Understanding Vaccines: An Interview with Ryan Hassan, M.D.
Below is an excerpt from an interview by Slavic Radio with dad, pediatrician, and Boost Oregon medical educator, Ryan Hassan, M.D.It is reprinted here with permission. This interview was originally published on July 16, 2021, and has since been updated on March 2, 2022.
People are concerned about side effects from vaccination. What are common short-term and long-term side effects of COVID-19 vaccination? Do these side effects require any treatment?
All side effects from vaccines occur within the first two months of receiving the vaccine, and usually within the first few days. After that time, if there are no symptoms that your body is creating due to the antibodies it created to respond to the vaccine, then there is no reason for it to start causing symptoms in the future.
The side effects of the vaccine are similar to those of any other vaccine: your body creates an immune response to the protein, which can include soreness in the arm, and maybe fevers, fatigue, headache, vomiting, or other symptoms of a minor illness. Usually this is mild, but in some cases people will feel very sick and need to lie in bed for a day or two and miss work or school. However, these symptoms will resolve once your body's immune response subsides. You cannot have a prolonged immune response to the vaccine; because the components of the vaccine are quickly destroyed by the body within a few weeks at the most.
The most serious side effect from the [COVID-19] vaccine is a serious allergic reaction called anaphylaxis. This is rare, occuring in 2-4 people out of every million, and occurs immediately after receiving the vaccine. For this reason, people are monitored for 15 minutes after receiving the vaccine so that if they have an allergic reaction they can receive treatment. This condition is not dangerous as long as it is treated.
Will vaccination for children become a requirement for in-person classes in the next school year?
This will probably vary by school, unless the government passes a mandate. It might be a good idea, so we can increase our vaccination rates, reduce the spread of the pandemic, reduce the risk of a school-related outbreak, and reduce the number of people who get sick or die from COVID. However, it will be important to remember that not everyone is lucky enough to have access to the vaccine, even despite the best efforts of public health officials and healthcare workers to make sure the vaccine distribution process was equitable.
Some people who got shots say that their health status changed since then. Some of them complain that they have no energy, others have joint pain that lingers. Could you please address such concerns?
The vaccines do not cause any long term health changes. You may feel more tired or have pain for a few days after the vaccine. These symptoms will resolve, and you will not be any less healthy after the vaccine than you were before.
The reason some people feel this way is because of cognitive biases. We get sick or feel bad for some other reason, and we try to find something to blame it on. If it occurs following a poke in the arm, it's easy to think that the poke in the arm is what caused it, but that doesn't mean that's the actual reason. If the vaccine actually caused people to have long term symptoms, we would be able to see that the number of people who get sick, or go to the hospital, or develop other health conditions after getting the vaccine, would be higher than the number of people who develop those same problems and did not get the vaccine. This is not happening. Our robust data collection systems are doing an excellent job of searching for any possible side effects of the vaccine. We have been able to see and study the side effects of anaphylaxis and possibly blood clots. We have learned that myocarditis is a true side effect of vaccination. Myocarditis from mRNA vaccines (both Pfizer and Moderna combined) occurs about 2.5 times per million 1,000,000 doses administered, and is most common in adolescent males. It tends to be mild and resolve quickly. This number is calculated using the number of verified reports of myocarditis and the number of doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccine administered. We have not seen any other significant side effects. In fact, we've seen the opposite: people who get the vaccine are missing less work, because they aren't getting sick with COVID, which is what we expect.