![]() The virus uses spike protein as a key to get into our cells, but unattached from the rest of the virus, the spike protein can’t infect anything. ![]() When you get a COVID-19 vaccine, the cells in your arm take up mRNA that encodes a version of the coronavirus’s spike protein. Innate immunity is a blunt tool it wants to fight anything foreign. The sore arms, fevers, and headaches are a result of innate immunity, the first of the immune system’s two main branches. “There has to be pretty good transparency about what you’re going to experience,” says Deborah Fuller, a microbiologist and vaccine researcher at the University of Washington. Managing expectations is about making sure that Americans are willing to get the vaccine. If someone who gets a vaccine is unpleasantly surprised, they might not come back for a second dose or their experience might sway their friends and family against it. Nursing homes as well are concerned about vaccinating all staff and residents at once, which could reduce staff availability at the same time residents need more care.Īs the United States embarks on its largest, most complex vaccination campaign in history, experts say vaccine providers need to set expectations for people getting the shots. ( Moderna’s also seems to be a little more reactogenic than Pfizer’s, possibly because it’s a larger dose.) These vaccines have enough of a kick that the CDC suggested hospitals stagger vaccinations among staff, so an entire unit isn’t out on a given day. “A reactogenic vaccine is not the same thing as an unsafe vaccine,” says Saad Omer, a vaccinologist and the director of the Yale Institute for Global Health.Ĭompared with existing vaccines, the two COVID-19 ones from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna are a little more reactogenic than flu vaccines but are roughly on par with the shingles vaccine, which can interfere with daily life for a couple of days in some people. The fever, fatigue, and other signs we associate with colds or flu or even COVID-19 are typically caused by our immune responses, not the virus itself. Vaccines, after all, work by tricking the body into thinking it has been infected, and these “symptoms” are an indication it has successfully done so. Reactogenicity happens to some degree with all vaccines and is not in itself a safety concern. In other words, getting them might suck a little, but it’s nowhere near as bad as COVID-19 itself. Both the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines are quite “reactogenic”-meaning they stimulate a strong immune response that can cause temporary but uncomfortable sore arms, fevers, chills, and headaches. They might make you feel sick for a day or two, even though they contain no whole viruses to actually infect you. ![]() For a fraction of people, getting these first COVID-19 vaccines could be unpleasant-more than the usual unpleasantness of getting a shot. ![]()
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