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‘No reports of severe adverse reax to COVID vaccines so far’
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Posted on Feb 02 2022
With the CNMI’s eligible population now 99% fully vaccinated, there has been no reports so far of any severe adverse reactions to the COVID-19 vaccines since the CNMI started inoculating its residents against the virus.
Heather Pangelinan, who is the director of population health services at the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp., said there have not been any reports of severe adverse reactions to the vaccines “as far as we are aware,” when asked if they have gotten any reports of severe adverse side effects.
Three types of vaccines are available to CNMI residents: Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson.
Pangelinan also said that CHCC monitors reports “from the emergency room and CHCC clinics” as well as the national Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, VAERS is a “national vaccine safety surveillance program that helps to detect unusual or unexpected reporting patterns of adverse events for vaccines.” VAERS is a “passive surveillance system” and as such relies on people sending in reports of their experiences after vaccination.
One disclaimer about VAERS however, CDC said, is that it “is not designed to determine if a vaccine caused or contributed to an adverse event.” As such, a report to VAERS does not mean the vaccine caused the event.
According to the www.vaccinatecnmi.com dashboard, as of yesterday, 99.3% of the CNMI’s 5 and older population is vaccinated against COVID-19. Also according to the dashboard, a total of 104,924 vaccines have been administered in the CNMI to date.
Pangelinan said that in the CNMI the most commonly-reported side effects from COVID-19 vaccines include pain at the injection site, fever, headache, and fatigue.
MD: ‘No reports of severe adverse reactions to COVID vaccines so far’
KW: saipan, cnmi, chcc, covid, cdc, vaccine
