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URLhttps://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/03/health/covid-vaccine-side-effects-takeaways.html
Last Crawled2026-02-15 15:09:54 (2 months ago)
First Indexed2024-05-03 09:02:31 (1 year ago)
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Meta TitleCovid Vaccine Side Effects: 4 Takeaways From Our Investigation - The New York Times
Meta DescriptionThousands of Americans believe they experienced rare but serious side effects. But confirming a link is a difficult task.
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Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT Thousands of Americans believe they experienced rare but serious side effects. But confirming a link is a difficult task. Credit... Hilary Swift for The New York Times Apoorva Mandavilli Apoorva Mandavilli spent more than a year talking to dozens of experts in vaccine science, policymakers and people who said they had experienced serious side effects after receiving a Covid-19 vaccine. May 3, 2024 Soon after their arrival in late December 2020, the Covid-19 vaccines turned the pandemic around and opened a path back to normalcy. They prevented about 14.4 million deaths worldwide, according to one estimate . In a small percentage of people, they also produced side effects. Over the course of more than a year, The New York Times talked to 30 people who said they had been harmed by Covid vaccines. Their symptoms may turn out to be unrelated to the shots. But they — along with more than a dozen experts — felt federal officials are not doing enough to investigate their complaints. All vaccines carry some risk of side effects. More than 270 million Americans received about 677 million doses of the Covid vaccines, and even rare side effects — occurring, say, in just 0.001 percent of patients — might mean thousands of recipients were affected. Indeed, more than 13,000 have submitted claims to a government fund that compensates people for Covid vaccine injuries. So far, however, only a dozen people have been compensated, nearly all of them for a heart problem caused by the vaccines. Here are four takeaways from our investigation. For most people, the benefits of Covid vaccines outweigh any risks. Even the best vaccines and drugs have some side effects. That does not negate their benefits, nor does it suggest that people should stop taking them. The rotavirus vaccine, for example, is an unmitigated success, but it can lead to intussusception — a life-threatening condition in which the intestine folds in on itself — in about 0.02 percent of children who are vaccinated. Some side effects caused by the Covid vaccines may be equally rare. Researchers in Hong Kong analyzed that country’s health records and found that about seven of every million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine triggered a bout of shingles serious enough to require hospitalization. Other side effects are slightly more common. The Covid vaccines may lead to myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart, in one of every 10,000 adolescent males. (Myocarditis is one of the four serious side effects acknowledged by federal health officials.) Deaths from the vaccines are vanishingly rare , despite claims from some conspiracy theorists that vaccines have led to a spike in mortality rates. More intensive analysis may indicate that in some groups, like young men, the benefit of Covid shots may no longer outweigh the risks. But for the majority of Americans, the vaccines continue to be far safer than contracting Covid itself. Federal surveillance has found some side effects but may miss others. To detect problems with vaccines, federal agencies rely on multiple databases. The largest, the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, is useful for generating hypotheses, but contains unverified accounts of harms. Other databases combine electronic health records and insurance claims. These systems spotted blood-clotting problems associated with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and a potential risk of stroke after mRNA immunizations, which is still under investigation. But federal researchers trailed Israeli scientists in picking up myocarditis as a problem among young men. The American health care system is fragmented, with medical records stored by multiple companies that do not collaborate. Electronic health records do not all describe symptoms the same way, making comparisons difficult. Insurance claims databases may have no record of shots administered at mass vaccination sites. Federal systems may also miss symptoms that defy easy description or diagnosis. Proving vaccination led to an illness is complicated. Among the hundreds of millions of Americans who were immunized against Covid, there were deaths, heart attacks, strokes, miscarriages and autoimmune illnesses. How to distinguish illnesses caused by the vaccine from those that would have happened anyway? The rarer the condition, the harder it is to answer this question. Merely judging by the timing — the appearance of a particular problem after vaccination — can be misleading. Most famously, childhood vaccines were mistakenly linked to autism because the first noticeable features often coincided with the immunization schedule. Serious side effects may first turn up in animal studies of vaccines. But few such studies were possible given the nation’s desperate timeline in 2020. Clinical trials of the vaccines were intended to test their effectiveness, but they were far from big enough to detect side effects that may occur only in a few people per million doses. Most independent studies of side effects have not been large enough to detect rare events, nor to exclude their possibility; others have looked only for a preset list of symptoms and might have missed the rare outliers. An expert panel convened by the National Academies concluded in April that for most side effects, there was not enough data