Side Effects Reported by Jordanian Healthcare Workers Who Received COVID-19 Vaccines

Abstract

Background Distribution of COVID-19 vaccines has been surrounded by suspicions and rumors making it necessary to provide the public with accurate reports from trustworthy experts such as healthcare professionals. Methods We distributed a questionnaire in Jordan among physicians, dentists and nurses who received a COVID-19 vaccine to explore the side effects (SE) they encountered after the first or the second dose of one of three vaccines namely: AstraZeneca Vaxzevria (AZ), Pfizer-BioNTeck (PB), and SinoPharm (SP) vaccines. Results A total of 409 professionals participated. Approximately 18% and 31% of participants reported no SE after the first dose and second dose, respectively. The remainder had mostly local side effects related to injection site (74%). Systemic side effects in the form of fatigue (52%), myalgia (44%), headache (42%), and fever (35%) prevailed mainly after the first dose. These were significantly associated with AZ vaccine, and age ≤ 45 years (p = 0.000 and 0.01, respectively). No serious SE were reported. Conclusions We can conclude that SE of COVID-19 vaccines distributed in Jordan are within the common range known so far for these vaccines. Further studies are needed to include larger sample size and longer follow-up period to monitor possible serious and long-term SE of the vaccines.

Side Effects of mRNA-Based and Viral Vector-Based COVID-19 Vaccines among German Healthcare Workers

“…Injection site pain was the most prevalent local side effect in our sample (75.6%), followed by injection swelling (18%) and injection site redness (10.4%). The same order was found in both vaccines, the UK, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the Czech Republic [ 20 , 30 , 32 , 40 ]. In general, all the systemic side effects were significantly more common among viral vector-based vaccine recipients than mRNA-based vaccine recipients.…”

“…Similarly, Mathioudakis et al, 2021 found that local side effects were more frequent in the mRNA-based vaccine group, while the systemic side effects were more frequent in the viral vector-based vaccine group [ 31 ]. Abu-Hammad et al, 2021 found that the mRNA-based vaccine was significantly associated with local side effects, while the viral vector-based vaccine was associated with systemic side effects among Jordanian healthcare workers [ 32 ]. On the contrary, Alhazmi et al, 2021 found no significant difference in terms of local side effects among vaccinated individuals in Saudi Arabia; however, the viral vector-based vaccine was still significantly associated with an increased risk of systemic side effects [ 33 ].…”

“…While the vast majority of governments rely on more than one vaccine in their mass-vaccination strategies, there is a lack of evidence on the comparative side effects of different COVID-19 vaccines [ 34 , 35 ]. The current evidence is limited by a series of constraints, including unequal sample size across the study groups, lack of normal distribution of demographic and medical risk factors across the study groups, and lack of attention to the onset of each side effect [ 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 36 ]. Vaccine selectivity can be defined as “the discriminatory attitudes towards certain types of vaccines based on their target contagion or manufacturing technology that yields heterogeneous acceptance levels of recommended vaccines”.…”

“…Menni et al, 2021 found that the British individuals aged 55 years or below had significantly higher prevalence of side effects following both mRNA-based and viral vector-based vaccines [ 30 ]. Similarly, Jordanian healthcare workers (≤45 years-old) and UAE inhabitants (≤49 years-old) reported more side effects following COVID-19 vaccination [ 32 , 39 ]. Mazur et al, 2021 found that the incidence of post-vaccination oral side effects decreases in the older age groups among the included European healthcare workers [ 36 ].…”

Side Effects of mRNA-Based COVID-19 Vaccine: Nationwide Phase IV Study among Healthcare Workers in Slovakia

“…To date, several independent (non-sponsored) phase IV studies on mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines have been published from various countries, e.g., Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Iraq, Italy, Jordan, Malta, Poland, Saudi Arabia, the UK, and the USA [13,[19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30]. The results of these phase IV studies generally agreed with the results of the phase III trials executed by the manufacturers and published by the regulators, i.e., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) [31,32].…”