Does paracetamol reduce vaccination efficiency?

[Rufus27]

DP had his vaccination yesterday and has since felt rough - chills, aches, headache etc. A neighbour, who’s a nurse practitioner, has told him to try not to take paracetamol as it will reduce the effectiveness of the vaccine. Does anyone know if this is true? Surely, if it were true, it would be far more widely known? His view is that, as she’s a nurse, it must be right. I’m not convinced. Does anyone know for sure?

And who exactly is Dr John Campbell that I need to take notice and has he thought to tell his fellow doctors? No? Why not?

The body induces fever as part of the immune response in order to make your internal environment more hostile to viruses, so when you're actually infected with something, you might reduce your virus-fighting ability by taking paracetamol.

BUT, since vaccination is not an actual infection, your body doesn't need to overheat itself to kill anything off. And the antibody production system that is being induced is a separate process that has nothing to do with high temperatures and isn't affected by paracetamol.

So, if you have a viral infection, it might be wise not to reduce your fever (provided it doesn't get dangerously high). If you have a vaccine, makes no difference at all. People might be conflating these two bits of advice.

@simbobs

I suspect that what she was referring to is that pyrexia, ie fever, is the body's way of fighting infection or mounting an immune response, so suppressing temperature could be considered counter productive. As someone else pointed out Dr John Campbell explains this in some of his videos. Taking paracetamol for headache would be OK, though.

You do know he’s not a medical doctor don’t you?

For example, when a baby gets their newborn immunisations, you are told they must have calpol every 4-6 hours for up to 24 hours after them to reduce any fever they may get.

This only applies to babies getting their MenB vaccination as it has a high chance of causing fever - 3 spaced out doses of paracetamol are recommended if MenB vaccine is given.

Paracetamol is not recommended (unless they have a fever) for the other childhood vaccinations and you shouldn't give it beforehand 'just in case '

There is a some evidence that using paracetamol (or ibuprofen) preemptively reduces the immune response in vaccines in children, but the effect is small and, and unspecific to this vaccine. To take paracetamol if required due to severe enough side effects is reasonable. That said, if you don't really need to take paracetamol because your side effects are mild then I wouldn't, and certainly to take it just in case in advance would be inadvisable.

@AnnieLobeseder

The body induces fever as part of the immune response in order to make your internal environment more hostile to viruses, so when you're actually infected with something, you might reduce your virus-fighting ability by taking paracetamol.

BUT, since vaccination is not an actual infection, your body doesn't need to overheat itself to kill anything off. And the antibody production system that is being induced is a separate process that has nothing to do with high temperatures and isn't affected by paracetamol.

So, if you have a viral infection, it might be wise not to reduce your fever (provided it doesn't get dangerously high). If you have a vaccine, makes no difference at all. People might be conflating these two bits of advice.

You’re talking bollocks....But you know that don’t you

@Kitkat151 Nope, wouldn't have posted it if I thought it was bollocks. Which parts are incorrect and in what way?

www.nicswell.co.uk/health-news/paracetamol-affects-childhood-jabs

Vaccination efficacy can be reduced by paracetamol given beforehand. Its ok to give if you get fever afterwards. It should be given after MenB vaccinations in the childhood vaccination schedule

I take cocodamol every morning for my RA and tegretol for a neurological condition and sure as eggs I'll be taking them before I have my vaccination next week, because if I don't I'll be in no fit state to get to the vaccination centre.

since vaccination is not an actual infection, your body doesn't need to overheat itself to kill anything off

Perhaps we should try leeches or distillation of mingewort under a full moon instead?

@TheVampiresWife

since vaccination is not an actual infection, your body doesn't need to overheat itself to kill anything off

Perhaps we should try leeches or distillation of mingewort under a full moon instead?

Pardon? I think you've misunderstood me. Vaccines cause your body to initiate an immune response to the viral protein so that you produce antibodies against it. But it's not an actual viral infection. That's kinda the whole point.

So I was trying to say that while you do need to get your immune response doing to produce those antibodies, you're not being infected by an actual live virus so the fever response is redundant.

My apologies if I wasn't clear.

@TheVampiresWife

I take cocodamol every morning for my RA and tegretol for a neurological condition and sure as eggs I'll be taking them before I have my vaccination next week, because if I don't I'll be in no fit state to get to the vaccination centre.

Yes, if you normally take it regularly then of course carry it on is the normal advice. The small effect on immune response seen in children was not reduced so much that the vaccine would be ineffective, so it should still work fine.

So why are people not told to avoid paracetamol?? I had some for a headache before my vaccine. So does that mean it hasn’t worked?

@Florelei

So why are people not told to avoid paracetamol?? I had some for a headache before my vaccine. So does that mean it hasn’t worked?

No, @Florelei. There is apparently some limited evidence that paracetamol might slightly reduce vaccine efficiency in some children, but that wasn't the COVID-19 vaccine anyway.

You really don't need to worry, your vaccination won't have been affected to any serious degree, if at all.

It's true that some studies have shown that paracetamol after vaccination sometimes reduces subsequent antibody response. This wasn't true if the person already had a fever from the vaccine. The paper was about hep b vaccination.

I’ve actually been advised in the past to take paracetamol 4 hourly for 3 doses just as you would with babies for their injections, to help reduce side effects. A nurse told me this years ago when I was getting my flu jab and I’ve done it every year since and did it after my covid jab too. No idea if it worked or coincidence but didn’t have any side effects at all.

@AnnieLobeseder - thanks

[quote FinallyFluid]@mummabubs

Both occasions, now you are just bragging. [/quote]
Tee hee, unintentional! I work on a hospital ward in Wales where we've had several outbreaks of Covid and I'm clinically vulnerable. Have to say I've been pleasantly surprised at how quickly our health board has rolled out NHS staff vaccinations!

I'm concerned your neighbour is a nurse. It is she one of the ppl that work as a nurse assistant but call themselves a nurse?

Paracetamol is perfectly safe , and is advised for those with post vaccination problems.

When I had mine on Friday the nurse advised paracetamol for any aches and pains. I felt really rough over the weekend today is the first day of feeling back to normal my head really hurt i needed paracetamol.

She's got herself muddled. The advice is not to take paracetamol before the jab to prevent side effects - that could affect the efficacy of the jab. It's fine to take it for side effects you're already feeling after.

Yes it's prophylactic paracetamol that's not advised. You can take it afterwards if you get symptoms

But what happens if you take it regularly, surely you don't have to stop? If I have my period I take the maximum dose from the day I start to the end of my period. Would I need to have my vaccination at another time?

Yes google the latest research there’s plenty of scientific papers on it.

For everyone saying this nurse is wrong she’s not read the papers which are easily available with a quick search. Science changes all the time many medical professionals aren’t up to date.