Dose Of Truth: Will The COVID Vaccine Cause Adverse Effects?

There's a lot of false information out there about the two leading COVID-19 vaccines in the U.S. We wanted to provide the facts and answer some questions. 

I'm not a doctor but know a few, so we asked: Will the vaccine cause adverse effects?

"We must keep in mind that anything we take, any new medications, antibiotics, anything that we've never had before, that we can potentially have an allergic reaction to it. So the recommendation from what I understand is if you have a propensity to have significant anaphylaxis reactions, then to hold off on getting the vaccine," said Dr. Khalilah Gates, a pulmonary care specialist at Northwestern Medicine. 

"The most common adverse effect that has been reported are flu-like symptoms after the first dose, which is important to keep in mind because there's concern with compliance that people will get these symptoms and not want to follow through on getting the second dose," said Dr. Josh Lesko, Brief19 lead policy analyst.

"I would say it's best to expect that you might have some side effects like mild flu-like symptoms for a day or two afterward. But that would probably be better than getting sick with COVID-19," said Dr. Payal Patel, an infectious diseases physician with the University of Michigan.