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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 in obtaining an emergency use authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration, Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna, use new mRNA technology. No vaccine licensed in the United States has ever used it, although researchers have been studying it for decades, against infections such as flu, rabies, and Zika, and even some types of cancer.
The way these mRNA vaccines work is that they give our body the instructions, in the form of messenger RNA, to make 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 increase 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 she would certainly do it again.
Yasir Batalvi, a 24-year-old recent college graduate living in the Boston area, said he originally signed up to join a trial on the NIH website in early July because he felt moved to do something to help during the pandemic.
“I felt so powerless. I mean, this pandemic has really affected everyone’s lives so significantly. And it’s not just about lives, you know, it’s livelihoods,” Batalvi told CNN’s chief medical correspondent, the 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 pick me. But I finally got a call in September. And then in mid-October, I was signed up.”
He was a bit nervous 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 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 that we are in.”
So how did it feel?
“The actual injection felt, at first, like a flu shot, which is basically a little pinch on the side of your 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 the shoulder. But the side effects are pretty localized. I mean, it’s only in 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 big 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 he was out that day and night, but “felt ready to go 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 should not discourage anyone from getting vaccinated or going 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 at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “Y [there] There really should be no difficulty in going 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 cause many long-term effects. “
Infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci told Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg the same thing Monday.
“What the body is telling you with that response is that it is responding well to the injection,” he said.
“When the vaccine is injected, you induce a response. In some people, they don’t feel anything,” he said. “Others feel a pain in the arm. Some may feel a pain in the arm and a kind of chill feeling, almost like they have a flu-like syndrome, and in a minority of people, they get a fever.”
Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, said that “almost all of this goes away in 24 or at most 48 hours” adding that it is important to be honest with people about the side effects they may experience.
Operation Warp Speed chief scientific advisor Moncef Slaoui said Monday that approximately 10-15% 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, it’s great for Moderna and Pfizer vaccines. But only time will tell if there are any serious security events in the next few years.
“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 he can guess right.
“You know it’s a randomized, double-blind study. So neither I, nor the study doctors nor Moderna know if I have had the vaccine or not. But I’m sure that, based on the side effects, I got the real deal. ” 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 good. I think we can get through this,” she said.
This story was first published on CNN.com, “How does it feel to get an mRNA vaccine against coronavirus”
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