John F. Bonamo, M.D., MS, FACOG, FACPE, Executive Vice President and Chief Medical and Quality Officer, RWJBarnabas Health, explains some of the side effects of the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines. Most are short-term side effects that are not serious. A few people have experienced an allergic reaction called anaphylaxis. This reaction is very uncommon. The safety provided by the vaccines far outweighs their side effects.
TRANSCRIPT:
People often worry about the side effects from a vaccine.
Most of what we worry about is an allergic-type reaction that happens within the first four hours of someone getting a vaccine. And there can be a serious reaction, people can have something called anaphylaxis which is a fairly severe allergic reaction. It is very, very uncommon.
They can also get some cutaneous skin type issues with itching or a little bit of redness in the skin. There can be some mild respiratory conditions. Their blood pressure can go up, it can go down. But we are not seeing this.
We have already vaccinated more than 15,000 people in our system.
We’ve seen very, very few reactions and most of them require no treatment other than observation. A few of them have required minimal intervention.
The side effects are few and far between and the safety far outweighs the side effects.