Since the Corona virus is infecting almost all age group people worldwide, it becomes mandatory to get vaccinated at the earliest to protect a million lives globally.
Also mentioned, not all adverse events are related to vaccination. Some side-effects occur for a reason like the content present in the vaccine, manufacturing defect in administration device, or immunization error like the reuse of needle, while others may be due to anxiety or fear of vaccine administration.
Vaccines approved for Emergency Use
- Oxford Uni-AstraZeneca vaccine
- Moderna
- Pfizer-BioNTech
- Sputnik V (Gamaleya)
These vaccines are listed with their approaches on which they are based upon along with no. of doses required, efficacy, their storage at a particular temperature and their side effects.
At least two participants in AstraZeneca’s phase 3 trial experienced transverse myelitis, an inflammatory syndrome that affects the spinal cord, after receiving its experimental COVID-19 vaccine.
The Moderna vaccine
•Although this vaccine shows high effectiveness in clinical trials among people of different age, sex, race and ethnicity and amongst persons with underlying medical conditions but individuals having fever, bleeding disorder, or having a blood thinner, who are immunocompromised or are on a medicine that affects the immune system and those who are pregnant or planning to become pregnant are advised to inform about their conditions before vaccination.
The Biontech-Pfizer vaccine
•Is the vaccine authorized to be given in population having 16 years of age and older.
Covid-19 Patients who are on immunosuppressive therapy, who had an immunocompromising condition or pregnant were excluded with the exception of those having controlled HIV infection as data’s of vaccine safety and efficacy in these groups are not currently available.
It has been reported that patients without contradictions to vaccines can be administered Covid-19 vaccine but should be counselled about vaccine safety and efficacy. These have been reported and needs to be clear on it.
Nevertheless, Sputnik V is already being used in Russia and many other countries, including Belarus, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), India, Brazil, and Argentina.
Individuals with a history of allergy, immune-compromised patients, pregnant, and bleeding disorders cannot receive this vaccine.
Are patients facing serious side-effects of Covid-19 vaccines?
According to Union Health Ministry, a total of 7,86,842 people, including healthcare and frontline workers, were vaccinated in the world's largest vaccination drive against Covid-19, where 580 cases reported non-serious adverse reactions like fever, headache, nausea, redness, etc. followed by 10 cases of hospitalization and 4 cases of death, in which 2 cases are not related to vaccination, while post-mortem report yet to prepare for other 2 cases. With the mild adverse events, some of the severe reactions like anaphylaxis, which is an allergic reaction, can sometimes become fatal. 21 out of 4400 people in the US reported anaphylaxis after receiving Pfizer vaccination, but most of them show pre-existing allergies.
Some facts about Common vaccines
To better understand few adverse events ranging from standard to severity, it is useful to compare a vaccine with its associated side effects
Table 3 : Side-effects of common using vaccines
It is better to be vaccinated than not.
Based on these such evidences provided so far, one should go for “vaccination without fear” out of side effects, which might or might not occur. It’s better to go for it than tolerating a huge damage and to stay safe and get best protection from Covid-19.
-Vyoma Vaish