In 2021, hundreds of millions of people will be vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2. The success of that Covid-19 vaccination campaign will heavily depend on public trust that the vaccines are not only effective, but also safe. To build that trust, the medical and scientific communities have a responsibility to engage in difficult discussions with the public about the significant fraction of people who will experience temporary side effects from these vaccines.
I am an immunologist who studies the fundamentals of immune responses to vaccination, so part of that responsibility falls on me.
Simply put, receiving these vaccines will likely make a whole lot of people feel crappy for a few days. That is probably a good thing, and it is a far better prospect than long-term illness or death.
Immunology’s ‘dirty little secret’
In 1989, immunologist Charles Janeway published an article summarising the state of the field of immunology. Until that point, immunologists had accepted that…