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(CNN) – As the United States gets closer and closer to licensing a COVID-19 vaccine, many people may begin to wonder how it will feel to receive it.
Will it be like the flu shot? Will it be more painful? And the side effects?
The two pioneers who applied for an emergency use authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna, use new mRNA technology.
No vaccine licensed in the US has used such technology, although researchers have been studying it for decades, against infections such as flu, rabies and Zika, and even for some types of cancer.
The way these mRNA vaccines work is that they give our bodies the instructions, in the form of messenger RNA, to produce a small part of this particular coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), specifically the spike protein. When our body receives these instructions, it begins to produce peak protein. That, in turn, activates our immune system, which recognizes the spike protein as “foreign,” to produce antibodies against it. So when we get infected with the real virus, our body is already prepared to fight it.
These vaccines require two doses: one to prime the body and then, a few weeks later, a second injection to stimulate the response. Study results show that the Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna vaccines are close to 95% effective.
But because the technology is so new to a vaccine, it has raised many questions and some concerns among those for whom it is intended.
One participant in Moderna’s trial said that getting vaccinated was “definitely not a walk in the park,” but would certainly do it again.
Yasir Batalvi, a 24-year-old recent college graduate living in the Boston area, said he originally signed up on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) website to join a trial in early July because he felt moved to do something to help during the pandemic.
I felt so helpless. I mean, this pandemic has really affected everyone’s life so significantly. And it’s not just about lives, it’s about livelihoods, ”Batalvi told CNN’s chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. “So I signed up because I wanted to do what I could. And I didn’t think they were necessarily going to choose me. But I finally got a call in September. And then, in mid-October, I was enrolled.
He was a bit nervous when he was rolling up his sleeves, especially when he was given a 22-page consent form to sign. But he said it felt like he was doing a public service.
“I think that just because the coronavirus has been such a significant disruption in our lives, I decided that was what I had to do. It felt like a civic duty, ”he said. “Because I think large-scale vaccination is really the only realistic way out of the pandemic we’re in.”
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So how did it feel?
“At first, the actual injection felt like a flu shot, which is basically a little pinch on the side of the arm,” Batalvi said. “Once I got out of the hospital that night, the stiffness got a bit worse. It was definitely manageable, but you don’t feel like moving your arm too much over your shoulder. But the side effects are quite localized. I mean, it’s just the muscle in your arm. And that’s it. It doesn’t really affect anything else and you feel good.
That was after the first dose. But the second dose was different.
“I actually had some pretty bad symptoms after getting the second dose. Once I got the second dose, I was fine while in the hospital. But that night was difficult. I mean, I developed a low fever and fatigue and chills, ”Batalvi said. He said that he was bad that day and that night, but that he “felt good again the next morning.”
He said he called the study doctors to inform them of his symptoms. They weren’t alarmed and told him that he shouldn’t be either.
Feeling bad does not mean that you have contracted Covid-19 from the vaccine. In fact, experts say that having this type of reaction shows that your body is responding the way it should and that shouldn’t deter anyone from getting vaccinated or coming back for their second dose.
“That means your immune response is working for you. You should feel good about that, ”said Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccine expert, from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “And there should be no difficulty in coming back for that second injection, knowing that you are now in a much better position to fight this terrible virus, which has killed more than 250,000 people and can have many long-term effects.”
On Monday, infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said the same thing to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
“What the body tells you with that response is that it is reacting well to the injection,” he said.
“When you receive an injection of the vaccine, you induce a response. Some people feel nothing, “he said. «Others feel a pain in the arm. Some may feel a sore arm and a kind of chill feeling, almost as if they have a flu-like syndrome, and a minority of people get a fever.
Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, said that “almost all of this disappears in 24 or at most 48 hours.” And he added that it is important to be honest with people about the side effects they may experience.
The chief scientific advisor for Operation Warp Speed, Moncef Slaoui, said Monday that approximately 10 to 15% of immunized study subjects will develop “quite noticeable side effects.”
‘Most people will have much less noticeable side effects. Frankly, compared to 95% protection against an infection that can be deadly or significantly debilitating, I think it’s the right balance, “he said.
Side effects like the ones Batalvi experienced should not be confused with safety concerns. Any vaccine manufacturer seeking FDA approval or clearance must show safety data for two months after the second dose is administered, because that is when the most serious safety issues have occurred in previous trials. On that front, the situation is very good for Moderna and Pfizer vaccines. But only time will tell if there are any serious security events in the next few years.
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“While we know that the predictable 90.95% of the side effects that occurred within two months of vaccination are actually good for the two vaccines that have been introduced now, the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, we don’t have the experience to a year or two and we will learn as we go, ”Slaoui said.
Batalvi is not sure whether he received the active vaccine or a placebo. But based on his experience, he said you can guess.
‘You know it’s a randomized, double-blind study. Therefore, neither I, nor the study doctors nor Moderna know whether I have been vaccinated or not. But, based on the side effects, I trust they put it on for real, ”he said.
Batalvi said he hopes this pandemic ends so that his family can meet his sister’s new twins, a boy and a girl, born earlier in the week.
“I hope that once this vaccine comes out, people will feel safe taking it. I mean, I’m here: I took the vaccine, it was fine. I think we can get through this, “he said.
