Filenews 8 December 2020 - by Marilena Panagi
Does the anti-coronavirus vaccine cause side effects? The answer is yes, like all vaccines and all medicinal preparations. But the side effects of the vaccine seem to be mild and transient. Can a person who was vaccinated then become infected? The answer is probably yes, but if this is possible then they probably won't develop symptoms. Are vaccines currently a breath away from being administered to the population, suitable for all humans? The answer is no, based on what we know about pfizer's vaccine and its approval in Great Britain. Whether the vaccines coming to Cyprus will be contraindicated for certain groups of people, we will know from the approval they will get from the European Medicines Agency.
Scientists around the world are rushing to disprove the serious side effects and interferences in human DNA. They explain how the vaccine works in the human body and analyze the data currently known about vaccines that are ahead of the race that began a year ago and is still ongoing around the world.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which is now a matter of hours in Great Britain, causes mild side effects, which last only around 24 hours and certainly do not leave permanent health problems in humans. On the other hand, in Great Britain it is not indicated to be given to people under 16 years of age, to people who have allergies to some of its ingredients, and for its administration to immunosuppressed people, people with chronic febrile diseases or people taking anticoagulants, it is recommended to advice a doctor before deciding on vaccination. At the same time, the British agency approving the MHRA vaccine says there are no safety data for vaccination in pregnant women and people with low immune systems.
The answer to the question of whether there are side effects from the administration of this vaccine, is simple: "Yes, there are side effects which are periodic, such as headache, fever, shivering nausea, general malaise and very rare lymph node swelling, which is also transient", explains to "F" the Assistant Professor of Pharmacology at the Medical School of the University of Cyprus Nikolaos Ditis, stressing that, "these are more or less the expected side effects of vaccines in general and for this vaccine , that is what we know so far."
Asked if long-term side effects from the vaccine are expected, Dr. Didis replied in detail: "We are well aware of the type of molecule used in the vaccine. MRNA is a biological molecule that we have in our cells. It is absorbed, does the work it is designed to do (protein production) and then is deconstructed by our body which uses it as a raw material to produce other molecules. So mRNA does not remain permanently in our body or act for a long time within our body. So the likelihood of mRNA itself causing long-term side effects, and even common, is from too small to zero."
For now we know that it reduces the chances of developing symptoms
In relation to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, Dr. Didis said that "so far, the company has proven that it reduces diseases (the appearance of symptoms), however, because it did not get data at regular intervals from its volunteers, it could not prove whether it also reduces the chances of infection. However, it has data from antibodies of its volunteers and may soon be able to give more information on this issue as well."
This means that people who have been vaccinated will be able to become infected with the virus but "will not be sick and will not even have symptoms. We hold for the time being, until proven otherwise, the bad scenario. That is, someone will probably be infected even if they have been vaccinated, but they will not show symptoms." The company, for now, "did not show any data to prove that you are not infected with the vaccine."
Asked if people who would be vaccinated, infected and asymptomatic would be able to transmit the virus, Dr. Didis replied that "it may not be possible to transmit an asymptomatic who has made the vaccine due to a low viral load." On this issue, however, he stressed, we should probably wait for developments.
Contraindications for people under 18 and people with specific allergies
"What we know, and based on the approval given by great Britain to this vaccine, is that it is not appropriate for people under the age of 18," Dr. Ditis said, noting that "Britons usually have some discrepancies in these issues compared to the rest of Europe and administration will not be done to people aged 16 and under. , since the company itself did not use volunteers under the age of 18'. This is what he said, i.e. the non-administration of the vaccine for people under 18 years of age also appears to apply to the Moderna vaccine which is also in the process of being authorisations. In the Oxford vaccine studies, "Astrazeneca involved some people aged 12 to 15, but we do not know the number of participants and these are data that we will see when the approval dossiers are prepared and handed over to the European Medicines Agency.".
Also, said Dr. Detis, "we know that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is contraindicated for people who have allergies to any of its ingredients. There is a list of ingredients and the doctor once he knows his patient's possible allergies, will decide accordingly.
"From then on," he noted, "the doctor should see if a person suffers from a chronic disease, whether he is taking immunosuppressive drugs, anticoagulant preparations and then advise his patient on whether or not he should be vaccinated." The reason for this, Explained Dr. Didis, "is because each patient has his own medical history, presents a separate clinical picture and therefore the most appropriate to advise the patient on his personal case is his doctor".
Furthermore, "there is currently no data on pregnant women, there is no data on people with low immune systems and for this reason and in Britain, it has been decided that the vaccine will start to be available and they simply inform doctors and tell them that there is no safety data for specific groups of patients."
Of course, Dr. Dietis added, "along the way the company can give these data so what we all need to do is wait for official approvals from the European Medicines Agency."
So maybe for each person it's a different vaccine?
Dr. Didi's answer is clear: "This question must be asked by every citizen to his doctor when the time is right. For each of us, a vaccine may not be appropriate. We must trust our doctor, who when he has in front of him the approval data of each vaccine will be able to inform us correctly."
