Michael Whitworth showed only mild symptoms after his first dose of the Modern COVID-19 vaccine.
“Just pain in the arm,” he said.
So, when it was time for his second dose recently, he didn’t expect to be sorry.
“The second dose was a completely different story,” he explained.
Two hours after the injection, Whitworth said the pain and soreness in his arm had become so intense that “I couldn’t move”.
At around 10 am, Whitworth said he had a low fever, tremors, chills, his lips went pale and he started hallucinating.
“It was really, really weird because I never had hallucinations in my life, so I felt like I got an injection of mushrooms or something,” he said.
What Whitworth describes is extremely rare according to the VAERS database of adverse reports. Co-managed by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the database tracks adverse reactions after any type of vaccination.
We downloaded the data and analyzed the reports recorded in the first four weeks of the implementation of COVID-19 in Florida. The COVID vaccine constituted more than 90% of all adverse reports presented in the State of Sol.
On Wednesday, reports were filed by or on behalf of more than 330 people. Of 850,000 doses administered through mid-January, the number of adverse events recorded represented less than 0.04% of people who received at least one dose of the vaccine in Florida.
“It is an early warning system,” explained the associate professor at the University of South Florida, Dr. Jason Salemi. “You shouldn’t be looking at this database, and if you see 300 occurrences of adverse incidents, I wouldn’t be worried. The idea is that, if at the population level we continue to see the same adverse event that we would not expect repeatedly, this should lead scientists to dive deeper into it. “
Salemi added that the reports recorded in the database are not verified, voluntary and sent by anyone.
In the four weeks we looked at, the most common side effects included chills, fatigue and dizziness. Reports of women who received the vaccine were recorded more than three times compared to men.
Six deaths in Florida were also reported to the database. The youngest 56-year-old physician from South Florida, Dr. Michael Gregory. Gregory was described as healthy before he died, a few weeks after receiving the first dose of the Phiizer vaccine. His death remains under investigation.
“We don’t say that these adverse events are specifically linked to this vaccine. We only know that they happen after a person is vaccinated, ”explained Salemi when we asked what the public should take from the reports recorded in the government’s database. “You don’t have to take this with a grain of salt, but in many ways, they require a lot more research to verify the information and make sure it is really linked to the vaccine.”
Michael Whitworth plans to report its side effects to the VAERS database.
“I think hallucinations are important. I think people will be a little less uncomfortable knowing that these things can happen. “
For Whitworth, it is more than personal. He is a Tampa Bay doctor who is now experiencing the side effects of the vaccine, but continues to witness the reality of the virus.
“I care for COVID patients, many of them, intubating, and I care for them in the operating room. They are in a horrible situation, so much so that I would not want that in any of them and the side effects; yes, you have some, but compared to the real COVID, it’s nothing, ”he said.
Dr. Michael Whitworth also hosts a Facebook page in the Tampa Bay region with a focus on evidence-based COVID-19 information. Click here for more.
To report side effects to the VAERS reporting system, click here.
You can also report side effects on your phone by clicking here.