Acute Adverse Effects of Vaccines Against SARS-COV-2

Abstract

The global struggle against the impact of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-COV-2) on physical and mental health and on economic and social aspects of human life continues even after two and a half years have passed since the emergence of this virus. The development of vaccines was a milestone. By June 2022, billions of people have been vaccinated against the deadly virus. However, like any other vaccine, the various vaccines against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) also cause a variety of adverse effects. Therefore this study aimed to determine the different acute side effects experienced after receiving the vaccines and correlating them with some socio-demographic and biomedical factors. MethodologyThis cross-sectional study has a sample size of 467. Study participants were recruited after fulfilling inclusion and exclusion criteria. After gaining approval from the Ethical Review Board (ERB) of CMH Lahore Medical College and Institute of Dentistry, Lahore, Pakistan, an online questionnaire was distributed via social media. The survey questionnaire had a series of questions regarding the socio-demographic and biomedical characteristics of the participants, as well as the type of vaccine they got, followed by questions about the development of adverse effects after each dose (first and second). Data were statistically analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 25.0 (Released 2017; IBM Corp., Armonk, New York, United States). The analysis was carried out in a confidence range of 95%, and a p-value<0.05 was considered statistically significant. ResultsSinopharm (76.0%) was the most frequently received vaccine. Adverse events were reported more after the first dose (79.7%) than in the second (67.2%) (p value 0.001). The reported adverse events after either dose were of mild intensity (p<0.05). None of the individuals reported serious adverse events or hospitalization after getting the shots. Females, younger age groups, and individuals with BMI in the underweight category were more prone to developing symptoms and experiencing difficulty doing routine work after getting the doses. The associations were statistically significant (p<0.05). Blood group (A,B,0,AB), past COVID-19 history, and smoking status were not positively associated with the appearance of symptoms after either dose or with inconvenience doing daily work post-vaccination. ConclusionThe vaccines developed against COVID-19 offer benefits that outweigh the few mild adverse effects experienced. None of these symptoms is severe enough to stop an individual from doing routine work or result in morbidity or mortality. Therefore, people should avoid any hesitancy towards getting vaccinated to get past this pandemic.

Reported side-effects following Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in the north-west province, Iran: A cross-sectional study

“…Also, these findings were consistent with the results of Oxford AstraZeneca's clinical trial [25]. A strong immune reaction in young people under 50 due to robust inflammatory cytokines production may explain this high frequency of side effects in younger recipients [40]. Furthermore, we found that females presented significantly more adverse events following the first dose and second dose vaccination than males.…”

Side effects of COVID-19 vaccination in Pakistani population: A cross sectional study

“…The majority of the participants of the study reported no or mild difficulties due to the post vaccination side effects, which resolved within one to two days for 45% of the participants (n=523). Other studies conducted in Pakistan analyzing the impacts of primary vaccination corroborate our study results 13,14 . However, another study has also reported some serious adverse reactions in Pakistani population like limb paralysis, heart attack, diplopia, renal failure and death 15 .…”

“…Previous studies conducted in Pakistan reported mild adverse reactions of the vaccines and the factors associated with these side effects [13][14][15] .…”

Adverse effects, perceptions and attitudes related to BNT162b2, mRNA-1273 or JNJ-78436735 SARS-CoV-2 vaccines: Population-based cohort

“…Separate models were run for each predictor variable and all models were adjusted for age, sex, body mass index, vaccine type, and education. These variables were included based on findings from other studies 14 , 49 – 52 . Results are presented as odds ratios (OR) with their 95% confidence intervals (CI) and two-sided p -value.…”