According to health experts, a rare side effect of the Modern coronavirus vaccine may be a good sign.
Some recipients have reported that they have experienced a “covid arm” in which people experience itching and inflammation of the skin, sometimes accompanied by lumps or red hives.
But the stain is a harmless response of the immune system to the shot that fades in a week.
In fact, Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, a professor of medicine and infectious diseases at the University of California, San Francisco, says this reaction is an indication that his body is intensifying to prevent a possible infection in the future. .
Some patients have reported a rare side effect, called “COVID arm,” which appears as a red, swollen spot, which is often painful to the touch after receiving the Modern vaccine.
Health officials say the rash appears harmless and often fades on its own in a few days with treatments such as ice and Tylenol.
Chin-Hong said the reactions should not be a cause for concern, but rather a “celebration.”
“The first cause of celebration is the reaction you feel your immune system is working and preparing to protect you,” he said.
“The second cause of celebration is that it disappears and doesn’t really last.”
The official term used by dermatologists and allergists to describe the side effect is “delayed skin hypersensitivity.”
Skin conditions affecting the skin, hypersensitivity means an unwanted reaction produced by the immune system and delayed because it usually occurs days after the vaccine.
An infectious disease specialist said the side effect (pictured) is a good sign because the immune system is boosting and you are training to fight the infection.
The rash is usually red and swollen, and at times painful to the touch, and always appears on the arm in which the vaccine was administered.
These reactions have also been found in people who have received tetanus vaccines, chickenpox vaccine and MMR vaccine (measles, mumps, rubella).
But the COVID arm has only occurred in people who received the COIVD-19 vaccine from Moderna, not Pfizer, and has been reported in their clinical trials.
Chin-Hong told DailyMail.com that he compares the side effect to the fact that the immune system is in a military-style boot camp.
“The initial field is a gradual process. At first, the antibodies or fighting cells that fight do not develop complete formation,” he said.
“Then they are training and in this training process, they get very excited, they are anxious or angry, because they are working hard and over time they become very good.”
This feeling of “anger” from the supporter may manifest as a COVID arm, but it eventually disappears on its own.
Chin-Hong says this is the immune system that is being prepared if it is actually infected with coronavirus.
“So when you get the second shot, everyone is ready to jump into this thing that seems to be what they’ve been training for all their lives,” he said.
But then, it’s not the real COVID business, so they just do itor return to base “.
However, he said that if people do not experience the reaction, there is no reason to panic because in the clinical trials, half of the participants did not experience any side effects.
“If you don’t get it, it doesn’t mean your immune system isn’t working,” he explained.
If you experience any reaction, try moving house or using a hot compress and if it does not work, take Tylenol or ibuprofen.
But most of all, Chin-Hong says that if your reaction is a headache or a COVID arm, it’s better than the long-term consequences of COVID-19.
“From the most common to things unrelated to the vaccine, it’s much easier to get something and treat it temporarily instead of the longer effects of COVID and the uncertainty of the disease it will have and the potentially carrier syndrome. long, in which you will have symptoms for months and months and months, ”he said.
