[ 2021-03-09 ]

The advice on drinking alcohol and taking ibuprofen after having a Covid vaccine
As the vaccine is rolled out, here is everything
you need to know in the aftermath of getting the
jab, from immunity to side-effects

The rollout of the coronavirus vaccine is well and
truly underway, with jabs set to be extended to
people over-60 this week.

As of Mar 4, 20,982,571 people had received the
first dose of the vaccine, with 963,862 second
doses having been administered by the same date,
taking the total to 21,946,433. Over four in five
of those in the over 80s group have now been
vaccinated.

But can you drink before the vaccine, how quickly
are you immune and are there any side effects? We
have broken it down below...

Can I take ibuprofen and/or paracetamol after I've
had the vaccine?
Mild side effects after the vaccine, such as arm
soreness, fever, chills, nausea and fatigue, are
signs that the vaccine is working by stimulating
your immune response. Usually, they are only
temporary – but sometimes pain relief may be
necessary. The official NHS website advises:
“You can take painkillers, such as paracetamol,
if you need to”.

In the past, some drugs have been shown to affect
the body's immune response to other vaccines. A
study on mice in the Journal of Virology found
that nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs
(NSAIDs), such as ibuprofen, could lower the
production of antibodies – the substances that
fight the virus when it attempts to infect cells.

However, there is no research yet that focuses
specifically on the coronavirus jab. Experts are
confident that a couple of paracetamol after the
injection won't do any harm, as long as you don't
exceed the recommended dose.

Can I drink alcohol after the Covid vaccine?
Alcohol is unlikely to make any difference to your
health after you receive the vaccine, say experts,
but out of an abundance of caution, some alcohol
charities recommend leaving it two weeks before
getting a drink.

Dr Fiona Sim, speaking in her capacity as chair of
the independent medical advisory panel for alcohol
charity Drinkaware, said: “We advise that you
don't drink any alcohol for at least two days
before, and at least two weeks after, you've been
vaccinated, to try to ensure your immune system is
at its best to respond to the vaccine and protect
you.”

She is also a Senior Clinical Adviser at NHS
England and a visiting professor at the University
of Bedfordshire.

She added that the most important thing is getting
the vaccine - and that applies to heavy drinkers
as well as teetotalers.

How long does it take to develop immunity?
Public Health England says it will take “a few
weeks” to develop immunity after your Covid
vaccination - advice shared by the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), America's
influential equivalent.

If you look at the trial data for the three
Covid-19 vaccines currently approved for use in
the UK, “you can see there’s a clear
difference after three weeks,” says Trudie Lang,
professor of Global Health Research at the
University of Oxford.

How much immunity/protection will I have after the
first dose?
According to new data, quite a lot. This week, it
was revealed that one dose of either the
AstraZeneca or Pfizer jab cuts the risk of
hospitalisation among such age groups by more than
80 per cent. As a result, the number of over 80s
being admitted to intensive care units with Covid
has fallen to single figures.

This comes after much debate over the subject of
vaccine doses. In December, former prime minister
Tony Blair urged the government to give as many
people as possible an initial dose of a Covid
vaccine - rather than preserving stocks so there
is enough for second jabs. Although both the
Pfizer-Biontech and Oxford University-Astrazeneca
vaccines require two doses, Mr Blair said that
this could help bring the country out of lockdown
sooner and said that the first dose gives “you
substantial immunity”.

Professor Anthony Harnden, deputy chairman of the
Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation
(JCVI) said the data – at this stage mainly
relating to the Pfizer jab – shows that a
“substantial proportion” of patients are
protected after the first dose.

“I've just come off JCVI and we're looking at
these real-time vaccine effectiveness figures,
it's really early stages yet, but it does look
like our first dose strategy is proving to be a
good one,” said Prof Harnden.

He said the early results appear to justify the
decision to delay administering second doses in
order to give out greater numbers of first jabs
more quickly.

“Partial immunity does occur after the first
dose and we can see some protection occurring on
day 12 after the first dose, but best immunity is
seven days after the second dose,” says
Professor Sir Munir Pirmohamed, a member of The
Commission on Human Medicine (CHM).

Once the second dose is administered – which
comes 21 days after the first – people can
expect full immunisation seven days later. This
means that immunity can be expected 28 days after
the first dose.

However, Dr Pankhania says that there is a chance
you can catch the virus after receiving the
vaccine. This means if you are clinically
vulnerable or shielding, it’s important to
continue taking precautions.

“None of the vaccines offer 100 per cent
protection, so there is a small chance that you
won’t be immunised - even after receiving
one,” he says. “The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is
95 per cent effective, meaning roughly 5 per cent
of people won’t be protected. This is more
likely if you are older, or already
immunocompromised. Others may still get ill, but
not as severely as they would have been without
the vaccine.”

Can I go out, go to work, or hug my grandkids
after having it?
No. The vaccines have been proven to protect
against serious illness, but they have not been
proven to protect against transmission, says Prof
Lang. So you should continue to follow social
distancing guidelines after receiving the
vaccine.

Those guidelines are only likely to be lifted once
a large enough share of the UK’s elderly and
vulnerable population have been vaccinated.

