nurse fainted live on TV after receiving Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine

Tiffany Dover, chief of nursing at CHI Memorial Hospital in Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA, performed in a live light in front of the television cameras who interviewed her after receiving the Pfizer vaccine against Covid-19.

Dover, 30, a mother of two, was one of the first healthcare professionals at this hospital to receive the coronavirus vaccine on Thursday, December 17.

The timing of her vaccination was captured by cameras on local News Channel 9 television, which interviewed her minutes later. It was during this interview that the nurse began to feel unwell.

“I’m sorry, I’m feeling a little dizzy… I’m sorry,” she said, looking visibly dizzy and resting her hand on his forehead. The nurse then left the microphone and passed out, while two colleagues came to help her.

Once recovered, the woman explained that this fainting was not new to her, as she tends to pass out when she experiences pain. “It took me out of the blue. Now I feel great! It’s a regular thing for me,” Dover said.

Her colleagues also wanted to clarify that the nurse’s reaction had nothing to do with this vaccine. “This is a reaction that can happen very frequently with any vaccine or injection,” said Dr. Jesse Tucker, director of the intensive care department at the same hospital.

This type of reaction is known as vasovagal syncope.. It happens when a person passes out because “the body reacts disproportionately to certain triggers, like seeing blood or feeling a lot of emotional distress,” they explained.

In another Channel 3 interview, the nurse said she had “a history of reactions to vagal syndrome, so if something hurts or I hit my toe I can pass out” she admitted.

As explained to the EFE agency by Dr Francisco Vivancos, of the neurology department of La Paz, vasovagal syncope occurs when the frequency of the beats decreases (bradycardia), so less blood reaches the brain (hypotension or low blood pressure) . This produces dizziness which sometimes ends in syncope, which usually does not last more than two minutes.

Of course, the situation also sparked the fake news, which stated that the nurse had died. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the United States (CDC), for its part, indicates on its website that “sometimes people pass out after vaccination” and that it usually happens “with many vaccinations and this does not mean it is an “adverse reaction episode”.