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There are currently two vaccines deployed against COVID-19 in the UK – one developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and the other Oxford-AstraZeneca. Now millions of people have been jabbed, crucial data about the vaccines are emerging. An analysis on data submitted to the COVID Symptom Study app, which draws on insights from over four million contributors, has now revealed the three most common side effects of the Pfizer jab.
Since the start of the rollout, researchers had been asking everyone who gets vaccinated to log their jab, so that they can understand more about the impact of the new COVID-19 vaccines and their effects.
In addition to asking people to log daily reports about their general health for a week after vaccination, which captures information about the impact of the vaccine on the whole body (systemic effects), the app’s researchers are also asking about pain and swelling at the injection site.
To provide a picture of the most common side effects being reported, the data team analysed reports from nearly 40,000 people who were vaccinated in December: 23,308 people who had received just one dose, and 12,444 who had both.
Most after effects happen in the first two days after vaccination, with headache, fatigue and chills or shivers being the most common, the data revealed.
The team also found that around four in ten people who received their first dose had at least one after effect in their arm, most commonly pain and swelling in the day or two after the jab.
The vaccine will also induce a number of immediate effects.
According to the team behind the COVID Symptom Study app, COVID-19 vaccines work by using a harmless version or component of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus to train the immune system, so when we encounter the virus for real we’re able to fight it off.
“This ‘training’ response can feel a bit like the effects we get when we’re fighting off a real infection, including headaches, fever, chills or shivers, tiredness (fatigue), muscle or joint pains, diarrhoea and feeling sick (nausea),” they explained.
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As the team pointed out, it’s also common to experience pain, swelling, redness or itchiness at the site of the injection, or swelling of the glands (lymph nodes) in the armpit.
“While they may make you feel grotty, all these effects are a sign that your immune system is kicking into action to protect you from COVID-19,” they add.
When will I be called up for the vaccine?
The NHS is currently offering the COVID-19 vaccine to people most at risk from coronavirus.
The government has set an ambitious target of vaccinating everyone in this cohort by mid-February.
In England, the vaccine is being offered in some hospitals and pharmacies, at local vaccination centres run by GPs and at larger vaccination centres. More centres are opening all the time.
It’s currently being given to:
- People aged 70 and over
- People who are at high risk from coronavirus (clinically extremely vulnerable)
- People who live or work in care homes
- Health and social care workers.
The order in which people will be offered the vaccine is based on advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).
Downing Street has set a target of vaccinating all over-50s by May.
Despite growing concerns that this target is too ambitious, the chairman of the vaccines taskforce is “very optimistic” the UK can meet it.
Dr Clive Dix told the BBC the taskforce has met every target set.
The UK would be “ahead of the game” in terms of anticipating variants of coronavirus and was making “libraries of future vaccines”, he said.
Attempting to allay fears of vaccine protectionism, he added that the UK would not hoard supplies but would distribute them globally, once the UK target is met.
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