Michael Whitworth experienced only mild symptoms after his first dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.
“Just pain in the arm,” he said.
So when it came time for his second dose recently, he didn’t expect to feel much.
“The second dose was a completely different story,” he explained.
Two hours after the injection, Whitworth said that the aches and pains in his arm became so severe, “I couldn’t move at all.”
At 10 a.m. Whitworth said he had a mild fever, was shaking, chills, his lips turned out to be pale and he was starting to hallucinate.
“This was really, really bad because I never hallucinated in my life, so I felt like I got an injection of mushrooms or something,” he said.
What Whitworth describes is extremely rare according to the VAERS database of unfavorable reporting. The database is jointly managed by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and tracks adverse reactions after each form of vaccination.
We downloaded the data and analyzed the reports recorded in the first four weeks of COVID-19’s rollout in Florida. The COVID vaccine made up more than 90% of all negative reports submitted by the Sunshine State.
As of Wednesday, reports had been made by or on behalf of more than 330 people. Of the 850,000 doses administered in mid-January, the number of side effects reported represented less than 0.04% of people who received at least one dose of the vaccine in Florida.
“It’s an early warning system,” explained associate professor Dr. Jason Salemi from the University of South Florida. “You shouldn’t look at this database, and if you see 300 cases of adverse incidents, I wouldn’t worry. The idea is that if we keep seeing the same adverse event at the population level that we wouldn’t expect over and over again, it should prompt scientists to delve deeper into that. “
Salemi added that the reports logged into the database have not been verified by anyone, voluntarily and submitted.
In the four weeks we analyzed, the most common side effects were chills, fatigue, and dizziness. Reports of women receiving the vaccine were submitted more than three times those of men.
Six deaths in Florida were also reported to the database. The youngest 56-year-old South Florida physician, Dr. Michael Gregory. Gregory was described as healthy before dying a few weeks after receiving the first dose of the Phiizer vaccine. His death is still under investigation.
“We are not saying that these side effects are specifically related to this vaccine. We just know they happen after a person is vaccinated, ”explained Salemi when we asked what the public should remember from reports registered in the government database. “You shouldn’t take these with a grain of salt, but in many ways they need a lot more research to verify the information and make sure it’s really linked to the vaccine.”
Michael Whitworth plans to report his side effects to the VAERS database.
‘I think hallucinations are quite important. I think people will feel a little less uncomfortable knowing these things can happen. “
For Whitworth it is more than personal. He’s a doctor in Tampa Bay who is now experiencing the side effects of the vaccine, but still witnesses the reality of the virus.
“I take care of COVID patients, many of them, intubate them, and I take care of them in the operating room. They are in a horrifying situation, so much so that I wouldn’t want any of them and the side effects; yes, you have a few, but compared to the actual COVID it’s nothing, ”he said.
Dr. Michael Whitworth also hosts a Facebook page in the Tampa Bay region focusing on evidence-based COVID-19 information. Click here for more.
Click here to report adverse events to the VAERS reporting system.
You can also report side effects on your phone by clicking here.