Do I need the vaccine if I've already had Covid?
Yes. Reinfection from Covid-19 is rare, and a
recent study of healthcare workers by Public
Health England found that immunity in most cases
lasts at least five months (and maybe longer -
five months was just how long the study lasted).

But it is impossible to know whether or not you
are immune simply by having had the virus, and so
experts still recommend getting a vaccine.

“Re-infection with COVID-19 is possible, [and a]
vaccine should be offered to you regardless of
whether you already had COVID-19 infection,”
says the CDC

Does the vaccine stop me transmitting Covid to
other people?
The short answer is, we don’t really know.
Although it’s true that the vaccines do prevent
life-threatening illnesses, none of the three
approved vaccines - Moderna, AstraZeneca and
Pfizer-BioNTech - have proven that they can stave
off the virus altogether. It’s the same for
transmission, too.

“If you are immunised, there is still a
potential for you to develop a mild infection and
as a result be infectious to other people,” says
Dr Bharat Pankhania, senior consultant in
communicable disease control at the University of
Exeter.

Clinical trials of the Covid vaccines show that
they do substantially reduce the risk of becoming
ill with the virus, but some people may still get
infected and be able to spread the disease.
“There may be a chance that it prevents you from
being infectious too, but at the moment we can’t
be 100 per cent sure,” adds Dr Pankhania.

This uncertainty may be a consequence of the speed
at which the vaccine was developed. Normally, a
trial would observe recipients of a vaccine for a
longer period of time, showing not just whether
they became ill, but whether they still transmit a
virus, before a vaccine entered wide use. Although
it’s likely that the coronavirus vaccines
provide at least reduction in transmission, it’s
too soon to know for sure, or to what degree.

“The proof of the pudding is in the testing.
When we test these out in real life, with real
people, we will know better,” says Dr Pankhania.


In practice, this means that as the coronavirus
vaccine is rolled out, precautions such as
social-distancing, mask-wearing and handwashing
will remain a high priority.

Will I need to continue getting Covid tests after
the vaccine?
Yes, if you have symptoms - even after getting
both doses of the vaccine - you will need to get
tested. This comes back to the idea that it could
still be possible to transmit the virus after you
are immunised.

“Medical professionals are very interested in
testing people who are post immunisation but
became infected, as it helps us in our research to
tell whether the vaccine is working or not,”
says Dr Pankhania. He adds that the outcome of
your test won’t be affected by the vaccine, as
the dose is too small to be counted as an
infection.

Are there any side effects?
There are many rumours circulating about side
effects of the coronavirus vaccine - most of them
false. As a starting point, the NHS website lists
a range of side-effects to be aware of. They are
usually mild and will go away quickly on their
own. They include:

A sore arm where the needle went in

Feeling tired

A headache

Feeling achy

Feeling or being sick

The NHS website says it’s fine to take
painkillers if you are experiencing any of the
side effects.

Out of all the European countries, Norway is
offering the most cautious approach to the vaccine
rollout. Norwegian officials said 23 people had
died in the country a short time after receiving
their first dose of the vaccine. Of those deaths,
13 have been autopsied, with the results
suggesting that common side effects may have
contributed to severe reactions in frail, elderly
people, according to the Norwegian Medicines
Agency.

Severe allergic reactions to the Covid vaccine in
the UK have been very rare. Last year, the trials
of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine were halted
after a participant suffered an adverse reaction.
However, clinical holds of trials are not
uncommon, and the vaccine was approved by the
Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency
(MHRA) last year.

Medical experts in the UK still agree that it’s
far safer to get the vaccine than to not.

Will the vaccine give me Covid symptoms?
No. The vaccine might have some minor side-effects
(see above), as would a flu jab or any other
vaccination. But it will not give you Covid-19, or
its symptoms.

“Mild reactions have been reported in some
people, which could be things like a fever, or
feeling slightly unwell,” says Prof Lang. “But
that doesn't mean you've got Covid. And that's the
same as a normal flu vaccine. The vaccine’s not
live.”

Will I still need to wear a mask?
Yes. In fact, experts predict we will be wearing
masks well into 2021 and beyond. This is because
it will take many months to ensure that those who
urgently need protection - health care workers,
the elderly, people with serious underlying health
conditions - get vaccinated. Several studies have
linked populations that have high rates of
mask-wearing with lower infection rates.

A recent study published in Health Affairs
compared the coronavirus infection rate before and
after masks were made mandatory in 15 states and
the District of Columbia. It found that compulsory
mask-wearing led to a slowdown in daily Covid-19
growth rate, which became more apparent over time.
The first five days after a mask mandate was
issued, the daily growth rate slowed by 0.9
percentage points compared to the five days prior
to the mandate; at three weeks, the daily growth
rate had slowed by 2 percentage points.

“It is going to take a very long time to be
sufficiently confident that a nation's population
has been immunised, and that viral activity has
dropped significantly enough to say that we no
longer need to wear masks,” says Dr Pankhania.

He explains that the primary function of the
vaccine is to stop vulnerable people dying; the
second is to try and subdue the number of people
who are infected. The third - eliminating the
virus - only comes once we have achieved the first
two goals. As Dr Pankhania sees it, there is a
chance that we may never truly eliminate the
virus, adding that we are “several years away
from that point.”

Source - the Telegraph, UK

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