Reported Side Effects of Covid-19 Vaccination: A Scoping Review
Keywords:
Vaccine, Side-effects, Thrombosis, Safety, COVID-19Abstract
Introduction: Complex factors could be involved in explaining vaccine hesitancy related to human behavior such as the “theory of planned behavior”. Quantitative and qualitative studies are needed to explain the reasons behind hesitancy towards the COVID-19 vaccine since it could jeopardize the effort of the pandemic control. This study aimed to review the well-documented side effects of COVID-19 vaccination in the published literature.
Methods We selected randomized controlled trial-type studies that evaluate the side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine. PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, CINAHL, PsycINFO, LILACS, SCOPUS, ClinicalTrials.gov, International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP), medRxiv.org, biorxiv.org, preprints.org, and the Cochrane Library were searched for eligible studies until November 2022. Three reviewers will independently screen and select studies, assess methodological quality, and extract data. A meta-analysis was performed, if possible, and the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluations summary of findings was presented.
Results: Different types of vaccine adverse effects have been described, such as anaphylaxis, fever, joint and muscular pain, headache, weakness, nausea, chills, erythema, lymphadenopathies, paresthesia, vomiting, dizziness, arrhythmias, changes in blood pressure, and facial paralysis. During the first 15 days after vaccination, there is a high risk of developing all adverse symptoms. We found a total of 29 results from PubMed and one through manual searches. There are eight COVID-19 vaccine candidates have been approved for emergency use in different countries and 12 candidates in the clinical evaluation stage, which are developed using inactivated vaccine platform until August 2022.
Conclusions: At present, it is very crucial to establish the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines when emergency approval is granted to these vaccines without the completion of all phases of clinical trials. Therefore, the details of these vaccines and clinical trials reporting the safety of COVID-19 vaccines are not conclusive.
