Infarmed (medicines authority) has stressed that the more than 5,660 adverse reactions registered in people who have received a dose of the approved vaccines against Covid-19 “do not necessarily have a causal link with the vaccine administered”. That goes for the worst reactions – 35 people have died.
These fatalities occurred “in the main in elderly people who present(ed) more fragile health conditions (some with diverse comorbidities)”, said the health entity, adding that “vaccination against Covid-19 in these groups does not reduce deaths for other causes, which will continue to occur”.
Of the adverse side effects registered up to last Friday, the majority (72.9%) referred to the Pfizer/ BioNtech jabs (4,129 cases), followed by Astrazenca/ Vaxzevria, with 1,234 cases and Moderna with just 302.
This information came from the latest report of the national medicines and health products authority (ANMPS).
Infarmed has broken the data down into ‘per 1,000 doses administered’, which shows that Pfizer/ BioNtech has seen the most adverse reactions (1.34 per 1,000 doses), followed by AstraZeneca/ Vaxzevira (1.05), Moderna (0.66) and Janssen (0.05).
The term ‘adverse reactions’ has also been broken down too, into ‘serious’ reactions and ‘not serious’.
Of the former, there were 2,418, reports Infarmed, again stressing that “many adverse reactions to medication that are classified as serious refer to cases of temporary incapacity”.
The majority of reactions were in women, particularly those aged between 30 and 49.
The ‘top 10’ of ‘adverse reactions’ were ‘muscle and joint pains’ (2,620), headaches (1,717), fever (1,566), weakness/ fatigue (965), nausea (672), tremors (587), lymphadenopathy – or inflammation of the lymph nodes – (512), rashes (406) and paresthesias – a burning or prickling sensation that is usually felt in the hands, arms, legs, or feet, but can also occur in other parts of the body.
Again, Infarmed explains that these are reactions that “are observed in general in any process of vaccination”.
