Vaccination reactions – annoying but quite normal
According to the current status, the Corona vaccines approved to date are generally well tolerated. However, relatively many vaccinated persons experience vaccination reactions. Strictly speaking, these are not side effects, but rather the natural reactions of the immune system to the vaccination. These include flu-like symptoms that subside after two to three days, or pain and redness in the vaccination area.
In fact, such reactions occur more frequently with the Corona vaccines than after many other vaccinations. One possible reason: the immune system responds very well, and perhaps better, to modern vaccines than to many classical vaccines. This has the advantage that they offer very good protection against infection and especially against severe courses of disease. Increased and stronger vaccination reactions are therefore the unpleasant but harmless consequence of the good immune response.
However, if you do not observe any vaccine reactions after a corona vaccination, it does not mean that your vaccine response is weak. In fact, most do not notice any vaccine reactions at all, yet usually develop very good immune protection.
Common vaccination reactions and side effects
- Fever
- Headache
- mild to moderate pain and swelling at the injection site
- Fatigue
- pain in one extremity
- Dizziness
- Chills @
- muscle pain
- flu-like symptoms
- rash
- diarrhea
- palpitations
- racing heart
For example, according to a study by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (CDS), after mRNA vaccine administration, about 50 percent of vaccinees reported symptoms after the first dose and about 69 percent after the second.
Younger people are more likely to experience such symptoms after corona vaccination. This is not surprising, because their immune systems are more powerful than those of older people. The same applies to women, whose immune systems tend to be more active than those of men.
Allergic reactions
Allergic reactions to vaccinations are real side effects. In principle, they are not uncommon and can also occur after administration of the Corona vaccines.
The general vaccination recommendation for Corona therefore also applies to allergy sufferers. Anyone who has already suffered a severe allergic reaction in the past (regardless of the substance) should discuss this with their doctor before vaccination. The Paul Ehrlich Institute also recommends that physicians observe allergy sufferers for at least 30 minutes after Corona vaccination for reactions.
In the event of an allergic shock, medical assistance can thus be provided quickly. Affected persons recover quickly as a result. However, they should not receive another dose of the Corona vaccine, according to current recommendations.
Covid arm
Some vaccinated individuals experience delayed symptoms – specifically, four to eleven days after vaccination – in the vaccinated extremity: Redness, swelling, itching, pain. Investigations of tissue samples (biopsies) have shown that this is an immune reaction in which T cells in particular are involved, which only develop later in the course of the immune response. However, the symptoms are basically harmless and can be treated well with cooling and, if necessary, cortisone.
Cerebral vein thrombosis
Such thromboses have been observed in connection with the Corona vaccination predominantly after administration of the vector vaccines from AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson – about ten times more frequently than with the mRNA vaccines. Experts suspect a “class effect” – meaning the side effect could also occur with the Sputnik V vaccine, which is also vector-based.
Because sinus vein thrombosis occurs almost exclusively in younger people, the Standing Committee on Vaccination (Stiko), AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson’s vector-based vaccine is currently recommended only for people 60 years of age and older.
Younger people who do not currently have the opportunity to be vaccinated with one of the mRNA vaccines from BioNTech/Pfizer or Moderna, which are not suspect in this regard, can still have a vector vaccine administered after consulting with their physician. This may make sense if the personal risk of severe courses of Sars Cov-2 infection (e.g., due to heavy smoking, severe obesity, or severe lung disease) exceeds the risk of sinus vein thrombosis.
Still unknown side effects?
Severe allergic reactions and cerebral venous thrombosis are the only serious side effects that can occur with Corona vaccination. And they are, as mentioned, very rare.
Heart muscle inflammation
Facial swelling
Also under review are cases in which swelling of the face occurred in individual vaccinated persons in connection with the mRNA vaccines from BioNTech/Pfizer. However, these only affected corresponding parts of the face of individuals who had previously had wrinkles plumped up using so-called fillers such as hyaluronic acid collagen. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is currently still investigating the connection.
It is rather unlikely that other very rare, especially serious side effects of the Corona vaccine could become apparent later. In the meantime, millions of doses of Corona vaccine have been administered worldwide – other very rare side effects would therefore have been noticed by now.
