BRAZOS COUNTY, Texas — Dr. Seth Sullivan, Brazos County Health Authority, said some people may experience different symptoms after they receive the shot.
Some symptoms may include but are not limited to, itching, fever, or soreness in your arm.
According to Dr. Sullivan, that’s all normal.
Dr. Sullivan said the range of symptoms that can occur after getting the shot should only last 24 to 36 hours.
If you are in pain or discomfort, Dr. Sullivan said you can take Ibuprofen, Motrin, or Tylenol.
“It [the symptoms] does go away on its own,” Dr. Sullivan said, “In my personal experience, I had all that after my second shot, but it did go away, just like clockwork.”
Dr. Sullivan said why some people are feeling sick after the shot is the immune response appropriately recognizing the vaccine and mounting a memorable response.
As inconvenient as those side-effects are, Dr. Sullivan said they are a good sign that there was a take.
“If it were severe enough to keep you up from sleeping for example, I’d recommend taking some medication.,” Dr. Sullivan said.
Even though you get the vaccine, Dr. Sullivan said that does not mean you are 100% immune to covid-19.
Dr. Sullivan said because there are variants of the virus that are just different enough, it can get a foothold in our bodies.
“We really do think though that those who get the virus after the vaccine will have a more weakened, attenuated virus reaction to that,” Dr. Sullivan said.
Dr. Sullivan says the way the vaccine works is that there is a protein that is being delivered to our immune cells that replicate a critical protein on the virus itself.
The purpose is that our bodies can recognize that protein, called an antigen, in the future, quickly to create an immune response so the virus does not cause diffuse damage.