Vaccines: how many of the side effects are self-suggestions? ᐉ News from Fakti.bg – Opinions

They are tired and have only been injected with saline

Have you heard of “nocebo”? The concept is the same, albeit upside down. These are the cases in which a certain therapy has negative, secondary consequences. For example, if a vaccine causes secondary, unpleasant effects. When, instead of the real vaccine of the control group, just a harmless solution of table salt is injected, that’s when we talk about “nocebo”. And because people in this control group don’t know they’ve got a fake vaccine, some of them also have side effects.

Scientists from the United States and Germany are systematically studying the nocebo effect of vaccinations against Kovid-19. And they find something that makes us think a lot: over 35% of patients who have received a fake vaccine complain about the so-called systemic side effects common with the real vaccine – for example, headache and fatigue. And nearly 16% of patients experience local effects such as redness, arm pain or swelling. After the second “dose” even more patients complain of headaches and fatigue – over 31%. And from local side effects less – nearly 12%.

In the case of those actually vaccinated, the side effects of the injection are more common. After the first dose, almost half of patients complain of the so-called. systemic side effects, and nearly 70% – from local. After the second injection, the number of these complaints increased by another ten percent.

All these data are from a study by Julia Haas and Sarah Balu from the Faculty of Medicine at the famous Harvard University, conducted with Frederick Bender of the University of Marburg and other doctors from the United States. The team studied data from 12 vaccination studies involving a total of more than 45,000 patients vaccinated in the last 16 years, half of whom received nocebo.

As an intermediate explanation: it is clear that both the placebo and the nocebo effect are self-suggestion. People in the control groups simply imagined that the drug had helped or that the vaccine had caused side effects.

Does nocebo have an effect with the real vaccine?

The most exciting question in this case, however, is something else: And in what percentage of those vaccinated with a real preparation are the side effects also the result of self-suggestion? Haas, Balu, Bender and their other colleagues come up with an amazing result: even in patients injected with a real vaccine, the side effects are mostly imaginary.

The research team found that people who are vaccinated have a very intense expectation of side effects, which greatly enhances the perception of such effects after infection. However, this does not mean that the side effects are only imaginary, no. The nocebo effect (that is, our imagination) leads to very real, physiological symptoms. In other words, the patient imagines that there will be side effects, but it is this imagination that causes the very real side effects.

In summary: do not underestimate the danger of side effects after vaccination, but keep in mind that your own imagination can cause them.