Coronavirus vaccine side effects have been recorded in 10% to 15% of volunteers in Pfizer’s and Moderna’s clinical trials.
Dr. Moncef Slaoui, President Donald Trump’s coronavirus vaccine czar, reiterated that Pfizer’s and Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccines are safe and that the coronavirus vaccine side effects were “significantly noticeable" in some of the patients.
He explained that those side effects could last up to a day and a half. The patients reported redness, fever, muscle aches, pain, chills, and headaches. However, most of the participants did not report any side effects.
“The longer, more important kind of adverse events such as some autoimmune disease or others have not been reported in a different way between the placebo group and the vaccine group in these two trials, which is very reassuring,” he said in an interview with The Washington Post.
“I always make sure we say that [while] we know the short term and I’m going to call it midterm effects of the vaccine is now well understood, the very long-term safety is not yet understood by definition," he said.
Slaoui’s statements come as states get ready to distribute a Covid-19 vaccine.
“We really need to make patients aware that this is not going to be a walk in the park,” Dr. Sandra Fryhofer of the American Medical Association told the CDC advisory group on Nov. 23. “They are going to know they had a vaccine. They are probably not going to feel wonderful. But they’ve got to come back for that second dose.”
In November, public health authorities and drugmakers urged the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to inform the public about coronavirus vaccine side effects.
According to Dr. Sandra Fryhofer of the American Medical Association, the coronavirus vaccines of Pfizer and Moderna require two doses at varying intervals. She is concerned about whether her patients will return for a second dose because of the possible side effects they may experience after their first shot.
“We really need to make patients aware that this is not going to be a walk in the park,” Fryhofer said during the meeting. “They are going to know they had a vaccine. They are probably not going to feel wonderful. But they’ve got to come back for that second dose,” she added.
CNBC learned from participants of Moderna and Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine trials in September that they had experienced body aches, high fever, daylong exhaustion, headaches, and other symptoms after taking their shots.
Pfizer and Moderna mentioned that their coronavirus vaccines could give people side effects that are similar to symptoms manifested by those with mild Covid-19, such as chills, muscle pain, and headache.
Meanwhile, Patsy Stinchfield, a Children’s Minnesota nurse practitioner, said authorities and drugmakers must discuss the side effects in a more positive way. She noted they could use terms such as “response” instead of “adverse reaction.”
“These are immune responses,” said Stinchfield, a former voting member of the committee. “And so if you feel something after vaccination, you should expect to feel that. When you do, it’s normal to have some arm soreness or fatigue, some body aches and maybe even a fever. It sounds like in some of these trials, maybe even having to stay home from work.”
“You hear some people in the trials that are disappointed that they didn’t have any of those things, feeling they must have gotten a placebo,” she noted.
