On that front, both experts urge reassurance: For the vast majority of people, the side effects of vaccination are mild and they're worth the price of bringing a quicker end to this crisis. Gomez-Duarte also calls attention to certain skin-level symptoms - like severe bruising, or small dots that are red in color - which both might be precursors of a more severe response.īoth Gomez-Duarte and Adams agree that a lot of talk about side effects may heighten vaccine hesitancy - particularly as infrequent cases get inflated coverage. But there are also some red flags you should look out for that would absolutely warrant immediate medical attention: severe headache, abdominal pain, severe wheezing or swelling in legs (indicating a clot). Goats and Soda Coronavirus Vaccine FAQs: What's Up With Side Effects? Should You Still Double Mask?Īdams says contact your health-care provider if you have any questions. Only a small number of individuals have reported experiencing problems with hearing and vertigo, Gomez-Duarte says, and most COVID-19 vaccinations proceed safely, with mild effects. Oscar Gomez-Duarte, the division chief of infectious diseases at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo. There's one more reassuring factor to keep in mind here: The frequency of these more unusual effects is pretty low, says Dr. Right now, we just don't know for sure, one way or the other. After getting the jab, individuals might simply be more attuned to the minutiae of how they're feeling physically - and, therefore, be prone to noticing more "symptoms," including small things that might've happened anyway.Ĭonversely, it may also be the case that some of these side effects do end up correlating with the vaccine - particularly as our understanding of these issues evolve and we get more data, Adams explains. That's especially since mindset may play a role, Adams explains. Information about things like vertigo and ear-ringing are still being collected on a mass scale and we still can't say with certainty that these more unusual effects are causally tied to the vaccine. Unlike the much more common COVID vaccine side effects - like fever, chills, and headache - there isn't really great data about these unusual cases, Adams explains. To start, she says, we simply don't know whether these weirder symptoms are really linked to the vaccine at all. Lisa Adams, the dean of public health at the Dartmouth Geisel Medical School, says in order to answer that question, we need to take a step back and be careful about our assumptions. The time is particularly ripe for all such vaccine-side-effects-discourses: With the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 having been put on pause due to concerns over (rare) reports of blood clots, you might be wondering what to make of these serious and not-so-serious off-kilter cases.ĭr. Some of those write-ins complained about hearing loss, others mentioned ear ringing, there were a few notes of vertigo, abnormal menstrual cycles and, oh, let's not forget the purple toe issue! ( Yes, we checked: "COVID toe" is indeed a thing.) Since then, some readers wrote to NPR with concerns about a whole slate of more unusual conditions they've been noticing in the aftermath of their own vaccines. We've reported on some of the typical side effects many of us will experience after getting vaccinated against COVID-19. If you have a question you'd like us to consider for a future post, email us at with the subject line: "Weekly Coronavirus Questions." Some readers wrote to NPR with concerns about a whole slate of unusual conditions they've been noticing in the aftermath of their own vaccines.Įach week, we answer "frequently asked questions" about life during the coronavirus crisis.
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