COVID-19 Vaccination Issues Explained by Health Experts

As the world fights its way back to normal, there’s more data collected on individuals infected with COVID-19 as well as on the vaccination progress. Some are concerned with COVID vaccines’ side effects and reactions, others can’t wait to get a covid shot because the vaccine distribution experiences delays.

PissedConsumer has asked health experts to give feedback on the COVID vaccination and to share their insights on the common issues with COVID-19 vaccines. Uncover more data and facts on vaccines disclosed by doctors and health specialists.

Health Experts Interviewed by PissedConsumer.com:

Dr. Saralyn Mark – MD, Covid Lead at the American Medical Women’s Association. She has served as a medical and scientific policy advisor, providing strategic direction for organizations and federal agencies such as the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and NASA.

Dr. Jeffrey Ebersole – Professor of Biomedical Science, Associate Dean for Research, and Immunologist at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. His research and studies are focused on the immunology of oral diseases and microbiology.

Dr. Jagdish Khubchandani – Professor of Public Health at New Mexico State University. He is a co-author of over 150 research articles focused on epidemiology and global health. Dr. Khubchandani also served as an elected Director of the World Association of Medical Editors.

Joan Melendez – UDI Expert, President of Xcelrate UDI, and Senior Consultant with broad expertise in Healthcare EHR apps, a passionate advocate for the safety of patients and healthcare innovation.

Dr. Javeed Siddiqui – MD, MPH specialized in infectious diseases, the co-founder and CMO for TeleMed2U that provides personalized healthcare services with qualified therapists and physicians. Dr. Siddiqui has been actively involved in telemedicine since 2002.

COVID-19 Vaccination Questions Answered:

• Basic reactions to COVID-19 vaccines
• Side effects recorded after the first COVID-19 shot
• Second dose: Can it cause more side effects?
• Can a vaccinated person be infected with COVID?
• Delays in СOVID-19 vaccine distribution

What Are Some Basic Reactions to COVID-19 Vaccines?

Dr. Javeed Siddiqui, MD, MPH specialized in infectious diseases

Whenever an individual receives a vaccine, there can be a number of reactions that occur. Injection site pain is the most common “reaction”. A vaccine usually requires an injection, there will be pain at the site of injection. I often tell my patients this is the cost of protection. The degree of injection site pain can vary based on the vaccine, the degree of immunological response, and the technique used by the healthcare professional.

In addition to injection site pain, with SARS-CoV-2 vaccination, fever, chills, headache, and fatigue have been frequently reported.

Dr. Jeffrey Ebersole, a UNLV Immunologist

During the phase three trials, there were some individuals across the globe that had an immediate, what we call, an anaphylactic reaction to it. It's like getting a bee sting or something like that, that you're allergic to. And there were a number of those to the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. So this was a cautionary approach to try to identify those individuals. But that type of a reaction literally happens within minutes to 10 minutes, if you're going to have that reaction. It doesn't happen hours after or days after, it just doesn't work that way…

...each year there's a portion of the population that have reactions to the flu vaccine as well, with fevers, the same things that you hear with the coronavirus. And again, part of it is the way that we are sort of held hostage almost by social media these days. So there are reports out there of two women, they had severe reactions. Okay. There's no doubt about that, and that was described. But attributing that to a cause and effect, I got the vaccine, the vaccine caused these reactions. Absolutely no data, absolutely no evidence that that occurs.

What Side Effects Are Recorded After the First COVID Vaccination? 

Joan Melendez, the UDI Expert and Senior Consultant

Recorded side effects are infrequent unfortunately.  There are recorded adverse events but again, not reported.  Currently the FDA last update to VAERS for adverse events was January 29 and is routinely 15 days behind schedule.  It would be so helpful to have this data daily. 

