People who are vaccinated with Moderna or Pfizer usually experience more pain than after their first shot. They often complain of a flu-like feeling. But there is no need to panic. “It’s a response from your immune system, and that’s just what you want. It is because of that inflammation that you make a lot of antibodies”, it sounds.
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Door Redactie Online
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More than 500,000 people in Flanders will receive their second shot this week. That is more than the 300,000 first injections that are made. Many people who are vaccinated with Moderna or Pfizer experience noticeably more complaints after the second injection than after the first. Usually it is a flu-like feeling, so headache, fatigue and sometimes fever.
Create antibodies
These ‘side effects’ are completely normal and even good, as it turns out. «We call that side effects, but actually it is an expression of the effect of the vaccine. It’s a response from your immune system, and that’s exactly what you want. It is because of that inflammation that you make a lot of antibodies. The downside is that you have those complaints. If you have them, you can be sure that you will have many antibodies afterwards. And usually it’s over in less than 24 hours. It’s important to prepare for it to happen, so don’t make too many plans that night. And feel free to take a painkiller. Some paracetamol or ibuprofen has no impact on the effectiveness of the vaccine,” explains vaccinologist Isabel Leroux-Roels of UZ Gent in Het Nieuwsblad.
unpredictable
The complaints are more common in younger people – currently those in their forties and thirties are vaccinated – than in the elderly. “The immune response is stronger in young people. The younger you are, the more intense. But it is unpredictable: it is also possible that you don’t feel anything and still make a lot of antibodies,” says Leroux-Roels.
The opposite is true for other vaccines, such as AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson. There, people experience more pain after the first injection than after the second.
