Anna Wald, MD, MPH, Head of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Division,

Politics & Life Sciences (PLS) with Dean L. Fanelli, Ph.D.

Anna Wald, MD, MPH, Head of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Division, Professor of Medicine, Laboratory Medicine & Pathology, & Epidemiology, University of Washington Topics: COVID Vaccine Side Effects Explained Wondering what's normal and what's not when it comes to coronavirus vaccine reactions? Does a severe reaction predict how you'd react to the actual virus? Why do some people have a reaction and others don't? Experts say side effects are either a physical manifestation of your body's immune response (which is the case for most people) or an allergic reaction. Anna Wald, an infectious diseases physician and researcher in COVID-19 vaccine trials at the University of Washington's School of Medicine, can discuss common side effects and how to treat them. She says it's still unclear whether the severity of side effects has anything to do with how well your body will fight the virus if exposed and adds, "Remember, most people had mild or no side effects in the clinical trials, and yet the vaccine was still found to have 95% effectiveness at protecting them from illness." Wald says the bottom line is that the benefits of the vaccines outweigh the side effects. Anna Wald, MD, MPH Head of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Division, Professor of Medicine, Laboratory Medicine & Pathology, & Epidemiology, University of Washington