Dr. Jagdish Khubchandani, a Professor of Public Health at NMSU

The CDC recently shared data on side effects. On the national website for reporting side effects, some 7,000 people reported side effects with the vast majority classified as non-serious (e.g. pain and swelling at the site of injection, fever, headache, fatigue, chills, nausea, etc). I won't consider many of these as side effects. These are pieces of evidence that the vaccine is working and mounting an effective immune response. These are bound to occur with any vaccine.

Dr. Javeed Siddiqui, MD, MPH specialized in infectious diseases

Per the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention, data from 23 December 2020, 1,893,360 first doses of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine had been administered in the United States, and reports of 4,393 (0.2%) adverse events after receipt of Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine had been submitted to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).

Based on this data the most common side effects reported were injections site pain, fatigue, headache, fever, and chills. The most serious adverse reaction to vaccine administration is anaphylaxis.

Anaphylaxis is a life-threatening allergic reaction that can occur after vaccination, with onset typically within minutes to hours. Based on the above data set, 21 cases were identified as anaphylaxis reactions which calculates a rate of 11.1 per million doses administered. Per the CDC MMWR report, “The median interval from vaccine receipt to symptom onset was 13 minutes (range = 2–150 minutes). Among 20 persons with follow-up information available, all had recovered or been discharged home.” 

The majority of patients who developed an anaphylaxis reaction, 17/20 had a history of anaphylaxis or a history of multiple allergies to medications.

Can the Second Dose of a COVID-19 Vaccine Cause More Side Effects?

Dr. Jeffrey Ebersole, a UNLV Immunologist

The second vaccine, which we had about three weeks after the first one, had virtually no reaction at all to it. No pain, nothing. Now I have heard that there is a portion of the population out there, and I don't have a handle on the proportion of that, but I know personally and folks here at my institution that got it, there are quite a few folks, particularly to the second injection, they have a reaction.

They can generate a low fever, 101 degrees, something like that. They can feel achy, almost like they have a mild case of the flu, lasting for about 24 hours or so. And then it's gone and they feel fine, but that clearly is a reaction of their immune system to the vaccine. It says that their immune system is working very strongly in response to the vaccine.

Dr. Jagdish Khubchandani, a Professor of Public Health at NMSU

As of today, new trials suggest that only one dose could be enough. As it relates to those who will get or have gotten a second dose, there have been varying reports - some people complained of more side effects than the first dose and others had none. If a person gets more side effects from the second dose, there is nothing to worry about. It implies that the first dose prepared you for a more aggressive immune reaction in the body causing side effects. The first dose was a primer in these cases to prepare the body for an infection or additional doses of vaccine.

Dr. Javeed Siddiqui, MD, MPH specialized in infectious diseases

The current data does indicate that the second of the SAR-CoV-2 vaccine can result in increased side effects. The second dose of vaccine does result in the amplification of the immunological response. From an immunological standpoint, these are the desired effects. Again the “cost” of developing the immunological response can be a greater frequency or intensity of side effects. Vaccine recipients should anticipate this and discuss their reactions with a theory healthcare professional.

Currently, the two vaccines that are available in the United States Moderna and BioNTech/Pfizer reported in their phase 3 clinical trials, adverse events occurring more frequently after dose 2 than dose 1. Specifically, rates of side effects were 54.9% versus 42.2% for placebo following the first dose and 79.4% versus 36.5% for placebo following the second dose. The most frequently reported side effects in the clinical trials were fatigue, headache, fever, chills, arthralgias, and myalgias. Again, all of these side effects occurred at a higher rate after the second dose of vaccination.

Can a Vaccinated Person Be Infected With COVID?

Dr. Saralyn Mark, MD, AMWA Covid Lead 

We don't know the duration (how long) and durability (how strong) and long term impact of the immune response to natural infection nor to vaccines. Essential for the public to maintain public health measures - masking, distancing, washing hands especially with new variants. For example, a nursing home in Germany - all vaccinated got infected with a UK variant. 

We also don't know what happens with asymptomatic infection - will it lead to long hauler's syndrome. Vaccines may decrease severity of disease but not infection and people can still spread the virus as well as develop long hauler's syndrome - a multi-system disease. Studies ongoing. 

