The coronavirus vaccines are very effective and the chance of an adverse reaction is rare

The coronavirus vaccines are very effective and the chance of an adverse reaction is rare

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But some developments have dampened the excitement: this week, some vaccination sites in the U.S. broke down after some patients reported adverse reactions following the Johnson & Johnson vaccination. The vaccine has also been linked to blood clots in four people who received the vaccine. One of the cases was fatal, European health officials confirmed.

Incidents of ‘breakthrough infections’ have also raised concerns: some people who were fully vaccinated against Covid-19 are still infected with the virus and have died in some cases.

Both issues are of concern, says Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. But the risks of being vaccinated – serious reactions remain incredibly rare – outweigh the risks of Covid-19 infection, he said.

Health experts in the US and beyond agree: all three Covid-19 vaccines currently authorized in the US are still safe and very effective in preventing Covid-19 infection.

Moderna and Pfizer, which in clinical trials were between 94% and 95% effective in preventing Covid-19 infection, were recently studied under ‘real conditions’ after their authorization in the US and other countries. A U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which follows fully vaccinated health care workers, found that both vaccines were 90% effective at preventing infections.

But 90% are not 100%, so ‘breakthrough infections’, or cases of Covid-19 that occur with full vaccinations, are to be expected and do not mean that the vaccinations are less effective, said dr. Information on the White House Friday.

“The number of individuals who have had breakthrough infections is not at all incompatible with a 90% efficacy against the vaccine. So I do not think there needs to be any concern about any change or alteration in the effectiveness of the vaccine,” he said. Fauci said. answer a question from CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.

The one-shot vaccine Johnson & Johnson, pictured above, is considered to be extremely effective in preventing serious diseases and deaths due to Covid-19.

Johnson & Johnson is not a ‘second class’ vaccine

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been linked to four cases of blood clots, one case in a clinical trial and the remaining three at the time of vaccination in the US, the European Medicines Agency confirmed on Friday. In one of the cases, the person died.

Vaccination sites in Iowa, Colorado, Georgia and North Carolina stopped vaccinations this week after some people reported adverse reactions to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. In Colorado, two out of 11 people who complained of nausea and dizziness were taken to a hospital for evaluation but were released without hospitalization, Centura Health, health care provider, told CNN on Friday. The other nine people recovered with juice and water.

In a statement released on Friday, CDC spokeswoman Kristen Nordlund told CNN: “CDC is aware of several incidents of vaccine recipients having dizziness, lightheadedness, fainting, rapid breathing and sweating (vasovagal or anxiety-related) symptoms after following COVID-19 vaccines in Iowa, Colorado, Georgia and North Carolina. ‘

Vaccination address in Colorado shuts down early after 11 people 'expected' a negative reaction to the Covid-19 vaccine, officials say

At present, the CDC and FDA “do not recommend that health departments discontinue any COVID-19 vaccine,” the statement said. “CDC conducted analysis lot analyzes and found no cause for concern.”

CDC officials take reports of adverse events seriously and “analyze” the safety and effectiveness of vaccines, Schaffner said. Although reports of adverse reactions are taken into account, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is still considered a safe and important tool to combat Covid-19.

Health experts are also concerned about the stigma that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is a lesser vaccine than the offer from Moderna and Pfizer. Trials of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine showed that it was 66% effective in preventing moderate to severe diseases, compared to the 90% effectiveness of Moderna and Pfizer.
But Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot vaccine is not a ‘second-class’ vaccine, Schaffner said. It was evaluated under different conditions – it was tested later in 2020 than the other two, and one of its primary test sites was South Africa, where a highly contagious variant began to dominate. The vaccine was found to be effective in preventing serious diseases there, and no patients who received the vaccine were admitted to the hospital or died.

Why Some Vaccines Still Get Sick And Even Die

In Friday’s briefing, Fauci noted that the few deaths seen among the more than 200 breakthrough infections occurred mainly in the elderly. This is not unexpected, he said.

Older people are more likely to have underlying conditions than the rest of the population. Older people were also one of the first to be vaccinated, in addition to health workers, Schaffner noted.

Severe reactions to the vaccine, seen here while being administered to two women in Louisville, Kentucky, remain very rare. Side effects such as pain in the arm, fatigue and nausea are more common.

Schaffner noted that fully vaccinated elderly people already have an increased risk of death due to their age and health status.

“These are populations that are enriched with people who have underlying diseases,” he said. “We know that adverse events in the population will occur on a daily basis.”

To determine if the vaccine causes direct adverse reactions, health experts at the CDC and other vaccinated agencies compare vaccinated people within the same demographic to determine whether adverse events occur more frequently in the vaccinated group. Schaffner said the side effects are unlikely to be related to the vaccine if it occurs at the same doses.

Side effects are not uncommon, but serious reactions do

Minor side effects after receiving a vaccine are not uncommon. In the case of the Covid-19 vaccines, an estimated 10% to 15% of volunteers in clinical trials developed noticeable side effects, a former Operation Warp Speed ​​official said late last year.

The most common complaints for the Covid-19 vaccine include arm pain, fatigue, body aches and, in some cases, low-grade fever. As the 11 patients in Colorado are experiencing, according to the CDC, headaches and swelling can also occur at the injection site.
Do not be alarmed if you experience these side effects from a Covid-19 vaccine. This can actually be a good sign
Severe side effects, such as an allergic reaction, are much less common, occurring approximately every two to five per million people, Baylor College of Medicine, dr. Peter Hotez, told CNN earlier this month.
Serious adverse reactions are extremely rare, but they are usually associated with vaccines, and in most cases health care providers say the benefits outweigh the risks. The rare disease Guillain-Barré syndrome, which can cause muscle weakness and presumably follow the infection with a virus, occurs in about one or two cases per million flu vaccines. But the vaccine is still considered an essential tool to prevent unnecessary deaths: In the flu season 2017-2018, of the estimated 45 million Americans diagnosed with the smoker, approximately 61,000 of them died.

The risk of the Covid-19 vaccine is small compared to the risk of serious diseases of Covid-19 itself, Schaffner said. As numbers increase again in the U.S., even though millions of people have been vaccinated, it is very important that those who can be vaccinated will do so, he said.

CNN’s Jen Christensen, Katia Hetter, Betsy Klein, Amanda Watts and Holly Yan contributed to this report.

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