SAN DIEGO — VERIFY: COVID-19 vaccine side effects
QUESTION:
Do more women experience side effects from the COVID-19 vaccine compared to men?
ANSWER:
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, yes.
PROCESS:
In February 2021, the CDC published a study that looked at how people reacted to the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines during their first month of use, between December 14, 2020, and January 13, 2021.
During that period, 13,794,904 doses were administered. Women accounted for 60% of the total vaccinations.
Of the nearly 13.8 million doses administered, the CDC received just under 7,000 reports of adverse reactions.
Of those 7,000 individuals reporting adverse reactions, women accounted for 79%.
The most common symptoms included headache, fatigue and dizziness.
Experts have some theories as to why that is. For starters, as noted in the CDC study, more women received the vaccine (60%) than men (40%) during the study period.
Dr. Georgine Nanos, CEO of the Kind Health Group said, "Women, in general, tend to seek out healthcare more than men and that holds true as well for women getting vaccinated for COVID more frequently than men, and so proportionately, we are seeing more women who are getting the vaccine and as a result, you're going to see more women who are getting these side effects or adverse reactions."
In addition, Dr. Nanos says men's and women's immune systems function differently.
"Women tend to suffer from autoimmune diseases at a higher rate and so when we are talking about vaccines which require an immune response, you're gonna see different reactions in men versus women," Nanos said.
Dr. Nanos hopes the CDC study doesn't scare people into not getting the vaccine, saying any response is better than none at all.
"It means your body is able to mount an immune response and can build the antibodies to fight the virus," Nanos said.
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