details 12 cases of delayed skin reactions that appeared about 8 days after the first injection. The symptoms disappeared about six days after the onset. The patients were instructed to continue with the complete treatment and all completed the vaccination schedule. Three patients had a similar reaction after the second injection. But the skin lesions appeared faster, two days after the second injection, and lasted up to three days after that.
Some of these late skin reactions included lesions measuring more than 10 cm in diameter. Other patients had rashes on skin regions more distant from the injection site, such as the palm and elbow. Some patients also experienced fatigue and muscle pain, expected side effects that were associated with the COVID-19 vaccines. The following set of photos shows the types of skin lesions that can appear:
Some patients were treated with antihistamines, others needed steroids, and one was prescribed an antibiotic by mistake.
The letter’s authors want to raise awareness of this type of side effect so that patients and doctors know that such side effects are possible. The authors also advise against antibiotic treatment to clear skin problems:
Doctors may not be prepared to deal with late local reactions to [Moderna] mRNA-1273 vaccine. Given the expansion of mass vaccination campaigns worldwide, these reactions are likely to raise concerns among patients and requests for evaluation. These reactions were not consistently recognized, guidance on the second dose of the vaccine varied, and many patients received antibiotics unnecessarily. We hope that this letter will encourage additional reports and communications on the epidemiological characteristics, causes and implications of these delayed skin reactions, as this information can calm patients’ concerns, encourage completion of vaccination and minimize unnecessary use of antibiotics.
Dr. Kimberly Blumenthal, one of the authors of the letter, said The times that these symptoms led Massachusetts General Hospital to change the patient’s handout. “We said it was normal to get red, itchy and swollen when you get the vaccine,” she said. “We changed the text to say that it can also start seven to 10 days after you receive the vaccine.” The allergy specialist also said that she does not understand why late skin reactions appeared only in patients who received the Modern vaccine and not the BioNTech drug. Both are mRNA vaccines.
Massachusetts General Hospital created a registry to track patients with delayed skin reactions. Blumenthal said that about 30 cases have been seen so far, and most of them are women.
Moderna reported late skin reactions after her Phase 3 trial, saying that 0.8% of the volunteers experienced them after the first dose and 0.2% after the second injection. THE NEJM The letter indicates that Moderna’s judgment did not fully characterize these delayed reactions. Here are the most common side effects of the Modern vaccine, as listed by the FDA:
The most commonly reported side effects, which usually last for several days, were pain at the injection site, tiredness, headache, muscle pain, chills, joint pain, swollen lymph nodes in the same arm as the injection, nausea and vomiting and fever . It is important to note that more people experienced these side effects after the second dose than after the first; therefore, it is important for vaccinators and recipients to expect some side effects to occur after either dose, but even more so after the second dose.
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Chris Smith started writing about gadgets as a hobby and, before he knew it, was already sharing his views on technology with readers around the world. Whenever he’s not writing about gadgets, he fails miserably to stay away from them, although he tries desperately. But this is not necessarily a bad thing.