There are so many questions my patients are asking me these days, with the most frequent being – what do you think about the Covid vaccine? I am happy to start answering that question in this article, and I am sure my opinion will evolve as we continue to learn. First, I’d like to lay out a few personal beliefs/ philosophies about vaccination and our current world pandemic:

  • I believe in a person’s individual right to take a vaccine, or reject a vaccine based on what they believe is right for them. I believe it is the parents’ or legal guardians’ right to choose what they believe is best for their child or children. I do not believe it is the right of the government, or organization to make that decision for the individual or child.
  • I do not believe that people who choose to not vaccinate are putting me or those at risk that do choose to vaccinate. If the vaccination is effective (which it is), and if I took the vaccine (both doses for full immunity), then how is the un-vaccinated person putting me at risk? I do understand that we need to get to herd immunity, and that will happen. Evolution cannot be stopped. With or without mandatory vaccines.
  • Never in our lifetime have we seen a world pandemic that puts humanity at risk. Our humanity is at risk, not just because of the fatality rate of this virus, but because of the toll it has taken on our healthcare system, our economy, and our mental health. We must all take steps together as a community to come back from this pandemic. Let’s talk about vaccines, your concerns and how to protect yourself from injury if you decide to vaccinate yourself or your family. We must continue to move forward and reach for information that will help you make the decision that is right for you, while still protecting yourself by wearing masks and social distancing.

Back to the question – what do I think about the Covid vaccine? To properly answer this question, we must first break down the discussion to the different vaccines available and approved by the FDA; so far Moderna, and Phizer, and these are both highly effective vaccines against the Covid-19 virus. Both vaccines are a type of vaccine called mRNA. This is a brand new type of vaccine, and there are a lot of unknowns. However, to be approved, both of these vaccines went through vigorous safety trials that included participants spanning multiple age groups, races and ethnic backgrounds and pre-existing health conditions.

Here is what we have learned so far that may be helpful regarding possible side effects to the vaccination. (see References below)

  • Roughly 50% of people will experience systemic side effects for 1-2 days after their first Covid vaccine. Systemic side effects are fever, fatigue, headache, muscle aches, joint pain
  • A higher percentage of people are reported to have the same side effects after the second vaccine.
  • Also, for the Phizer vaccine only, there is a much higher percentage rate of anaphylaxis after the Covid vaccine versus the regular flu vaccine. Anaphylaxis has been reported at about 1 in 100,000 doses, which is roughly 10x higher than other vaccines. 81% of patients that had anaphylaxis to Covid vaccine had a previous condition of this type of allergic reaction.

Although, I was surprised to hear that the side effect rate was 50%, I do find this information useful to create proper expectations as well as keeping yourself as healthy as possible before and after the first and second dose of the vaccine.

There is more to come. Next I will cover diet and lifestyle tips as well as nutritional supplements to specifically support detoxification pathways before and after vaccination.

We are committed to helping our community through this pandemic and being a resource for health information.

Warmly,

Natasha Wolf, ND

References

  • Baden LR, El Sahly HM, Essink B, et al. Efficacy and Safety of the mRNA-1273 SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine. N Engl J Med. 2020 Dec 30. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2035389. Online ahead of print. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2035389
  • Polack FP, Thomas SJ, Kitchin N, et al. Safety and Efficacy of the BNT162b2 mRNA Covid-19 Vaccine. N Engl J Med. 2020; 383(27):2603-2615 https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2034577
  • Castells MC, Phillips EJ. Maintaining safety with SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. N Engl J Med. 2020 Dec 30. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMra2035343. Online ahead of print. https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMra2035343
  • Interim considerations: preparing for the potential management of anaphylaxis after COVID-19 vaccination. https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/clinical-considerations/managing-anaphylaxis.html
  • Allergic reactions including anaphylaxis after receipt of the first dose of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine — United States, December 14–23, 2020. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. ePub: 6 January 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7002e1
  • Interim clinical considerations for use of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines currently authorized in the United States. Updated January 6, 2021. https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/info-by-product/clinical-considerations.html
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