Joan Melendez, the UDI Expert and Senior Consultant

Yes, I have read where the cases were asymptomatic or mild but again, why?  Was it the vaccine (which one(s))?  Were the EUA protocols followed (temp, invert, admin)?  As long as the protocols were followed in the handling, storage and administration, I feel confident that the vaccine will be very effective. 

What Causes Delays in the Vaccine Distribution?

Dr. Saralyn Mark, MD, AMWA Covid Lead 

Just like what we saw with testing last year, there was a slow and often confusing roll out. This is happening with vaccines and it will get better. More federal support and funding will help already stressed systems

Life cycle of a vaccine: Development, Manufacturing and Distribution. In some regions, there is a demand for more vaccines and supply has not kept up with it. There needs to be more manufacturing and it needs to be sped up. For example, Pfizer just said that it can manufacturing time in half

For some regions, there are vaccines, but not getting into arms. There are several reasons. Delay to vaccinate can be due to logistics and infrastructure.

Dr. Jagdish Khubchandani, a Professor of Public Health at NMSU

Unfortunately, it has been a very poor rollout of the vaccines including issues with how rollout was planned to the current situation of confusion and chaotic distribution. We did not procure enough doses initially, there was confusion about how many doses we have, little federal guidance and help on distribution and putting the vaccine into arms of people, technological and communication glitches, etc. In a pandemic, we have to think proactively and plan with a lot of foresight - the cardinal feature of good planning that was missing throughout this pandemic.

What we can do now? Greater coordination between federal and state agencies, and state and local agencies. Fund vaccination procurement and vaccination drives around counties as many are volunteering to vaccinate. Set up coordination between states and revisit criteria for vaccination.

Joan Melendez, the UDI Expert and Senior Consultant

Lack of knowledge, lack of knowing what is actually needed vs what is in the pipeline leads to delays in what appears to be in distribution. Lack of knowledge of lot number, for example, leads to unknown issues with the product. Could deaths and adverse events be tracked back to how a lot was handled rather than its use?

If we were waitlisting and had a “clearinghouse” for registration of vaccines administration, we would be so ahead of the game.  I’m technically a 1A, I work in hospitals, in operating rooms mostly.  Since I am not employed at the hospital,  I am on a waiting list… with no notifications.  So I signed up again.  How many people have done this?  I’ve attempted to sign up for the vaccine in the 4 states that I am working in… hours spent logging into what feels like hundreds of sites.

Dr. Jeffrey Ebersole, a UNLV Immunologist

I think that has a number of different issues. One is, if we have the belief, and I think the data is there, that we would love to get 300 million US citizens vaccinated. That means you need 600 million doses if you're doing two. Well, we didn't have that.

The companies worked very rapidly to produce and show the safety and efficacy of the vaccine, but the magnitude that it takes to produce all of this vaccine, none of these companies were prepared for… So there was fundamentally a shortage of vaccines.

The other thing that I heard, and that as while, all of the states, as best as I can determine and read, worked very hard to try to be prepared to deliver the vaccines. This was a magnitude of need beyond what we've ever seen before.

So no matter how much training they did and how many people they were trying to get involved and were capable of doing that, again, it was a magnitude of need and delivery greater than anything we've seen in the history of the US...

And then the last part of it sort of relates to the vaccines themselves. And that is the two vaccines that were originally available, had to be handled differently than most vaccines that we work with. And once they were put into action, they had to be used in a fairly short period of time, which means you had to have the people with the arms to put them in.

Conclusion

With more data gathered on COVID-19 disease spread, vaccines, and immune system reactions, there is a hope that we, as the world, will soon get over the pandemic. We thank our health experts for taking part in the PissedConsumer survey. 

Whether you decide to take the COVID shot or not is your personal choice. Please stay healthy, and if you have any consumer issues you’d like to report, don’t hesitate to leave a review.