to accept or reject a link to Covid vaccination. Understanding the full range of side effects may take years. Federal health officials acknowledge four major side effects of Covid vaccines — not including the temporary injection site pain, fever and malaise that may accompany the shots. But in federal databases, thousands of Americans have reported that Covid vaccines caused ringing in the ears, dizziness, brain fog, sharp fluctuations in blood pressure and heart rate, new or relapsed autoimmune conditions , hives , vision problems , kidney disorders, tingling , numbness and a loss of motor skills. Some studies have examined reports of side effects and largely concluded that there was no link . Closer scrutiny may reveal that many, perhaps most, of the other reported side effects are unrelated to immunization. Most of them are also associated with Covid , and may be the result of undiagnosed infections. But without in-depth studies, it is impossible to be sure, experts said. Apoorva Mandavilli is a reporter focused on science and global health. She was a part of the team that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for coverage of the pandemic. Related Content More in Health Zack Wittman for The New York Times Arlette Bashizi for The New York Times Bryan Anselm for The New York Times Julia Rothman Editors’ Picks Brian Rea Zsophia Bodnar Trending in The Times Cassidy Araiza for The New York Times David Guttenfelder/The New York Times Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Anna Watts for The New York Times Olga Fedorova for The New York Times David McNew/Getty Images John Taggart for The New York Times Michael Buholzer/EPA, via Shutterstock Dragan Arsovski Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
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[Skip to content](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/03/health/covid-vaccine-side-effects-takeaways.html#site-content)[Skip to site index](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/03/health/covid-vaccine-side-effects-takeaways.html#site-index) Search & Section Navigation Section Navigation Search [Health](https://www.nytimes.com/section/health) [Log in](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2Fsubscription%2Fonboarding-offer%3FcampaignId%3D7JFJX%26EXIT_URI%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.nytimes.com%252F2024%252F05%252F03%252Fhealth%252Fcovid-vaccine-side-effects-takeaways.html&asset=masthead) Sunday, February 15, 2026 [Today’s Paper](https://www.nytimes.com/section/todayspaper) U.S. Health Policy - [Moderna Flu Vaccine](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/11/health/fda-moderna-flu-vaccine.html) - [Covid Shots](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/06/health/vaccines-covid-acip-malone-kennedy.html) - [‘Naturally Derived’ Dyes](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/us/politics/kennedy-fda-food-dyes-protein.html) - [Approach to Immunization](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/11/health/kennedy-vaccines-children.html) - [Vaccine Changes](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/06/well/cdc-vaccine-schedule-recommendations.html) Advertisement [SKIP ADVERTISEMENT](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/03/health/covid-vaccine-side-effects-takeaways.html#after-top) Supported by [SKIP ADVERTISEMENT](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/03/health/covid-vaccine-side-effects-takeaways.html#after-sponsor) # Covid Vaccine Side Effects: 4 Takeaways From Our Investigation Thousands of Americans believe they experienced rare but serious side effects. But confirming a link is a difficult task. - Share full article ![A close-up view of a blue tray of Covid-19 shots and bandages on a blue table.](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2024/04/26/multimedia/00vaccine-takeaways-fwlq/00vaccine-takeaways-fwlq-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale) Credit...Hilary Swift for The New York Times [![Apoorva Mandavilli](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/07/07/reader-center/author-apoorva-mandavilli/author-apoorva-mandavilli-thumbLarge-v5.png)](https://www.nytimes.com/by/apoorva-mandavilli) By [Apoorva Mandavilli](https://www.nytimes.com/by/apoorva-mandavilli) Apoorva Mandavilli spent more than a year talking to dozens of experts in vaccine science, policymakers and people who said they had experienced serious side effects after receiving a Covid-19 vaccine. May 3, 2024 [Leer en español](https://www.nytimes.com/es/2024/05/03/espanol/efectos-secundarios-vacuna-covid-conclusiones.html "Read in Spanish") Soon after their arrival in late December 2020, the Covid-19 vaccines turned the pandemic around and opened a path back to normalcy. They prevented about 14.4 million deaths worldwide, according to [one estimate](https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099\(22\)00320-6/fulltext). In a small percentage of people, they also produced side effects. Over the course of more than a year, The New York Times talked to 30 people who said they had been harmed by Covid vaccines. Their symptoms may turn out to be unrelated to the shots. But they — along with more than a dozen experts — felt federal officials are not doing enough to investigate their complaints. All vaccines carry some risk of side effects. More than 270 million Americans received about 677 million doses of the Covid vaccines, and even rare side effects — occurring, say, in just 0.001 percent of patients — might mean thousands of recipients were affected. Indeed, more than 13,000 have submitted claims to a government fund that compensates people for Covid vaccine injuries. So far, however, only a dozen people have been compensated, nearly all of them for a heart problem caused by the vaccines. Here are four takeaways from our investigation. [![]()Thousands Believe Covid Vaccines Harmed Them. Is Anyone Listening? May 3, 