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December 18, 2020 – 8:29 pm Watch
Millions of people are faced with a decision: to get vaccinated, or not?
The Biontech and Pfizer vaccine is about to be approved in Germany. If all goes well, the first vaccinations could begin on December 27. So millions of people will have to make a decision in the coming months: Do you want to get vaccinated against the Crown or do you prefer not? Many are concerned about whether the vaccine is safe and what side effects may occur. A recently published study now offers new answers to precisely these questions.
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These side effects occurred in the Biontech vaccine subjects
The study published in the “New England Journal of Medicine” evaluated data from a total of 44,820 test subjects, half of whom had received the vaccine twice and the other half an ineffective placebo. The participants were at least 16 years old, about 42 percent of them were over 55 years old.
Evaluation shows that temporary pain at the vaccination site, headache, or tiredness may occur. Specifically, depending on the age group and whether it was the first or second dose, between 66 and 83 percent reported pain at the injection site. Five to seven percent showed redness or swelling there.
Participants also complained of fatigue (34 to 59 percent) and headaches (25 to 52 percent), chills (6 to 35 percent), diarrhea (8 to 12 percent), muscle pain (14 to 37 percent) and body aches (9th century) after vaccination. up to 22 percent). The participants (11 percent of the elderly and 16 of the younger) developed a fever, particularly with the second dose of vaccine. Therefore, the side effects were generally mild to moderate and disappeared after a short time.
“It doesn’t work without side effects”
These side effects are common with vaccines, as Stefan Kaufmann, director emeritus of the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, says: “You can’t do without them.” Viennese vaccination expert Herwig Kollaritsch describes it in the book “Pro & Contra Corona Vaccination” as follows: “A vaccine is not a cough candy.” A temporary inflammatory reaction is nothing bad at first. After all, the body has to somehow notice where it’s headed with its immune response, explains Kaufmann.
Compared to many established vaccines, the Biontech / Pfizer vaccine is more “reactogenic”, explains Christian Bogdan, director of the Institute for Clinical Microbiology, Immunology and Hygiene at the University Hospital of Erlangen. Side effects occur more often than with flu, tetanus, or diphtheria vaccines. Vaccination experts compare reactions with those after vaccination against shingles. But there is no cause for major concern, says Kaufmann: “It’s just a little awkward.”
Those over 55 years of age find the vaccine more tolerable
The tests also showed that people 55 and older found the vaccine more tolerable and complained of fewer side effects than younger people. In principle, side effects occurred more frequently with the second dose of vaccination. 64 people who were vaccinated reported swollen lymph nodes. In addition to the minor complaints, there were isolated and more serious “adverse events”. One person reported a shoulder injury, cardiac arrhythmia, and numbness (paresthesia) in the leg.
However, the informational value of more unlikely reactions is limited. According to Bogdan, side effects that occur once in 1,000 people on average have a 95 percent chance. “Events that are rarer than 1 in 10,000 cannot be reliably detected,” he says.
So far there are no studies on long-term side effects
There are no study results yet on whether and what side effects can occur after a long period of time. The vaccine hasn’t been around long enough for that. However, tolerance will continue to be verified after approval. In Germany, vaccinated people should be able to report possible side effects via an app, among other things.
The Biontech / Pfizer preparation and that of the American company Moderna are mRNA vaccines. They contain genetic information about the pathogen, from which the cells of the body produce a viral protein. The goal of vaccination is to stimulate the body to produce antibodies against this protein, so that the virus can be fought early in the event of a subsequent infection.
For the mRNA to enter cells in the first place, it is surrounded by a layer of lipid nanoparticles. Generally speaking, they are small molecules of fat that come as foreign bodies to the body, which is largely made up of water. “Fat and water always separate,” explains Kaufmann. Vaccinated people can experience this in the form of a temporary inflammatory reaction, but lipids are not dangerous in and of themselves, as Kaufmann explains.
READ TIP: Interview with Discoverer of mRNA Technology: Get Rid of Prejudice – This is How New Vaccines Really Work!
According to Olivia Merkel from the Department of Pharmaceutical Technology at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich, part of the shell of Moderna and Pfizer / Biontech vaccines are so-called polyethylene glycols (PEG). The body can make antibodies against them. According to Merkel, it is conceivable that the immune response to PEG causes allergic reactions after the second dose of vaccination. That could be expressed in an eruption, for example. However, such allergic reactions occur immediately or a few hours after administration in highly sensitive patients who also react to PEG in cosmetics or food. Long-term consequences of PEG are not expected.
UK: two people are allergic to the vaccine
In the UK, where more than 140,000 people have already received the Biontech / Pfizer vaccine, two people who were vaccinated had major allergic reactions. The authorities then asked people with a “significant” history of allergies not to get vaccinated for now.
READ TIP: Great Britain: 138,000 people vaccinated against Corona so far!
Also in Alaska, a person reacted with severe allergy symptoms after a vaccine. You can find more information about this in the video below.
After corona vaccination: allergic reaction in a person in Alaska
Vaccination expert: not uncommon reaction in highly allergic people
Vaccination expert Kollaritsch said a frequency of allergic side effects in highly allergic people is not uncommon. Leif Erik Sander, an infectious disease specialist at the Berlin Charité, says the two cases in Britain are people with a history of severe, life-threatening allergies who always carry an emergency kit with them. These people would be at high risk with each drug and with each vaccination and were not taken into account in the registry study. People with allergies would have participated very well. However, allergic side effects did not increase in the study. “So I don’t think we have a general problem,” he said.
According to the Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI), the European Medicines Agency EMA will publish who can be vaccinated shortly after approval. The approval study also looked at subjects with prior illnesses such as diabetes, rheumatism, heart failure, or kidney disease. No other more serious side effects were reported in these groups, explains infection immunologist Bogdan.
According to the PEI, there is no risk that the vaccine will introduce mRNA into the human genome. According to Bogdan and Kollaritsch, it is also ruled out that mRNA vaccines can be used to contract the disease from which one is supposed to really be protected. According to Bogdan, this also applies to vector vaccines like Astrazeneca’s. “Something like this would only be possible with the use of live attenuated Sars-CoV-2 vaccines, which are not yet available,” Bogdan said.
READ TIP: Fact Check: Can the corona vaccine change our genetic makeup?
Source: dpa, RTL.de
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