The three COVID vaccines approved in the United States – from Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson – may come with some side effects, which doctors say only means that your body is having a strong immune response. Of course, that doesn’t make them any less uncomfortable. You probably know that you can expect a sore arm or even a rash; a headache; fatigue; and maybe fever and chills. But recently, some people have reported a strange new side effect from the vaccine that is confusing even doctors. To find out more about this rare side effect that may appear in your mouth, read on and to see which side effect is good news, check This side effect signals a “very robust” response to the vaccine, says the doctor.
Recently, people reported experiencing an intense metallic taste in their mouth after receiving the COVID vaccine. The taste is “like having pennies in your mouth”, a South Carolina patient named John Howard told NBC News. “It’s certainly not debilitating or anything like that, but I hope it disappears. I wish my coffee tasted normal.”
Howard is not the only one to report such an experience – doctors have confirmed that they are also seeing it. Specialist in infectious diseases and director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Research Program at Vanderbilt University, Buddy Creech, MD, told NBC News that he saw some individuals report the unpleasant taste after the COVID vaccination. AND Tania Mucci-Elliott, MD, a clinical instructor of infectious diseases and internal medicine at NYU Langone, said she saw a handful of post-vaccine metallic taste cases, but, she told Popsugar, “it seems to be rare.”
“The metallic taste is interesting because we don’t really know the biological basis for that”, Nancy Rawson, PhD, vice president of the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, told NBC News. “There is no metallic taste receiver.”
John A. Sellick, Jr., DO, professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Buffalo-SUNY, took a guess, however. “I suspect it is part of a ‘vagal’ response – the same that causes sweating, flushing and dizziness before an injection [or] procedure, “he told Popsugar.
To see which side effect you are most likely to have with the Pfizer photo, see The side effect that is much more common with Pfizer, Data Shows.
Although rare, the development of a metallic taste as a side effect of a treatment is not entirely unknown, according to NBC News. They report that it comes with other vaccines, antibiotics and pain medications.
While it may seem strange, Creech notes that the metallic taste is not a side effect to worry about. It does not “indicate anything to prevent the second dose of the vaccine,” he said.
But if you are concerned, Mucci-Elliott told Popsguar that “there is no harm in seeing your doctor and informing him.”
To see if you are more susceptible to an intense response to the vaccine, check That’s why half of people have stronger side effects from the vaccine, says the CDC.
According to NBC News and Popsugar, those who experienced the metallic taste after vaccination said it started minutes after the first dose. Unlike other side effects of the COVID vaccine that sometimes take hours to appear, it seems that if you don’t taste it immediately, it is unlikely to appear.
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A man who spoke to NBC News, Paul Wartenberg from Florida, said the metallic taste persisted for several hours after his vaccination, but finally dissipated after he had dinner. Howard said he tried to get rid of the taste with coffee and then with mouthwash, but it took days to pass. Dave Bischel from California told NBC News that the taste remained with him for a few days as well. Creech and Mucci-Elliott also said that the patients they saw dealt with the metallic taste for several days.
But Sellick noted that if you experience this symptom a few days after the COVID vaccine, it may be due to a COVID infection, not a side effect. “If it happens days later, especially if in combination with the loss of smell, it’s a pretty solid sign of SARS-CoV-2 infection,” he told Popsugar.
But if you are in fact dealing with a metallic taste in your mouth as a side effect of the COVID vaccine, Rawson suggests drinking lots of water to help your saliva return to its “ideal composition to clean things out of your mouth”.
And if you don’t have a strong reaction to your injection, check out This is what it means if you don’t have the side effects of the vaccine, doctors say.