24-year-old Yasir Batalvi of Boston was one of the first Americans to be vaccinated against Covid-19. He took part in a trial of a vaccine produced by Moderna.
Moderna said the vaccine had been shown to be effective in 94.1% of cases in the third phase, which involved 30,000 participants. The company said that trials of the vaccine have so far not raised any serious concerns about the safety of the vaccine.
Although the vaccine may help prevent hospitalization and the number of viral deaths, it can cause a number of unpleasant symptoms as soon as it is given.
Batalvi received the first dose of the vaccine in mid-October and the second on 12 November.
After the first vaccine, he experienced symptoms similar to those he had after receiving the flu vaccine.
But he felt more severe symptoms immediately after receiving the second dose of the vaccine. Batalvi says that about 30 minutes after receiving the vaccine, he felt pain in his left arm muscles, as if someone had even hit him hard. “When I received the second dose of the vaccine, everything was fine while I was in the hospital. But the evening was harsh. I developed a slight fever, chills and fatigue,” the man told CNN. The next morning, he called his doctor to ask if these symptoms were normal, and doctors confirmed that this meant that the vaccine was working.
Already during the day the man was back on his feet and the side effects disappeared.
Over the next two years, Batalvi and other recipients of the test vaccine will have regular blood tests to check that they have antibodies.
Moncef Slaui, head of the U.S. Federal Vaccine Development Program, told CNN last week that about 10 to 15 percent of all vaccine recipients experienced noticeable side effects. “Most people will have far fewer side effects. That, frankly, compared to 95% protection against an infection that can be fatal or severely detrimental to health, I think is the right balance,” he told CNN.
“I hope that as soon as this vaccine comes out, people will feel safe receiving it. Like anything, I’m here – I got the vaccine and I’m fine. I think we’ll get through it all,” he told CNN.
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Moderna is known to have asked the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday to allow the use of its new coronavirus vaccine in emergencies and applied for conditional approval of the vaccine at the European Medicines Agency. The European Commission has also signed an agreement with Moderna for the purchase of a vaccine against Covid-19.
