As millions of Americans continue to receive COVID-19 vaccines, a small number of individuals have reported feeling mild symptoms.
One side effect has been labeled “COVID arm” after some recipients of the Moderna vaccine experienced itchy and swollen skin and dull pain near the injection site.
According to health experts, the side effect is not harmful and subsides within a few days. Dr Peter Chin-Hong, a professor of medicine and infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco says it’s a sign your immune system is working properly to ward off potentially contracting the novel virus.
“First cause for celebration is the reaction that you're feeling is your immune system working and getting ready to protect you,” he told the Daily Mail. “The second cause for celebration is it goes away and doesn't really linger.”
Chin referred to the reaction as your immune system preparing for battle.
“In the beginning, the antibodies or the fighting soldier cells that you develop aren't fully trained," he added. “Then they're being trained and in that process of training, they get very excited or anxious or angry, because they're working hard and they become very good over time.”
“COVID arm” is the anxiety or anger in the analogy and eventually dissipates.
“So when you get the second shot, they're all ready to pounce on this thing that looks like what they've been training all their lives for,” he continued. “But then it's not the real deal COVID so they just go back into the base.”
Related
Last month, the CDC published data indicating the most common side effects from receiving the Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines.
The findings listed the most common side effects as headaches (22.4%), fatigue (16.5%) and dizziness (16.5%). Vaccinated individuals also indicated they experienced muscle pain, fever, chills, joint pain, nausea and swelling at the site of the injection.
On Friday, the US will have administered 100 million doses of the coronavirus vaccines within 58 days of President Biden taking office. The administration had previously planned to reach that goal in 100 days.
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