KARACHI: Certain reactions after vaccination of redness, swelling or pain around the injection site are normal. Fatigue, fever, headaches, and pain in the limbs were also not uncommon in the first three days after vaccination, the German news agency DW reported. These normal vaccine reactions are usually mild and subside after a few days. They show that the vaccine is working.

Therefore, typical vaccination reactions have also been reported after receiving the BioNTech-Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Russia Sputnik V vaccines, which have already been used.

In addition, there are also cases of sometimes severe side effects after vaccination, such as allergic shock. Overall, approved vaccines are safe, according to the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Some of the newer vaccines – the so-called mRNA vaccines, only contain blueprints for components of the COVID-19 pathogen. The other is called a vector vaccine that uses a harmless adenovirus as a transporter to introduce the SARS-CoV-2 surface protein, a spike protein, and thereby trigger an immune response.

According to German DW, three vaccines are being developed in China. Those are the vaccines from the Sinovac Biotech vaccine company called CoronaVac, Sinopharm’s Vero vaccine and CanSino Biologics called Ad5-nCoV or Convidecia.

Only partial data on vaccine efficacy have been released from phase II and III trials, respectively. Sinopharm is the first company to officially announce data at the turn of 2020.

The situation also remains unclear with regard to vaccine approval. More than one million people have been vaccinated with the Sinopharm vaccine, but this is being done as part of a study or with emergency approval.

The Sinopharm vaccine called Vero is based on an inactive virus. Phase III trials for Vero have been conducted in 10 countries around the world, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Peru, Morocco, Argentina, Jordan and Pakistan. Phase III trials for Vero have been conducted in 10 countries around the world, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Peru, Morocco, Argentina, Jordan and Pakistan. Quoting a Chinese doctor, Britain’s Daily Mail, claims that Sinopharm’s Chinese Covid-19 vaccine is considered the least safe because of its 73 side effects. Some of the side effects include blindness, high blood pressure and loss of taste and urinary problems. This was reported in a blog published on the Chinese microblog website Weibo, but has since been removed from the site. It was also reproduced by Taiwan News, Apple Daily and Vice of America. Chinese doctors dubbed the information misleading and baseless because of the unnecessary hype.

The BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine is produced jointly by Germany and the US, the BNT162b2 vaccine. Typical vaccination reactions such as fatigue and headache are less frequent and weaker in older patients. However, because this mRNA vaccine has been used, some patients experience severe allergic reactions immediately after injection. One patient in the US and two in the UK even experienced anaphylactic shock, associated with redness of the skin and shortness of breath.

Because these people have no previous illness or are not known to be allergic to certain vaccine ingredients, the UK Medicines and Health Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) warns certain people who are allergic to certain vaccine ingredients, or have suffered from anaphylactic shock. , against vaccination. The manufacturer saw no direct link to vaccination in the case of a doctor in the US with no previous illness who died from brain hemorrhage due to immune thrombocytopenia 16 days after receiving the vaccination. This occurs when the immune system reduces the platelet count.

The headlines were made when 33 people in Norway died within days of the first vaccination, all of whom were over 75 years old and suffering from severe underlying illness.

According to King’s College London, 37 percent of those who received the Pfizer vaccine in January experienced some pain and swelling at the puncture site. 14 percent of people who received the first dose reported fever, chills and body aches that went away within days. All trial and experience confirms the vaccine is safe and efficacious. However, vaccinated people must continue to observe social distancing as nothing provides 100 percent security against Covid-19. Doctors recommend using paracetamol to treat abrasions and scars on the upper arms after vaccination. Some experts are of the view that if fever and other symptoms appear after the Covid 19 test is mandatory.

According to CNN, certain side effects of the vaccine will go away within a day or two. However some people may or may not report any side effects. In the case of those who do not experience side effects, that does not mean that the vaccine is not working. In most cases, side effects have been reported after the second dose. According to CNBC, a high level of fever that lasts for two days could be an indication that Covid-19 is mandatory for testing. This underlines contacting a doctor to ascertain the cause if any of the symptoms persist for more than two days.

Another vaccine mRNA-1273, from the US company Moderna is also a gene-based vaccine.

During clinical trials, participants tolerated the vaccine well, according to manufacturers and testing authorities. The usual vaccination reactions are mild or moderate and do not last long. However, nearly 10% of those vaccinated with mRNA-1273 experienced fatigue, according to an interim report by an independent surveillance panel.

A severe allergic reaction to the Moderna vaccine is “rare,” according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC based this assessment on documenting 4,041,396 doses of vaccine administered between 21 December 2020 and 10 January 2021. A total of 108 allergic reactions were recorded, but only 10 recipients developed anaphylactic shock. The CDC reports that no allergic reactions resulted in death.

Very few people who receive the Moderna vaccine develop facial nerve paralysis. It is possible that the side effects are not triggered by the mRNA, but by the lipid nanoparticles which function as carriers for mRNA and are then broken down by the body.

Isolated cases of facial paralysis, mostly transient, occur sporadically during clinical trials of the BioNTech / Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, but also during the ongoing vaccinations in Israel.

In the case of the Anglo-Swedish company AstraZeneca, an incident during a clinical trial in September caused an uproar because one person developed inflammation of the spinal cord after vaccination. The trial was paused briefly until an independent panel of experts determined that the inflammation might not be related to vaccination. In contrast, only typical vaccination reactions occur with vaccines from AstraZeneca. Again, vaccine reactions are less frequent and mild in the elderly. This is a vector vaccine.

In Russia, as early as August 2020, the Gam-COVID-Vac (Sputnik V) vector vaccine has been approved, but without waiting for phase III trials involving tens of thousands of subjects. Sputnik V uses two different modified adenoviruses (rAd26-S and rAd5-S). However, Sputnik V is already in use in addition to Russia in many other countries, including Belarus, UAE, India, Brazil and Argentina. In Argentina, typical vaccination reactions occurred in 317 out of a total of 32,013 people vaccinated, according to the Argentine Ministry of Health. There have been no reports of severe side effects after Sputnik V vaccination.

All the risks and side effects recorded so far are just a snapshot of the last few months – these should be noted despite all the excitement about the rapid development of a vaccine. Nothing is known yet about the possible long-term effects of each vaccine. Only the long-term studies accompanying vaccinations around the world and will continue since approval will provide clarity.