Healthy Health
Vaccine Side Effects
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Vaccine is tested on real people in three main phases, starting with just a small group of people and ultimately testing a group of thousands.
In the process of developing a vaccine from development in the lab testing approval manufacturing - all the way to getting it to millions of people but arguably the most important part is here in the human trials where the vaccine is tested on real people in three main phases, starting with just a small group of people and ultimately testing a group of thousands.
This is where scientists confirm the effectiveness and safety of the vaccine on a large scale before that scientists scrutinize its effectiveness but before any of that a vaccine first has to pass this crucial phase where scientists study the side effects in a trial.
You call it adverse events but that doesn't - that's kind of overstating it.
A doctor led a phase one trial for the covid 19 vaccine made by pfizer and biontech, she says side effects are a possibility with any vaccine in general it's nothing to fear it's our own immune systems kicking in and doing what it's supposed to do the most common flu vaccine this year.
For example, comes with a chance for many normal side effects pain fatigue headaches but many of the new covid 19 vaccines are more likely to cause these kinds of side effects than you might be used to particularly after the second dose.
Most people will feel a little pain in their arm many will be tired and get headaches, I mean obviously having no side effects is desirable but I think with the the spike protein of the corona virus.
It really does elicit some side effects but that's totally normal and once you understand why vaccine side effects happen.
You might actually be happy to get them, first we have to talk about this your immune system which is a huge network of different cells and proteins in your body you've got things like white blood cells that fight the invading virus or bacteria communication cells that organize the response and antibodies that search for and identify the enemy.
When say a virus attacks your body your immune system attacks back your body increases blood flow to get more of these battle cells in circulation your temperature might go up too.
As one of the tactics, your body has to help kill the invaders and after your white blood cells destroy the virus.
They produce antibodies that will identify the virus should it reappear in the future and remember how to fight it they're how you gain immunity this response is actually what gives you a lot of the symptoms.
You feel when you catch for example, the common cold but the cold virus doesn't give you a fever or a running nose or body aches your immune system does while fighting the virus and triggering this system without actually getting you sick is how vaccines work.
Most vaccines are made up of a weakened or dead pathogen or a portion of one or in some of the new covid 19 vaccines the genetic code of a portion of one either in the form of DNA or what's called messenger RNA along with minor ingredients to keep it stable it's harmless but when your immune system detects it, it responds just like it's a real danger.
It attacks the intruder and creates these memory antibodies to be able to fight it again in the future vaccines are designed to give you the same immunity as if you would fought off the real virus and some of the new covid 19.
Ones do this particularly well messenger RNA vaccines are quite good at stimulating their your immune system that's why you have 95 efficacy.
That's right a 95 chance of being protected against covid 19 that makes them some of the most effective vaccines.
But that also means they're really good at activating your immune system which means your body will increase blood flow to where the vaccine is, which is why pain at the injection site is so common your body might even think better turn up the heat and then, you get a fever or the chills.
So, experts emphasize that we should look at most side effects as a good thing it means the vaccine is working.
I have a friend actually who participated in one of the pfizer trials early trials and you know, so he could have gotten either placebo or vaccine or after the second dose the next day, he woke up and he had, he was sort of fatigued and he had low grade fever and he looked at his wife and said yes I got the vaccine see that's the right attitude when we talk about these common reactions to vaccines like fever and fatigue we're mostly talking about the mild to moderate ones.
These are the lowest of the side effect categories that health regulators use the kind you get over in a day or two then there's severe side effects the type that might make you call in sick to work or call a doctor.
These were rare in the clinical trials for the first two studied vaccines to become available with the exception of some severe fatigue and muscle pain.
On the second dose and that's because if these vaccines were dangerous they'd never reach the public in the first place we really don't accept any sort of permanent serious harm from a vaccine and nor should we new stories that imply otherwise can be scary but they get more attention than they probably deserve like this one about a serious allergic reaction in someone with a history of serious allergic reactions.
If, someone dying after getting a second dose of the vaccine when it turned out other factors had caused his death, in fact no deaths have been reported from the millions of doses that have been given out and the controlled studies with thousands of people found the same thing.
No deaths from the vaccine but may be more importantly the studies also recorded zero deaths from covid 19 and zero hospitalizations from covid 19.
These vaccines aren't just safe they're lifesavers you should be skeptical of anything you put in your body including vaccines.
Once you've seen the data and you see that there wasn't a serious side effect before approval and hasn't been a serious side effect post-approval then I, think you should be convinced basically you want to reduce where the virus can go and if you immunize as many people as possible that pool of people that it can transmit to becomes less and less vaccines are the way out of the covid 19 pandemic and like with all vaccines.
Many of us who get it will also feel a little meh for a day or two but the scientists who have studied these vaccines who have seen the side effects are some of the most eager to get it,
I couldn't wait to get this vaccine are you kidding me, I mean two doses of vaccine gives me a 95 chance of being protected.
We, would be the first ones to not want to take it, if we felt it was unsafe right so um take it from your friendly vaccine person.
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