Coronavirus: A rare “COVID arm” phenomenon is a harmless immune response to vaccination, experts say.

Some recipients of the Toronto-Moderna COVID-19 vaccine report that they have a “COVID arm” that causes red lesions or rashes after vaccination, but experts say the reaction is harmless. ..

The very rare “COVID arm” phenomenon, which develops 5 to 10 days after vaccination, can leave itching and swelling of the skin around the injection site, and can manifest as red bumps and hives.

But according to experts, the “COVID arm” is nothing more than a harmless immune response that diminishes within a week.

In a telephone interview with CTV News.ca on Saturday, clinical researcher and Toronto doctor Dr. Iris Gorfinkel said, “It seems to be a delay in allergic reactions.” “When people get redness from the injection site, which is a predictable side effect of receiving injections, that’s exactly what they expect.”

Goffinkel said the side effects of the “COVID Arm” were not “COVID vaccine-specific” and were not really “vaccine-specific”, but tetanus, chickenpox, MMR vaccinated people or just mild vaccines It gives similar reactions to people. Local allergic reaction.

“Allergens don’t always work in a predictable way, [COVID arm] It’s very unusual … it’s happening in a very small group, it’s also very calm and limited, “said Goffinkel, adding that it’s” absolutely “nothing to worry about. ..

“The risk of COVID-19 is much greater,” she said.

Dr. Esther Freeman, Director of Global Health Dermatology at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and Principal Investigator at the Global COVID-19 Dermatology Registry, said: USA Today In January, the “COVID arm” is a “known phenomenon” and the “no signs” response is nothing more than a short local immune response from the body.

So far, only 14 people have reported “COVID Arms” in the COVID-19 Dermatology Registry worldwide, according to Freeman.

Symptoms of the “COVID arm” were also reported during the vaccine testing phase of Moderna. New England Journal of MedicineAccording to the researchers, 244 participants experienced a rash-like reaction after the first dose and 68 participants showed similar symptoms after the second dose.

Gorfinkel warned that the situation was important when investigating the side effects of the vaccine, saying that the responses reported in the Moderna trial were from “more than 30,000” people, half of whom were given placebo. Said.

“Understand that about 30,000 people received some injections, of which 15,000 received effective vaccines, so when you look at it as a fraction, it suddenly becomes very small, not just very small. I couldn’t even pick it up as a serious side effect, “Gorfinkel explained.

“244 out of 15,000 are very small … it’s only part of the experience, and the benefits of vaccination far outweigh the drawbacks,” she said.

The “COVID Arm” is not reported very often in Pfizer vaccine recipients, but Goffinkel says it could be for a myriad of reasons and no answer will be found until more data is available.

Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease specialist at the Toronto General Hospital, recently saw a case of “COVID arm” in one of his patients shortly after receiving a second dose of the Pfizer vaccine.

“It happened five days after the second dose. I had some tenderness and redness, but no constitutional symptoms and was limited to the injection site on my arm,” Bogotti said in a telephone interview on Saturday. I told CTV News.ca.

According to Bogok, his patient was taking a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug similar to aspirin, and his symptoms disappeared after a few days.

He added that it is important to know that these reactions are likely immune responses to the vaccine, but not all cases are the cause of concern.

“If there are such mild reactions, many of them are mild and self-limiting and will not be reported, which will result in serious underreporting,” Bogok said.

Data that Bogoch can use over time to explain why some individuals react differently to vaccination when the goal is to inoculate billions of people. I agree with Gofinkel that there will be more.

“These are questions that need to be answered, but we don’t yet have a huge dataset to do that,” Gorfinkel said, adding that “there was no direct confrontation.” [vaccine] It is usually the source for the above dataset.

Gorfinkel said that anyone experiencing concerns or fears about the side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine, whether it is a “COVID arm” or not, should consult a doctor.