Vaccine Side Effects are Actually a Good Sign...!

Developing a vaccine is not an easy task as it involves a number of steps. Image below is showing the common steps involved in the process of developing a vaccine: from development in the lab, testing, approval, manufacturing and all the way to getting it to millions of people.

But arguably the most important part is here: is the human trials. Where the vaccine is tested on real people, in three main phases, starting with just a small group of people, and ultimately testing a group of thousands. This is where scientists confirm the effectiveness and safety of the vaccine on a large scale. Before that, scientists scrutinize its effectiveness. But before any of that, a vaccine has to pass this crucial first phase, where scientists study the side effects.

Dr. Kirsten Lyke (University of Maryland, School of Medicine) led a Phase I trial for the Covid-19 vaccine made by Pfizer and BioNTech. She says: ''Side effects are a possibility with any vaccine. In general, it's nothing to fear. It's our own immune systems kicking in and doing what it's supposed to do''.

The most common flu vaccine this year, for example, comes with a chance for many normal side effects: pain, fatigue, headaches. But many of the new Covid-19 vaccines are more likely to cause these kinds of side effects than you might be used to. Particularly after the second dose. Most people will feel a little pain in their arm. Many will be tired and get headaches.

Obviously, having no side effects is desirable. But with the spike protein of the coronavirus, it really does elicit some side effects. But that’s totally normal. And once you understand why vaccine side effects happen, you might actually be happy to get them. 

First, we have to talk about this: your immune system, which is a huge network of different cells and proteins in your body. You’ve got things like:

• white blood cells that fight the invading virus or bacteria, 
• communication cells that organize the response, and 
• antibodies that search for and identify the enemy.

When, a virus attacks your body, your immune system attacks back. Your body increases blood flow to get more of these battle cells in circulation. Your temperature might go up, too, as one of the tactics your body has to help kill the invaders. And after your white blood cells destroy the virus, they produce antibodies that will identify the virus should it reappear in the future, and remember how to fight it. This is how you gain immunity. 

This response is actually what gives you a lot of the symptoms you feel when you catch, for example, the common cold. But the cold virus doesn’t give you a fever, or a runny nose, or body aches — your immune system does, while fighting the virus. And triggering this system, without actually getting you sick, is how vaccines work.

Most vaccines are made up of a weakened or dead pathogen, or a portion of one. Or, in some of the new Covid-19 vaccines, the genetic code of a portion of one, either in the form of DNA, or what’s called messenger RNA, along with minor ingredients to keep it stable. It’s harmless, but when your immune system detects it, it responds just like it’s a real danger. It attacks the intruder, and creates those memory antibodies to be able to fight it again in the future. 

Vaccines are designed to give you the same immunity as if you had fought off the real virus. And some of the new Covid-19 ones do this particularly well. The messenger RNA vaccines are quite good at stimulating your immune system. That's why you have ninety-five percent efficacy. That’s right — a 95% chance of being protected against Covid-19. That makes them some of the most effective vaccines. But that also means they’re really good at activating your immune system. Which means your body will increase blood flow to where that vaccine is, which is why pain at the injection site is so common. Your body might even think, better turn up the heat, and then you get a fever, or the chills. So experts emphasize that we should look at most side effects as a good thing: it means the vaccine is working. 

When we talk about these common reactions to vaccines, like fever and fatigue, we’re mostly talking about the mild-to-moderate ones. These are the lowest of the side effect categories that health regulators use, the kind you get over in a day or two. 

Then there’s severe side effects — the type that might make you call in sick to work or call a doctor. These were rare in the clinical trials for the first two studied vaccines to become available, with the exception of some severe fatigue and muscle pain on the second dose. And that’s because if these vaccines were dangerous, they’d never reach the public in the first place. We really don't accept any sort of permanent, serious harm from a vaccine, nor should we. 

News stories that imply otherwise can be scary, but they get more attention than they probably deserve. Like one about a serious allergic reaction. It may have occur in someone with a history of serious allergic reactions. Or about someone dying after getting a second dose of the vaccine. When, it turned out, other factors had caused his death. 

In fact, no deaths have been reported from the millions of doses that have been given out. And the controlled studies with thousands of people found the same thing: no deaths from the vaccine. These vaccines aren’t just safe — they’re life savers. 

You should be skeptical of anything you put in your body, including vaccines. But once you've seen the data, and you see that there wasn't a serious side effect before approval, and hasn't been a serious side effect post-approval, then I think you should be convinced. Basically, you want to reduce where the virus can go. And if you immunize as many people as possible, that pool of people that it can transmit to becomes less and less and less and less..!

