Even after negative experiences from vaccinated people, the authorities have no particular concerns about AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine.
"The risk-benefit profile is still rated as positive for all three vaccines," reported the Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI) responsible for vaccine safety on Thursday in Langen (Hessen).
Both our own analyzes and international data "do not indicate a new risk signal," says the current safety report on Covid-19 vaccines.
In the past few days, sick leave, complaints from vaccinated people about strong reactions and missed vaccination appointments had increased.
AstraZeneca's drug was approved in the EU on January 30th as the third available vaccine after Biontech and Moderna.
As of February 12, 20 suspected side effects or vaccine complications following administration of the AstraZeneca vaccine had been reported directly to the PEI.
However, reports from clinics and care facilities have been received, "in which there are reports of increased sickness reports from staff vaccinated with the Covid-19 vaccine AstraZeneca," it said in Langen.
According to the PEI, the reported reactions are "known systemic, temporary adverse reactions listed in the product information such as fever, chills, headache, muscle and body aches and general malaise, which can be summarized as flu-like symptoms."
The reactions are "not associated with more severe or longer-lasting illnesses."
It is usually about "the body's normal immune response to the vaccination."
It is known from clinical trials that older people reacted less strongly than younger people.
The frequency of side effects decreased slightly with the second compared to the first vaccination.
In clinical trials with the AstraZeneca vaccine, the most commonly reported reactions to vaccination, according to the PEI, were tenderness at the injection site (greater than 60 percent), injection site pain, headache and fatigue (greater than 50 percent), muscle pain and feeling sick (greater than 40 percent) Percent), feeling feverish and chills (more than 30 percent), joint pain and nausea (more than 20 percent).
Frequently (between one and ten percent) there was a fever of more than 38 ° C, nausea and vomiting, swelling and reddening at the injection site.
Employees can be absent
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that when planning vaccinations with the AstraZeneca vaccine, for example for healthcare workers, the side effect profile of the vaccine observed from clinical trials should be taken into account.
Because undesirable reactions could occasionally lead to absenteeism in the 24 to 48 hours after the vaccination.
By February 12th, 3.8 million vaccinations were carried out in Germany with Biontech / Pfizer, almost 87,000 vaccinations with Moderna and a good 31,000 vaccinations with AstraZeneca.
Of the 7690 suspected cases reported, 7277 were from Biontech / Pfizer, 258 from Moderna and 20 from AstraZeneca, in 135 cases the vaccine was not mentioned.
A total of 1178 cases were classified as serious.
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kry / dpa
