Covid vaccines

read about it in the news or heard personal accounts from friends and family, COVID-19 vaccines can cause side effects – but there are ways to minimize symptoms.

Dr. Michael Daignault, an emergency physician in Los Angeles and chief medical adviser for Reliant Health Services, tells USA TODAY that common post-vaccine symptoms shouldn’t make people wary of getting vaccinated against the coronavirus.

“The side effects of the vaccine are 100 times better than getting COVID itself,” he said. “I’ve seen firsthand what COVID does to people and does to their body – having symptoms for a few hours or even a day is much more agreeable.”

He added that having a vaccine reaction is actually a good sign. 

“It means your immune system is working,” he explained.

If you’re looking to lessen some of the potential side effects, however, here’s how to treat some common symptoms:

How to treat COVID-19 vaccine injection-site pain

One area that may react to the vaccine is the arm where you received the shot. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists injection-site pain, swelling and redness as normal side effects.

Here are some things you can do:

Pain relievers: Though the CDC and the World Health Organization recommend against the preventive use of over-the-counter pain relief medications such as acetaminophen or ibuprofen, they do allow them if symptoms develop after the shot. Daignault recommends checking with your doctor first, however, if you’re already taking other medications.

More:Pain relief medications Tylenol and Advil are ‘perfectly fine’ for COVID-19 vaccine aftereffects, experts say

Cool it down: “Ice is a great treatment for swelling – plus for pain, and it’s often overlooked, but it’s something we all have and it doesn’t interact with any medications you have already,” Daignault said. Out of ice? The CDC says you can use a “clean, cool, wet washcloth over the area” as well.

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Pan also points out that “not everything that happens after you get a vaccine is necessarily due to the vaccine,” meaning another illness could be causing more severe symptoms.

“So call you doctor… certainly if you feel like you need medical care,” he said. “If you’re short of breath, that shouldn’t be from the vaccine. So don’t think, ‘Well, maybe that’s just the vaccine.'” 

CDC also recommends seeing your doctor if redness or pain at your injection site increases after 24 hours.

Daignault noted the “most severe” side effects people could experience from the vaccine are usually allergic reactions shortly after the shot. For that reason, he asks patients to wait in their car or at their testing center for about 15 to 30 minutes after the injection.

“Usually, if you can make it through that without any severe symptoms, the chances of having any severe symptoms hours or days after that are very unlikely,” he assured.

Reminders for after your COVID-19 vaccine

So, you got a vaccine! That means you’re immediately and totally safe, right? Not quite. 

Both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines require two doses per patient to be as effective as possible. The first Pfizer-BioNTech dose is more than 50% effective in preventing COVID-19, and the second dose increases that protection to about 95%.

It can also take weeks for a person’s body to build up immunity after getting vaccinated, the CDC said. 

helps reduce the risk of contracting all strains of the coronavirus, as well as other respiratory diseases.

More:Should you wear a mask after getting a COVID-19 vaccine? 5 reasons why the answer is ‘Yes.’

More:Testing positive for coronavirus after getting a vaccine? Here’s how likely that is and what to know if it happens

Daignault explained, “It’s only until we get that herd immunity… that we may be able to return to a little bit of normalcy… but we’re not there yet.”

Pan echoed that “even after you’ve gotten the vaccine, you should still continue to wear your mask (and) try to keep your physical distancing to try to minimize your exposure.”

Contributing: Adrianna Rodriguez, USA TODAY and Liz Szabo, Kaiser Health News

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