Vaccines are the way out of the Covid-19 pandemic. And, like with all vaccines, many of us who get it will also feel a little merely for a day or two. But the scientists who have studied these vaccines — who have seen the side effects — are some of the most eager to get it... I hope now you must have got some motivation for getting yourself jabbed. So, get up and get your shot as soon as possible...!!

Self Medication & COVID-19

Self medication is basically a human behavior in which a person consumes some exogenous substances (dietary supplement or drug) to cure physical ailment without the prescription of  a physician. 

We're seeing a lot of people taking a lot of medications at home. Let me give you an example, you'll find someone around you who at home is taking Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Iron, Zinc, Azithromycin, some people even adding Evamectin, Doxycycline, all manner of antibiotics and other drugs that are really not necessary and really do not change the outcome of COVID19. 

The danger of this is that you expose yourself to side effects of medicines that are not even helping you. Most of the times people self medicate by using antibiotics that should target bacteria not viruses like the virus that causes COVID19. If too much or wrong antibiotics are used then with time bacteria in your body and in your environment begins to get resistant to commonly used antibiotics; which means in future, someone may come in with a pneumonia caused by a bacteria and doctors are not able to treat it because those bacteria have become resistant to antibiotics. So in using too much antibiotics we're actually harming ourselves and harming our future our children and other generations because they will not have antibiotics to use. 

It's a very disturbing situation right now because people are using drugs that are not indicated and not prescribed by doctors and are not useful. 

People are panicking all of a sudden and they're doing too much because they don't know about the dangers or they're just not aware much about drug's specificity. It's understandable that people will panic, at the same time for some reason, the wrong things seem to go viral. Like whenever someone has this odd prescriptions or picks from somewhere, everybody starts to follow it. You've seen on social media prescriptions that we're not sure where they came from but they have so many things listed there that are not useful for most of the people. 

If you're not getting better, if you're developing symptoms it's always best to check in with the hospital or clinic closest to you as opposed to going over the counter to buy for yourselves antibiotics. Undoubtedly, the fear is real and it's understandable that people will be afraid but remember even in the fear let's not harm ourselves, let's not cause ourselves more harm than good. It's really important that we only take what will help us not what will harm us further.

Antibiotics are classified under category of medicines that should only be sold with a prescription. Unfortunately, in this country if you walk to a pharmacy or a chemist you'll be given antibiotics. 

People even go and say give me two tablets of Amoxicillin or give me five tablets of Augmenting and they're able to get that. So clearly, there has to be a lot more enforcement of the regulation around sale of antibiotics so it's not just the people buying the antibiotics were wrong it's also those who are selling antibiotics over the counter without a prescription and the pharmacy and poisons board. There should be strict measures so that we protect ourselves as well as the future of antibiotics. 

One of the things we should know especially in the context of hospitals is that, when we use too much antibiotics we have a lot of resistant bacteria within hospitals which means with time if you're admitted into a hospital for let's say you need surgery, you could very well get infected with a bacteria that is resistant to antibiotics. Eventually, we also end up making hospitals a dangerous place to be. So both in the community let us reduce use of antibiotics, let us not buy antibiotics over the counter without a prescription and for healthcare workers within hospitals we really only have to use prescribed antibiotics where they're necessary. 

We have to realize that when there's so many people who are sick particularly in times of pandemic such as COVID19, it's very difficult for the state to keep track of everybody so some things fall through the cracks, but if someone is at home it really depends on what symptoms they have. 

Most people are asymptomatic they do not have any symptoms. So if you do not have symptoms you do not need to take any medication. Most people do well, they do not develop symptoms and recover without any issues. If you have mild symptoms so someone may have a mild sore throat or a running nose then that's a situation where you could take something to relieve the symptoms. You can take some salty water or some honey that would relieve some of the sore throat. If you have congestion then you may take some antihistamines. 

Remember there are certain categories of people who may be at a little higher risk for developing certain complications. Like people who are much older or who have certain conditions like diabetes or heart disease, it's always important that they check in with their doctors so that they have a review and their doctor will tell them whether it's safe to isolate at home or whether they need to go into hospital.  

If someone is at home and they get worsening of symptoms for example, if you had a cough and this cough is getting worse or you're getting chest pain or you're having some difficulty in breathing, then do not stay at home taking antibiotics, present yourself to a hospital so that you can get a proper prescribed treatment. 

FOLLOW PRECAUTIONS AND STAY SAFE..!