Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Apr 1;10(7):1428.
doi: 10.3390/jcm10071428.

Prevalence of COVID-19 Vaccine Side Effects among Healthcare Workers in the Czech Republic

Abanoub Riad  1   2 , Andrea Pokorná  2   3 , Sameh Attia  4 , Jitka Klugarová  1   2 , Michal Koščík  1   5 , Miloslav Klugar  1   2
Affiliations

Prevalence of COVID-19 Vaccine Side Effects among Healthcare Workers in the Czech Republic

Abanoub Riad et al. J Clin Med. .

Abstract

Background: COVID-19 vaccine side effects have a fundamental role in public confidence in the vaccine and its uptake process. Thus far, the evidence on vaccine safety has exclusively been obtained from the manufacturer-sponsored studies; therefore, this study was designed to provide independent evidence on Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine side effects.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey-based study was carried out between January and February 2021 to collect data on the side effects following the COVID-19 vaccine among healthcare workers in the Czech Republic. The study used a validated questionnaire with twenty-eight multiple-choice items covering the participants' demographic data, medical anamneses, COVID-19-related anamneses, general, oral, and skin-related side effects.

Results: Injection site pain (89.8%), fatigue (62.2%), headache (45.6%), muscle pain (37.1%), and chills (33.9%) were the most commonly reported side effects. All the general side effects were more prevalent among the ≤43-year-old group, and their duration was mainly one day (45.1%) or three days (35.8%) following the vaccine. Antihistamines were the most common drugs associated with side effects, thus requiring further investigation. The people with two doses were generally associated with a higher frequency of side effects.

Conclusions: The distribution of side effects among Czech healthcare workers was highly consistent with the manufacturer's data, especially in terms of their association with the younger age group and the second dose. The overall prevalence of some local and systemic side effects was higher than the manufacturer's report. Further independent studies on vaccine safety are strongly required to strengthen public confidence in the vaccine.

Keywords: BNT162 vaccine; COVID-19; Czech Republic; adverse effects; cross-sectional studies; drug-related side effects and adverse reactions; health personnel; mass vaccination; prevalence.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Regional density of the participating Czech healthcare workers; (A) Prague; (S) Central Bohemian; (C) South Bohemian; (J) Vysočina; (P) Plzen; (K) Karlovy Vary; (U) Usti nad Labem; (L) Liberec; (H) Hradec Kralove; (E) Pardubice; (M) Olomouc; (T) Moravian-Silesian; (B) South-Moravian; (Z) Zlin; January–February 2021.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Butler R., MacDonald N.E., Eskola J., Liang X., Chaudhuri M., Dube E., Gellin B., Goldstein S., Larson H., Manzo M.L., et al. Diagnosing the determinants of vaccine hesitancy in specific subgroups: The Guide to Tailoring Immunization Programmes (TIP) Vaccine. 2015;33:4176–4179. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2015.04.038. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Harrison E.A., Wu J.W. Vaccine confidence in the time of COVID-19. Eur. J. Epidemiol. 2020;35:325–330. doi: 10.1007/s10654-020-00634-3. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Dror A.A., Eisenbach N., Taiber S., Morozov N.G., Mizrachi M., Zigron A., Srouji S., Sela E. Vaccine hesitancy: The next challenge in the fight against COVID-19. Eur. J. Epidemiol. 2020;35:775–779. doi: 10.1007/s10654-020-00671-y. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Luyten J., Bruyneel L., van Hoek A.J. Assessing vaccine hesitancy in the UK population using a generalized vaccine hesitancy survey instrument. Vaccine. 2019;37:2494–2501. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2019.03.041. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Szmyd B., Bartoszek A., Karuga F.F., Staniecka K., Błaszczyk M., Radek M. Medical Students and SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination: Attitude and Behaviors. Vaccines. 2021;9:128. doi: 10.3390/vaccines9020128. - DOI - PMC - PubMed