Health Department Reiterates That COVID-19 Vaccines Are Safe

South Africans have been reassured that COVID-19 vaccines do not cause severe illness and if people do feel unwell they should contact their nearest health care practitioner.

This comes after a picture was posted on social media by someone claiming to have suffered adverse effects from the COVID-19 vaccine.

Health Department deputy Director-General Dr Nicholas Crisp said that the vaccines were safe.

“So when we get an immune response, whether it’s to flu or any other illness, we sometimes get a bit of a temperature, we sometimes get cold sweats or body pains or whatever and that’s exactly what happens most of the time when we get vaccinated with a vaccine. You will get some local irritation around the site,” Dr Crisp said.

He said that more adverse effects were very rare.

“Occasionally, very occasionally, like out of 28 million doses that we have given, we get a handful of people who have reacted a little worse than that. They can be serious but at this is very rare that you get these serious events,” he said.