- The side effects from a COVID-19 vaccine can be similar to allergies, the flu, or even COVID-19 symptoms themselves.
- Experts say the vaccine can bring on muscle pain, fatigue, fever, and chills, but probably not loss of taste or smell, runny nose, or sore throat.
- Experts also note that most side effects occur within 2 weeks of a vaccination.
You wake up in the morning with a cough, a headache, and fatigue.
Do you have COVID-19? Allergies? The flu? Or is it just the side effects of getting a COVID-19 vaccination?
All can have similar symptoms.
“There’s a huge amount of overlap,” Dr. David Cutler, a family medicine physician at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California, told Healthline.
But there are a few clues that can help you accurately determine what ails you.
If you’ve recently had your first or second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine — Pfizer, Moderna, or the single shot Johnson & Johnson — you might experience an immune reaction that resembles symptoms of COVID-19.
“Anybody who gets a COVID-19 vaccine can expect to have some symptoms, which are associated with an inflammatory response to the vaccine,” Dr. Sanjeev Jain, a board certified allergist and immunologist at Columbia Allergy, told Healthline.
“That’s how the body develops antibodies to the virus,” Jain said. “That’s a positive thing and expected.”
In addition to pain, redness, and soreness at the injection site, vaccine side effects may include fatigue, headache, muscle pain, chills, fever, and nausea, according to the
That sounds a lot like the symptoms of COVID-19.
But not exactly.
For example, if you’re not experiencing a new loss of taste or smell, sore throat, congestion and runny nose, or diarrhea, chances are you’re having a reaction to the vaccine, not COVID-19.
Breathing problems and a feeling of pressure on the chest also can occur with COVID-19,
Source: healthline