Which Type of the Promising COVID-19 Vaccines Produces Minimal Adverse Effects? A Retrospective Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Since the declaration of Coronavirus-2019 (COVID-19) as a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), it was clear that vaccination is the best way to overcome it. Sinopharm, AstraZeneca and Pfizer were the first vaccines introduced to defeat it. To recognize the short-term adverse effects among Iraqi health care workers (HCWs) after vaccination, the three COVID-19 vaccines that are currently available in Iraq were compared. An online survey was distributed to Iraqi HCWs who had received at least one of the COVID-19 vaccines as part of a retrospective cross-sectional study. Data were statistically analyzed using SPSS. The total number of participants was 843. The majority of the participants (85.9%) were under 39 years old, with 78.8% of them being females. Around 60% of individuals had received the Pfizer vaccine. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) had infected 46.7% of the total participants. A total of 628 out of 843 participants experienced adverse effects after receiving the vaccine, accounting for 74.49% of the overall respondents. After receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, the vast majority of respondents who received the three vaccines experienced pain at the injection site (n = 800), while other side effects like headache, myalgia, tiredness and fever mainly appeared with Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines. Most of the reported adverse effects were tolerable and self-limited and they were linked to the AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines.

Side Effects of COVID-19 Inactivated Virus vs. Adenoviral Vector Vaccines: Experience of Algerian Healthcare Workers

“…The local and systemic side effects were significantly more frequent among the adenoviral vector vaccines group (61.3, and 68.3%) than the inactivated virus vaccinated group (41.8, and 45.1%). This finding is consistent with the results of multiple previous studies that reported that the Chinese inactivated vaccines, i.e., BBIBP-CorV and CoronaVac induced fewer side effects than either adenoviral vector-based mRNA-based vaccines ( 18 , 19 , 40 – 42 ). Moreover, the reported side effects were generally mild in patients who received inactivated vaccines ( 19 , 22 , 41 – 44 ).…”

“…Additionally, 38.1% of our participants took post-vaccination medications, mainly Paracetamol, to manage these side effects and 1.1% reported being hospitalized, thus, confirming the mildness of these side effects. In Iraq, 57.2% of the vaccinated healthcare workers took Paracetamol, especially among those vaccinated with BNT162b2 and AZD1222, and 8.7% of them sought medical care ( 42 ).…”

COVID-19 vaccination, do women suffer from more side effects than men? A retrospective cross-sectional study

“…9 Many studies were done to determine side effects according to the type of vaccine following vaccination with COVID-19 vaccines in Arabian countries like Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. [10][11][12] Despite a large number of studies regarding the efficacy and safety of COVID-19 vaccines, only two randomized clinical trials (RCTs) and limited observational studies outlined the gender disparity toward COVID-19 vaccine adverse effects.…”

Web-Based Reporting of Post-Vaccination Symptoms for Inactivated COVID-19 Vaccines in Jordan: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…Multiple studies among different populations were conducted to assess the side effects following the COVID-19 vaccine: many of them found that the inactivated COVID-19 vaccine induced fewer side effects than other types of COVID-19 vaccines did [ 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 ]. In this study, about half of the participants did not experience any side effects after the first dose of the inactivated COVID-19 vaccine.…”