When Dr. Maureen Ford received her first dose of the Pfizer vaccine for COVID-19, the only side effect was a slightly sore arm.
The second dose hit her harder. A doctor in the emergency department at Methodist Bronson Hospital in Kalamazoo, Ford took a second chance after finishing Friday’s shift. She woke up the next morning with “a few chills from chattering teeth and muscle aches,” she said, and in the afternoon she was so tired that she took a two-hour nap.
“I just had to take a few doses of ibuprofen” to get over it, said Ford. “Altogether, I was 100% in 36 hours.”
Although it was inconvenient to spend part of the weekend feeling bad, Ford said he was “happy” with the side effects.
“I knew it was just my body making those antibodies” against COVID-19, she said. “It was consuming a little energy and causing a little immune response.”
Ford’s experience is quite typical.
“When we started our second dose clinics, we noticed an increase in the recording of side effects,” said Dr. Christine Nefcy, medical director at Munson Healthcare in Traverse City.
“Usually, they are what we expected – usually not feeling very well for a day, swollen lymph nodes in the armpits,” she said. “All of these are signs that your immune system is kicking in and doing what it is supposed to do.”
In that sense, side effects are a positive sign, said Nefcy, which leads to good and bad news for the elderly. “They tend not to have that robust immune response,” she said. This means fewer side effects with the vaccine, but it can also mean that less antibodies are being produced.
Todd Belding, pharmacy manager at Sparrow Hospital in Lansing, said he is hearing the same things from his colleagues who took the second dose of the vaccine.
“We are definitely hearing that people have more reaction after the second dose than the first,” he said. “I heard that people can feel tired one to three, four days later, and maybe a sore arm for up to a week. But these are good things; shows an immune response. “
He added that many people are trying to schedule their injections for the next day, but when that is not possible, “they find that they can take some Motrin or Tylenol and work during” their shift.
The most commonly reported side effects of the Pfizer vaccine were fatigue, headache and muscle pain. Smaller numbers reported chills, joint pain or fever, according to the Federal Food and Drug Administration.
The Modern vaccine has similar side effects: pain at the injection site, fatigue, headache, muscle pain, joint pain and chills, according to the FDA information document. Swollen lymph nodes have also been reported.
Dr. Frank Rosenblat, an infectious disease specialist at McLaren Health in Pontiac, noted that not everyone experiences side effects.
“I had no side effects” with either dose, he said, and that of his colleagues, “I’ve heard all kinds of stories about the two vaccines. I heard that the second was terrible or the first was terrible or both were good, and that is the case with the Moderna and Pfizer vaccine. There is no rhyme or reason I can choose ”in terms of how someone will react to the shots.
“But one had what you would call a serious side effect,” he added. “You can lie in bed all day, but nothing that puts your life at risk or what we would call a serious adverse reaction to medication.”
It is much better to experience mild side effects than to have the coronavirus itself, said Ford.
“We know that COVID can be anything from asymptomatic to respiratory failure and death, she said. “What worries me are those long-term health problems – those nonspecific and persistent problems with tachycardia, shortness of breath and things that we don’t really understand. Nobody wants it.
“So I took the injections knowing that there could be some symptoms, but also knowing that it would be protection for me and my community,” said Ford. “It is just part of advancing the response to the pandemic.”
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