RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The U.S. population has two vaccines at its disposal. The data of over 600,000 Americans who have already been immunized confirm the safety of these vaccines.
Of this total, only six had severe allergic reactions, which corresponds to 0.001%. In other words, one in every hundred thousand people. All who had severe allergic reactions were treated on time and recovered with no issues.
One after the other, the world’s authorities are rolling up their sleeves to receive the vaccine. On Tuesday, December 22nd, both the White House immunologist, Anthony Fauci, and the American Health Secretary, Alex Azar, were administered the first dose of the recently approved Moderna vaccine.
Dr. Fauci said: “I feel extreme confidence in the safety and the efficacy of this vaccine and I want to encourage everyone who has the opportunity to get vaccinated so that we could have a veil of protection over this country, that would end this pandemic.”
On Wednesday, December 23rd, Dr. Fauci may even join the list of people who have had the side effects of the vaccine: fatigue, headaches, pain in the body, irritation at the injection site and, in rare cases, a high fever. However, all this passes in one or two days, as it is the case with common vaccines like that for the flu, for instance.
“These are perfectly acceptable effects and, within a risk-benefit relationship, there is no comparison. What do you prefer? A day with a fever that will have you miss work or your life back? To hug one’s parents, to have a normal life, to reach a point when one can stop wearing masks and go to a rock concert”, says Natalia Pasternak, doctor in microbiology and president of the Questão de Ciência Institute.
Over 614,000 people have already been administered the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines in these first ten days of immunization in the United States. Of this total, only six had severe allergic reactions, which corresponds to 0.001%. In other words, one in every hundred thousand people. All who had severe allergic reactions were treated on time and recovered with no issues. These are rare cases, but they are being studied by the American government and the scientists who developed the vaccines.
Paul Goepfert, director of the University of Alabama Vaccine Research Center, explains that the risk of having a serious reaction is minimal compared to the danger of dying from Covid, particularly in the case of the elderly.
Referring to the technology behind the two vaccines approved in the United States, he said: “This vaccine is the most effective ever developed for adults. There has never been a vaccine that came even close to this level of efficacy. It’s a huge contribution, the light at the end of the tunnel,” he says.
Moreover, regulatory agencies, such as the American FDA and Brazil’s ANVISA, only approve vaccines after they undergo a thorough evaluation process.
“If we add all vaccines that have already been tested, or are being tested for Covid-19, there are now over a million people who have been immunized with the most diverse technologies, without having reported any serious adverse effect. This provides us with an indication of the safety margin. And that these vaccines, no matter how fast they were developed, didn’t skip any steps and most of all didn’t skip any safety stages”, says Natalia Pasternak.