Don't freak out about 'weird' COVID-19 vaccine side effects. It may actually be a good sign
Video above: Doctors explain why younger adults may have harsher side effects from second shot of COVID-19
Dr. Peter Chin-Hong .
Chin-Hong, a professor of medicine at UCSF and the director of the school’s immunocompromised host infectious diseases program, is concerned that people are paying too much attention to the side effects of the shot.
“Everybody's getting vaccinated now on such an unprecedented level,” he told SFGATE, “so with a large population, you're going to see different things in different people. And then people are very keyed in to any side effect that occurs, so they're going to report it. And I think people are tuned in to that.”
The numbers of people affected by adverse side effects are miniscule. of the Pfizer vaccine rollout noted that of more than 1.8 million Americans who got the vaccine, only 4,300 total reported adverse effects. (That’s 1/5 of 1% of the people who got doses.)
For clarity's sake, he’s split the various side effects from the immunization into four categories: severe allergic reactions; less-severe, more common vaccine reactions, such as fever, fatigue, soreness, aches; "weird stuff"; and the ones that haven’t been linked to the vaccine, like heart attacks and death. Common vaccine symptoms aren’t anything to worry about, nor are the ones linked to misinformation about the vaccine. (Individuals with a history of allergic reactions to vaccines should speak to a physician before getting the shot.)
But Chin-Hong understands the "weird stuff" may be worrisome to most people. By "weird stuff," he’s referring to the unexpected side effects that have emerged in recent weeks as the efforts to inoculate more people have ramped up.
That includes the so-called "Moderna arm," in which found that some folks have reported a large, itchy rash at the injection site after getting the Moderna shot, and , which has inadvertently resulted in concerns over swelling and lumps in the breast area. Chin-Hong has also seen a phenomenon in which people with facial and lip fillers may get swelling at the site of the fillers .
These "weird" side effects may certainly sound worrisome. But none of them, he says, are a cause of concern.
In fact, Chin-Hong likens getting the shot to a world-class boot camp for your immune cells.
“It is your immune system being trained like elite Navy SEALs,” he said. “It’s just thinking about your immune system being primed, is really the healthy way to think about it. The same cells that cause you to feel like that are the ones that are going to be called to the battle when the real COVID comes along.”
And, he jokes, of course your body’s going to be pretty peeved that it has to put in work to make sure you don’t get ill — and acts up in a small way.
“No wonder they're angry, because they've sort of been sluggish this whole time. They've never seen this thing before, and all of a sudden they have to do 10 push-ups and they’re complaining.”
In most, if not all, the cases of odd side effects, Chin-Hong says, “they don’t linger for too long.”
“They go away,” he said. “Many people don't have to take any medications for them. And they're self-limited and, most importantly, no one has died from any of these things, or as I know, have had severe disability from it.”
That said, for anyone who is concerned with these side effects, it's worth speaking to a physician who can further address particular concerns. That goes double for people who get regular mammograms.
Chin-Hong advises waiting at least six weeks after getting the vaccine to conduct the important test so that lymph nodes do not get flagged for a more serious breast cancer diagnosis.
Why do younger people and women experience side effects more often?
Chin-Hong is also aware that some groups of people are more likely to be burdened with side effects than others.
He points to three groups as more likely to get side effects: younger people, women and people who previously had COVID-19. These groups, he said, have stronger reactions to the vaccine because their immune system is more active in handling the coronavirus.
“The younger you are, the more side effects you would get, statistically speaking, because the immune system is just more agile,” he said.
Same goes for people who have already gotten COVID-19.
“Your immune system,” Chin-Hong explained, “has seen it before, so they think the thing that your body is making, which is the spike protein for most of the vaccines — not the real whole virus — they think it’s the real COVID. So they’re coming out of slumber to go and fight it, as well as training some more.”
As for women, he says, data from the vaccine trials earlier this year indicated that women, on the whole, are more likely to face side effects from the vaccine.
“Women just generally have a more active immune system compared to men,” Chin-Hong said. There are plenty of reasons for this, including estrogen acting as a stimulant for the immune system.
That early CDC report also indicated that women reported the vast majority of the “nonanaphylactic allergic reactions” after getting the Pfizer shot.
The heightened side effects, Chin-Hong says, also applies to most vaccines, too, not just the COVID-19 immunization.
“It’s not a COVID thing alone,” he said. “We’ve seen that before in many other vaccines.”
And if none of what Chin-Hong has said eases concerns over getting the vaccine, he wants to make clear that coronavirus is just so much worse than any of the strange side effects could ever be.
“The side effects that we talked about,” he said, “all of them are so much better than getting the real-deal COVID. There’s no comparison. It's like night and day. … So we need to get vaccinated, all of us, if given the opportunity.”
