Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine causes more side effects than the Pfizer/BioNTech drug, according to new data published in the American Medical Association’s monthly journal JAMA Network Open
The study analysed reports that were collected by the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention’s programme called ‘v-safe’. This programme is designed to track side-effects in people who have been vaccinated: for the first week after each dose of the drug, patients are interviewed daily about any symptoms.
More than 3,600,000 people who received their first dose of the coronavirus vaccine before 21 February registered for v-safe. About 70 per cent of those vaccinated reported having pain or swelling at the injection site. Half of the people vaccinated reported weakness or chills after vaccination.
“In both cases, people who received the Moderna vaccine were more likely to have side effects, with 73% having a reaction at the injection site compared to 65% who received the Pfizer / BioNTech dose. Also, about 51% of Moderna recipients experienced more serious side effects”, – the medical journal writes.
It also notes that people over the age of 65 had significantly fewer side effects compared to people under 65, regardless of the vaccine they received.