Comparison of Adverse Effects of Two SARS-CoV-2 Vaccines Administered in Workers of the University of Padova

Abstract

Introduction: In Italy, on December 2020, workers in the education sector were identified as a priority population to be vaccinated against COVID-19. The first authorised vaccines were the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA (BNT162b2) and the Oxford-AstraZeneca adenovirus vectored (ChAdOx1 nCoV-19) vaccines. Aim: To investigate the adverse effects of two SARS-CoV-2 vaccines in a real-life preventive setting at the University of Padova. Methods: Vaccination was offered to 10116 people. Vaccinated workers were asked to voluntarily report symptoms via online questionnaires sent to them 3 weeks after the first and the second shot. Results: 7482 subjects adhered to the vaccination campaign and 6681 subjects were vaccinated with ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine and 137 (fragile subjects) with the BNT162b2 vaccine. The response rate for both questionnaires was high (i.e., >75%). After the first shot, the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine caused more fatigue (p < 0.001), headache (p < 0.001), myalgia (p < 0.001), tingles (p = 0.046), fever (p < 0.001), chills (p < 0.001), and insomnia (p = 0.016) than the BNT162b2 vaccine. After the second dose of the BNT162b2 vaccine, more myalgia (p = 0.033), tingles (p = 0.022), and shivers (p < 0.001) than the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine were elicited. The side effects were nearly always transient. Severe adverse effects were rare and mostly reported after the first dose of the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine. They were dyspnoea (2.3%), blurred vision (2.1%), urticaria (1.3%), and angioedema (0.4%). Conclusions: The adverse effects of both vaccines were transient and, overall, mild in severity.

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

“…Only 2.4% of post-vaccine side effects last over seven days [24]. Moreover, our finding was the same trend as other studies, which demonstrated that most Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine-related side effects were mild to moderate in severity, tolerable, and self-limiting, with no need for hospitalization [15,25,26]. Our findings revealed that the number of reported adverse events after the first dose injection was more than the second.…”

COVID-19 Antibody Seroconversion in Cancer Patients: Impact of Therapy Cessation—A Single-Center Study

“…The most frequent side effects after the second vaccine dose were mild symptoms (50 and 52.6%) in the BNT162b2 and BBIBP-CorV vaccines, respectively. This observation is similar to other reported studies in healthy individuals, where the adverse effects of BNT162b2 were transient and generally mild in healthy individuals [29]. Therefore, the COVID-19 vaccine should be widely recommended for cancer patients to mitigate the disease's deadly effects.…”