With the development of the COVID-19 vaccines, the world is desperate for information related to the vaccines. Let’s take a brief look at the side effects of the COVID-19 vaccines that are authorized in Malaysia. 

Generally, here are the most common side effects of the COVID-19 vaccines according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO):

• a fever

• fatigue

• headaches

• body aches

• chills

• nausea

Some people might also experience some side effect like swelling, pain, redness, an itchy rash, and other common forms of irritation around the injection site. 

Each vaccine comes with it own set of side effects. However, please bear in mind that these symptoms are mild, will not last for that many days and are not unanticipated.

Pfizer-BioNTech

  
This vaccine originated in the US and when injected in the body it instructs the body to produce a ‘spike protein’ which can be found on the body of the coronavirus. The body will then proceed to develop an antibody that will protect us from that protein. 

The common side effects as stated previously might occur which is normal occurrence when taking vaccines in general. 

Recently, concerns regarding the effects of the virus on fertility arose which led Pfizer and BioNTech to begin clinical trials on 4,000 healthy pregnant women to explore the efficacy and safety for the participants and their babies which will provide further clarification on the matter. 

AstraZeneca

  
This vaccine originated in the UK and it uses the same technique as the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. The only difference is that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine uses synthetic components instead of a live virus. 

Even though there were a few incidents related to blood clots after taking the vaccine, The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has deemed it safe and does not increase the risk of blood clots as out of the 5 million people who received this vaccine, only 30 cases of blood clots were reported. 

Sinovac

  
This vaccine originated in China and has the same process with the AstraZeneca, whereby a virus is injected into the body. 

The good thing about this virus is that no serious adverse events were reported during the first two trial stages. Besides that, it had lesser reports of fever when compared to the Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca, or CanSino vaccines.

Sputnik V

  
The Sputnik V vaccine originated in Russia. This vaccine is also a virul vector vaccine, similar to Sinovac and AstraZeneca,

This vaccine also reported no serious adverse events. Most effects were mild, like pain at the injection site. 

CanSino Biologics

  
This vaccine also originated in China and similar to the other three it is a viral vector vaccine. 

It also has no serious adverse events, just like it others. 

Conclusion

Overall, we can observe that while there are concerns about the side effects of the virus, proper research and studies are taking place to ensure the safety of the people. Just like any other vaccine, the COVID-19 vaccines come with side effects but these side effects are not serious and only last a few days.