Moderna are common, and they become more frequent after the second dose. Although they re mild in most cases, they also can be more severe than those for flu shots.
Here’s what trial participants experienced:
Fatigue: Roughly 63% of the Pfizer trial’s 38,000 participants reported fatigue as a side effect, according to the Food and Drug Administration’s
vaccine advisory panel. Meanwhile, over 68% of Moderna’s 30,350 trial participants reported fatigue.
Injection site pain: 84.1% of Pfizer’s trial participants experienced injection site pain, redness, and swelling, as did 91.6% of Moderna’s trial participants.
Headaches: Just over 55% of Pfizer’s volunteers reported headaches, while 63% of Moderna’s respondents reported headaches. Participants in both trials reported headaches more frequently after the second dose.
Coronavirus updates: Pence to get vaccine Friday, Biden possibly next week; second home test gets OK; fewer births because of pandemic Jorge L. Ortiz and Ryan W. Miller, USA TODAY
How antibodies in recovered COVID-19 patients could treat others with coronavirus
Replay Video UP NEXT
USA TODAY is keeping track of the news surrounding COVID-19 as vaccines begin to roll out nationwide. Just this week, the U.S. marked the stark milestone of more than 300,000 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. Keep refreshing this page for the latest updates on vaccine distribution, including who is getting the shots and where, as well as other COVID-19 news from across the USA TODAY Network. Sign up for
WASHINGTON Expect the unexpected applies to many things including distribution of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.
At a press briefing Wednesday, Gen. Gustave Perna, chief operating officer of Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration s effort to speed up development of COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics, said that two trays of vaccines headed for delivery to two separate places in California had to be returned to Pfizer because they got too cold. As we were tracking the temperature, we noted that the temperature got colder than -80° C; they went to -92°, he said. We locked those trays down; they never left the truck. We returned them immediately back to Pfizer and we sent immediate shipments to replace those two trays.
Photo: Pfizer/MGN Created: December 16, 2020 04:13 PM
WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. officials say they’re actively negotiating for additional purchases of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine after passing up a chance to lock in a contract this summer because it was still unclear how well the shots would work.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and special adviser Dr. Moncef Slaoui also told reporters Wednesday that Pfizer had been unable to commit to a firm delivery date.
Azar called that “the core issue.” The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was the first to win U.S. approval, and in communities around the country some health care workers are receiving the first shots.