Worried I’ve made vaccine ineffective by taking paracetamols

[Eeeeeps]

Just that really…

I have severe health anxiety (I’m sure this post will make that obvious). The pandemic has been hell and I hoped I’d finally start to be able to live again after my second vaccine.

I was very anxious about the side effects people supposedly get after the second Pfizer. I spoke to a few different people who were all told to take paracetamol right after their vaccination and keep taking it every four hours and they didn’t get any side effects.

I took some paracetamol about 20 minutes after my jab (in fairness my arm was very sore and it bled a fair amount) and then again four hours later. After that, I read up and saw that it says taking paracetamol can reduce its effectiveness so didn’t take any more but I’m worried it’s too late.

I haven’t had any side effects yet and I’m worried I’ve made the vaccine ineffective by being stupid and taking paracetamol so soon after the jab. I didn’t even think to read up on it because I thought some paracetamol would be harmless.

Nurse told me to take paracetamol after so try not to worry.

Give your head a wobble and stop trusting everything you read on google

That’s a load of rubbish. Where did you read that?!

I know you have anxiety so sorry if I’m being too blunt but again- that’s just a load of rubbish, of course it doesn’t make it less effective. How would it?

Paracetamol is fine to take.

And stop reading stuff in the internet. Especially if you are anxious.

I thought some paracetamol would be harmless

You thought correctly.

A lot of people on here said the same a couple of months ago.
We were told by the doctors administering our vaccines to take paracetamol.
Trust them not the new Mumsnetter Virologist Pop-up Team.
Hope you're feeling OK!

Thank you, I don’t mind blunt responses if it means I’m being stupid

Apparently there have been studies on babies receiving their immunisations and giving them paracetamol before / shortly after makes them less effective so I guess people have been extrapolating from that. The WHO also says “ Taking painkillers such as paracetamol before receiving the COVID-19 vaccine to prevent side effects is not recommended” (I didn’t have it before but about 20 minutes after).

I’m just nervous because most of my friends felt bad after the second Pfizer. I did have mine quite late in the day so I know it still may happen.

In the country I live in only doctors or (highly trained) nurses administer the vaccine.

I was given mine by the head GP at the local practice. We were a group of about 15 people and before starting doing the jabs, he gave us a long talk about side effects, etc. He said twice - take paracetamol after the vaccine if there’s any pain, headaches… It will prevent you from overthinking and there is NO danger in taking it right after.

I’m tempted to trust this qualified doctor more than word of mouth or online articles. So don’t worry OP, you haven’t done anything wrong by taking paracetamol. There’s no way it will lower the effectiveness of your vaccine.

Oh OP I really feel for you. Try very hard to see this as what it is - your health anxiety bad just transferred onto something else now you've had the jab. You really shouldn't have Googled, health professionals give the advice to take Paracetamol and they know better than Google. But it was your anxiety trying to pin you down again - it really is like a gremlin working against you!

You are just feeding it and you need to get help for it. None of the fears are real, only the health anxiety is real.

You don't have to live like this

And well done for getting the vaccine!

@DoodleBelle

Give your head a wobble and stop trusting everything you read on google

I love this, I work in MH and I’d love to say this (with warmth and affection) to a lot of people.

Stop using Doctor Google and trust actual medical advice.

You’ll be OK, OP. The paracetamol definitely won’t have had any impact on the vaccine effectiveness.

Paracetamol can apparently affect the immune response to some childhood vaccines. Conversely it is advised to give paracetamol as standard after baby vaccines that include MenB as that vaccine can cause fever. Its not advised for the others unless you get symptoms.

Dont think it has been shown that paracetamol affects the efficacy of the Covid vaccine. Its not advised to take it before but its fine to take if you get symptoms.

Thank you so much everyone, I really appreciate it

I know you’re advised to take paracetamol if you have any side effects but I guessed that would be because they take a few hours to show so I thought maybe that’s different to having it right after.

Thank you very much again, I appreciate you taking the time to reply. I’ll try and forget about it and be glad that have had my second dose. No doubt I’ve jinxed it too and will get side effects later today!

@dementedpixie

Paracetamol can apparently affect the immune response to some childhood vaccines. Conversely it is advised to give paracetamol as standard after baby vaccines that include MenB as that vaccine can cause fever. Its not advised for the others unless you get symptoms.

Dont think it has been shown that paracetamol affects the efficacy of the Covid vaccine. Its not advised to take it before but its fine to take if you get symptoms.

Thank you, yes that is what I read. I guess I didn’t really wait to get symptoms as I took it 20 mins after and that’s what has worried me. I can’t do anything about it now though so I’ll have to try and stop thinking about it.

Thank you again.

I have health anxiety so I can sympathise. One of the main things I remember from a CBT course at my GP was not to look anything up on the internet. So I don't, however tempting it is. I once read a funny poster that read "why do you think your 10 minute google search trumps my 7 year medical degree?". It really helps not feeding anxiety with out of context information. The other piece of advice was not to "monitor" symptoms or information which also fuels the feeling of panic.

Onto paracetamol, I was told to take it after both vaccinations if I felt unwell. They wouldn't say that if it compromised efficacy. I had the AZ and a crashing headache, my son had the Pfizer jab yesterday with no side effects at all. I'm not a medical person but I believe paracetamol is principally a pain killer which won't have any impact on your body's immune response to the jab.

I hope you feel less anxious and maybe considering seeing whether any help or resources are available at your GP to help you.

The reason they say don't take it before "just in case" is so you aren't taking it unnecessarily. Sometimes side effects can appear several hours later or even the next day sometimes they don't appear at all.

Yes paracetamol is a common medication but it doesn't mean it's a good idea to take it when you don't need to.

I thought muscle injection shouldn't bleed much, why did it bleed so much?

@illuyankas

I thought muscle injection shouldn't bleed much, why did it bleed so much?

I don’t know, this is something else I was worried about (the vaccine bleeding out 😂) but I thought I better not mention that for fear of looking completely ridiculous!

In fairness, my definition of “a fair amount” is probably different to a lot of people’s. It was mostly on my sleeve so I’m hoping it was just a small amount that looked worse when my sleeve pressed against it.

@illuyankas I'm sure you're asking for a genuine reason but please consider that OP has health anxiety and calling this into question is only going to fuel her panic unnecessarily. Sometimes you bleed, sometimes not. I have had lots of muscle injections and sometimes bled, sometimes not. One of my covid vaccines bled and the other didn't. It means nothing.

If you are concerned maybe start your own thread

You haven't!

The best thing you can do now is relax and try to get extra sleep. Your developing immune response will be better.

I was told to take paracetamol as soon as I got home after mine. I did. And I had alot of vaccine side effects

Thank you again everyone, I’m about to start work so I can’t thank everyone individually but I appreciate you taking the time to reply.

@Chocolatebuttercream thinking about it as my anxiety transferring onto something else has helped me massively, I didn’t think of it like that. Thank you very much. I am looking into counselling as I think I’m entitled through work and you’re right that I don’t have to live like this. Thank you again

If paracetamol affected the bodies immune response to the spike protein we could of saved ourselves a lot of hassle over this last eighteen months…

It’s fine. Please don’t give it any more head space

@Eeeeeps - just a little blood on your sleeve sounds like a tiny bit, which is common. Drink lots of water and I hope you don't get side effects. You've done really well getting jabbed, now it's time to focus on other things.