According to a recent study, more people taking the Moderna coronavirus vaccine reported side effects than those who received the Pfizer shot.
The researchers analyzed reports of more than 3 million vax receptors collected using v-safe, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention program that tracks reactions to vaccines.
Nearly 70% said they had some type of reaction at the injection site, such as pain or swelling, and half reported general side effects such as fatigue or chills, according to the study.
“A higher percentage of participants who received the Modern vaccine, compared to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, reported reactogenicity; this pattern was more pronounced after the second dose,” the researchers noted.
Of those who received the Moderna shot, 73% said they had a reaction at the injection site, compared with 65% of people who received the Pfizer vaccine.
Nearly 51% of Moderna recipients reported having full-body symptoms, compared with 48% of those receiving the Pfizer shot.
Reports came from more than 3.6 million people who received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine before Feb. 21 and completed at least one health survey on v-safe within seven days of capture.
The gap widened after the second dose, according to reports of about 1.9 million people who completed these records after receiving shot number 2, according to the study.
About 82% of people who received their second Modern vaccine had pain at the injection site, compared with less than 69% of people with Pfizer.
Overall, 74 percent of Moderna recipients said they experienced body-wide symptoms, compared with 64 percent of people who received Pfizer vax.
About 40 percent of people with Moderna specifically reported having chills, compared to only 22 percent of Pfizer receptors.
“Data from millions of v-safe participants indicate that pain at the injection site is common after the first and second doses of any mRNA-based vaccine,” the researchers noted.
The study was published Monday in the peer-reviewed medical journal JAMA.