In the world’s most detailed data on how people feel after a Pfizer COVID vaccine, Israel found that less than 0.3 percent had side effects that they said were significant enough to be reported to doctors.
The Ministry of Health officials who released the research believe it will provide peace of mind for many people around the world who are eager to get a picture of the impact of the vaccine. They wrote that side effects appeared to be “similar in frequency and character to symptoms reported after other vaccines were given to the population.”
They also stressed that side effects are usually ‘mild’ and will pass ‘soon’.
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After the first shot, 6.575 out of 2,768,200 Israelis sought medical help for side effects, which is 0.24%. The figure after the second shot was 0.26% – 3,592 of 1,377,827 recipients.
The latter figure indicates that although it is known that the second shot makes some people feel under the weather, it rarely escalates to formal medical complaints.
Israelis in a Clalit Health Service Vaccination Center in Petah Tikva, January 27, 2021. (Miriam Alster / Flash90)
Doctors responded enthusiastically to the data. “People around the world need to feel at ease,” Yoav Yehezkeli, a physician and public health expert at Tel Aviv University who was not involved in the study, told The Times of Israel.
Few complaints ended in hospitalization – an average of 17 patients per million after the first shot, and three patients per million after the second shot. Yehezkeli said doctors expected some patients to have significant side effects, and he personally treated a patient who partially paralyzed facial nerve after her second shot, but statistics show that the incidence is low. His patient recovered.
This was the first important actual analysis of side effects, often involving the numbers of Pfizer’s clinical trials. Its findings, which will be accurate on January 27, are in line with the expectations of health organizations around the world based on trial data.
America’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention became available before vaccination, noting that it can cause side effects that are normally ‘mild to moderate’, while a small number of people have serious side effects. ‘
The CDC expected that the main side effects would be localized pain or broader symptoms such as chills and headaches, which could ‘feel like flu symptoms’. This was what the Israeli data found.
A doctor in a protective suit and mask holds an injection syringe and vaccine. (oshcherban via iStock by Getty Images)
The vast majority of complaints were localized pain in the arm, or people generally felt unwell. Arm pain was 50% of the first shot complaints and 22% of the second shot complaints. About 41% of first-shot complainants and 73% of second-shot complainants felt they were generally feeling bad.
There were also unusual side effects.
Neurological symptoms were reported with 287 first-dose vaccines and 96 second-dose vaccines. There were 165 reports of allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis, after the first shot and 47 after the second shot. Other unusual side effects were reported by 60 and 19 people after the first and second shots, respectively.
Israel’s statistics should be considered reliable because the country’s health system involves ‘active surveillance’ of side effects, Yehezkeli said. “These are important figures because many people in Israel have already been vaccinated and the health care system is very organized with methods to report side effects,” he said.
‘I’m a practitioner and every time I report a patient with, for example, a fever that has recently been vaccinated, the computer system gives a warning and asks me if I want to report it as a side effect. This is what I call active supervision. ”
