COVID-19 vaccines are generally safe, and getting vaccinated will help protect you against developing severe COVID-19 disease and dying from COVID-19.
You may experience some mild side effects after getting vaccinated, which are signs that your body is building protection.
Why it’s normal to have mild side effects from vaccines?
Every vaccine is designed to give you immunity without the dangers of getting the disease. It’s common to experience some mild-to-moderate side effects when receiving vaccinations. This is because your immune system is instructing your body to react in certain ways: it increases blood flow so more immune cells can circulate, and it raises your body temperature in order to kill the virus.
Mild-to-moderate side effects, like a low-grade fever or muscle aches, are normal and not a cause for alarm: they are signs that the body’s immune system is responding to the vaccine. These common side effects usually go away on their own after a few days.
Common and mild or moderate side effects are a good thing: they show us that the vaccine is working. Experiencing no side effects doesn’t mean the vaccine is ineffective. It means everybody responds differently.
Common side effects of COVID-19 vaccines
Reported side effects of COVID-19 vaccines have mostly been mild to moderate and have lasted no longer than a few days. Typical side effects include pain at the injection site, fever, fatigue, headache, muscle pain, chills and diarrhoea. The chances of any of these side effects occurring after vaccination differ according to the specific vaccine.
COVID-19 vaccines protect against the SARS-CoV-2 virus only, so it’s still important to keep yourself healthy and well.
Less common side effects
Upon receiving the vaccine, a person should be requested to stay for 30 minutes at the vaccination site so health workers are available in case of any immediate reactions.
You should alert the local health providers following vaccination if they experience any unexpected side effects or other health events – such as side effects lasting more than three days.
Less common side effects reported for some COVID-19 vaccines have included severe allergic reactions such as anaphylaxis; however, this reaction is extremely rare.
Long-term side effects
There have been concerns about COVID-19 vaccines making people sick with COVID-19. But none of the approved vaccines contain the live virus that causes COVID-19, which means that COVID-19 vaccines cannot make you sick with COVID-19.
After vaccination, it usually takes a few weeks for the body to build immunity against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. So it’s possible a person could be infected with SARS-CoV-2 just before or after vaccination and still get sick with COVID-19. This is because the vaccine has not yet had enough time to provide protection.
Comments