Things were different with earlier vaccines. They were vaccinated on a smaller scale. Therefore, rare side effects only became apparent within a much longer period of time.
Late-onset side effects?
The Corona vaccines have only been vaccinated on a large scale worldwide for a few months. All side effects registered so far occurred quite soon after the individual vaccinations – within days and weeks, at most a few months. Due to the short vaccination period, nothing is yet known about possible long-term side effects that only occur after years.
Unlike drugs, vaccines or their metabolites do not accumulate in the body. It is known from previous vaccinations that side effects therefore usually become apparent after a few weeks at the latest, or a few months at the most.
This also applies, for example, to autoimmune reactions. In genetically predisposed people, they can be triggered by an infection, but in rare cases also by certain vaccinations. This also shows up within a few months after vaccination.
As things stand, therefore, it is unlikely that late-onset side effects are to be expected with the currently licensed Corona vaccines.
Deaths associated with vaccination
Deaths associated with Corona vaccination are extremely rare. This is also true of the deaths associated with cerebral venous thrombosis explained above. While it is becoming increasingly apparent that it is indeed the vector-based vaccines that can cause this complication. However, it is now also clear that unprotected people who contract Covid-19 develop cerebral venous thrombosis much more frequently than vaccinated people.
Especially in the case of these, however, it cannot be ruled out that the vaccination reactions have overloaded the already very weakened body.
In any case, every death in close temporal relation to a vaccination is investigated by the authorities.
How are side effects recorded?
As with other vaccinations, all abnormalities in the temporal connection with the Corona vaccinations are first reported by the doctors to the responsible health authority and from there to the Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI).
Vaccinated persons themselves can also report unusual symptoms to the PEI that occur promptly after vaccination. There is a special reporting form for this purpose on the PEI website.
The experts at the PEI check whether the reported symptoms occur more frequently among vaccinated persons than would normally be expected. The detailed reports on this are publicly available on the website of the Paul Ehrlich Institute.
In addition, two percent of those vaccinated participate in a new, direct reporting procedure. Using the SafeVac 2.0 app, the voluntary participants will be asked about any side effects at three or four weeks after each vaccination. In the twelve months following vaccination, they will also regularly indicate whether they have become infected despite vaccination – these data will help clarify the reliability and duration of vaccination protection.
In connection with the Corona vaccination, various misinformation has surfaced. We would like to correct them here.
No risk for fertility
This is a particularly tragic misreport. This is because there is growing evidence that pregnant women actually tend to get Covid-19 more severely than non-pregnant women. Women who are planning a pregnancy could therefore particularly benefit from the vaccination. It also protects the child – during pregnancy and after birth through the maternal antibodies that are passed on to the child.
Apart from that, the vaccines only affect a few body cells in the area of the injection site anyway – they do not reach oocytes or sperm.
Do corona vaccines alter the genetic makeup?
mRNA vaccines cannot alter the human genome, if only because their structure is different. Therefore, the injected gene snippets cannot be easily inserted into human chromosomes. Moreover, they do not even enter the cell nucleus, where the chromosomes are located, and are degraded in the cell after a few days.
The vector vaccines from Johnson & Johnson and Astrzeneca contain DNA that is inserted into the cell nucleus. Adenoviruses (“cold viruses”) perform this task. Unlike HIV, they do not integrate their genetic material into the cell’s genome.
In this case, however, a different protective mechanism would take effect: body cells in which the adenoviruses have invaded present the introduced viral proteins on their surface. This activates the immune system – the cells are then destroyed.
It is therefore extremely unlikely that corona vaccines can alter the human genome and thus cause cancer, for example.
The vaccines do not work – because vaccinated people also die
The currently available corona vaccines offer a very high level of protection against severe courses of covid-19, but they do not prevent 100 percent of people from becoming infected in the first place – no vaccine can do that. Therefore, among the millions of vaccinated people, there are always those who fall ill with Covid-19 and who may die as a result.
It should also be borne in mind that it takes weeks for the vaccine protection to build up completely. During this phase, the likelihood of severe illness decreases progressively. However, severe courses and also deaths are reported time and again – for example, also within various nursing homes where a coronavirus outbreak occurred shortly after vaccination.
