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So far, data collected on COVID-19 vaccines suggests that the majority of reactions to injections are mild – including headache, fever, fatigue and nausea. But with more than 38 million people in the United States now fully vaccinated, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continues to collect information on how those who receive vaccines respond, doing so through an app – as yet little known – called V -safe.
The CDC describes V-safe as a “smartphone-based tool that uses text messaging and online surveys to provide personalized health checks after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine.” The program asks you to report any side effects you experience after the vaccine and, depending on their severity, may prompt someone at the CDC to request more information. This week the app received criticism for the fact that it is only available on smartphones, excluding the millions of people in the United States who do not have one.
But for the vast majority of those who do, says Dr. Carolyn B. Bridges, associate director of adult immunization at the Immunization Action Coalition, it can be an extremely useful resource. Here’s what you need to know.
Anyone who has been vaccinated can register for V-safe, and your vaccination center should have information about this.
Bridges says vaccine distribution centers should provide information about V-safe. “When you go to get the vaccine, they should give you a document with a QR code, which you can use to register,” she says. “They will send you questions about what kind of side effects you experience for a while after receiving your vaccine … and if you have anything more unusual or more serious to report then you can get follow-up – up call. ”For those who do not receive a document, the CDC has instructions on the registration process on its website.
The information collected on V-safe is complementary to VAERS, the vaccine-related adverse event notification system.
The CDC has a long history of tracking serious vaccine reactions through VAERS, the vaccine-related adverse event reporting system, which requires clinicians to record any clinical reactions of concern. Bridges says V-safe is not a replacement, but just another way to track side effects through self-reporting. “These vaccine trials have all been large, around 40,000 people, but that may not bring back something that happens in one in a million,” she says. “So, while VAERS is in progress, V-safe is complementary and involves you receiving a text message to which you respond.”
Since America’s immunization program has evolved at unprecedented speed, producing multiple vaccines in less than a year, V-safe is helping fill the gap, and Bridges says it might even help some feel better about themselves. choice to get one. “I think it’s important for people to participate in V-safe if they want to contribute,” she says. “I think this will be important for people who might not be so comfortable with vaccination at first, just to give them a little more control and more information.”
Nearly 4 million Americans have started reporting on V-safe, saving side effects like headache and fatigue
At a meeting on March 1, Dr Tom Shimabukuro, deputy director of the CDC’s Office of Immunization Safety, shared the first data on V-safe, revealing that 3.8 million people had started using the vaccine. application on February 16. just a small fraction of the 55 million individuals who had received one or more doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines (the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was not yet available) at that time, but its publicly available presentation shows information valuable data.
For example, just like volunteers in the Pfizer and Moderna vaccination studies, those who received the vaccines reported three main symptoms after the injections: fatigue, headache, and myalgia (muscle pain). These side effects were followed by other common effects including chills, nausea, and fever. The reactions increased significantly after individuals received the second dose of Pfizer. (At the time, information on the second dose of Moderna was not available.)
More than 16,000 people said they got pregnant after being vaccinated
Of all the myths circulating about the COVID-19 vaccine, the one suggesting that vaccines can cause infertility in women seems particularly damaging. But as of mid-January, the V-safe data, according to the slides from Shimabukuro, included 30,000 pregnant women, providing data that led the CDC to conclude that “the adverse events seen in pregnant women in V-safe n ‘indicated no security concerns. “
Bridges says it’s an example of why V-safe is so valuable, especially since neither Moderna nor Pfizer’s clinical trials included pregnant women. “All the pregnancies recorded, it’s incredibly useful to have this data,” she says. “[There has been] misinformation and what we all want and need is real data – accurate information. So I think it’s a really good way if people are willing to volunteer. “
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