2024](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/03/health/covid-vaccines-side-effects.html) ## For most people, the benefits of Covid vaccines outweigh any risks. Even the best vaccines and drugs have some side effects. That does not negate their benefits, nor does it suggest that people should stop taking them. The rotavirus vaccine, for example, is an unmitigated success, but it can lead to intussusception — a life-threatening condition in which the intestine folds in on itself — in about 0.02 percent of children who are vaccinated. Some side effects caused by the Covid vaccines may be equally rare. Researchers in Hong Kong analyzed that country’s health records and found that about seven of every million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine triggered a [bout of shingles](https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanwpc/article/PIIS2666-6065\(22\)00012-8/fulltext) serious enough to require hospitalization. Other side effects are slightly more common. The Covid vaccines may lead to myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart, in one of every 10,000 adolescent males. (Myocarditis is one of the four serious side effects acknowledged by federal health officials.) ## Editors’ Picks [![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/02/12/business/12TrippedUp-illo/12TrippedUp-illo-thumbLarge.jpg)Help! JetBlue Mangled My Vintage Louis Vuitton Bag and Won’t Pay Up.](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/travel/jetblue-luggage-damage-repairs.html) [![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/02/15/books/review/15TBR-Alcott-Kids/15TBR-Alcott-Kids-thumbLarge.jpg)‘Little Women’ Goes Goth](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/books/review/little-women-retellings.html) [![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/02/14/arts/14sketchpad-winter-surf-web-04/14sketchpad-winter-surf-web-04-thumbLarge.jpg)A Surfer Finds the Waves Keep Calling, Even in Winter](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/14/arts/winter-surfing-rockaway-beach-sketchpad.html) Advertisement [SKIP ADVERTISEMENT](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/03/health/covid-vaccine-side-effects-takeaways.html#after-pp_edpick) Deaths from the vaccines are vanishingly [rare](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-35653-z), despite [claims](https://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/nurse-speaks-out-after-being-subject-of-anti-vaccine-conspiracy-theory-169818693905) from some [conspiracy theorists](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/01/03/damar-hamlin-charlie-kirk-vaccines-coronavirus/) that vaccines [have led](https://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/public_surveys/died_suddenly_more_than_1_in_4_think_someone_they_know_died_from_covid_19_vaccines) to a [spike](https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2023-04-11/anti-vaxxers-loved-to-cite-this-study-of-covid-vaccine-deaths-now-its-retracted) in mortality rates. More intensive analysis may indicate that in some groups, like young men, the benefit of Covid shots may [no longer outweigh](https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.07.23298573v1.full.pdf) the risks. But for the majority of Americans, the vaccines continue to be far safer than contracting Covid itself. *** ## Federal surveillance has found some side effects but may miss others. To detect problems with vaccines, federal agencies rely on multiple databases. The largest, the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, is useful for generating hypotheses, but contains unverified accounts of harms. Other databases combine electronic health records and insurance claims. These systems spotted blood-clotting problems associated with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and a potential risk of stroke after mRNA immunizations, which is still under investigation. But federal researchers trailed Israeli scientists in picking up myocarditis as a problem among young men. The American health care system is fragmented, with medical records stored by multiple companies that do not collaborate. Electronic health records do not all describe symptoms the same way, making comparisons difficult. Insurance claims databases may have no record of shots administered at mass vaccination sites. Federal systems may also miss symptoms that defy easy description or diagnosis. *** ## Proving vaccination led to an illness is complicated. Among the hundreds of millions of Americans who were immunized against Covid, there were deaths, heart attacks, strokes, miscarriages and autoimmune illnesses. How to distinguish illnesses caused by the vaccine from those that would have happened anyway? The rarer the condition, the harder it is to answer this question. Merely judging by the timing — the appearance of a particular problem after vaccination — can be misleading. Most famously, childhood vaccines were mistakenly linked to autism because the first noticeable features often coincided with the immunization schedule. Serious side effects may first turn up in animal studies of vaccines. But few such studies were possible given the nation’s desperate timeline in 2020. Clinical trials of the vaccines were intended to test their effectiveness, but they were far from big enough to detect side effects that may occur only in a few people per million doses. Most independent studies of side effects have not been large enough to detect rare events, nor to exclude their possibility; others have looked only for a [preset list of symptoms](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X24001270?via%3Dihub) and might have missed the rare outliers. An expert panel convened by the National Academies concluded in April that for most side effects, there was not enough data to accept or reject a link to Covid vaccination. *** ## Understanding the full range of side effects may take years. Federal health officials acknowledge four major side effects of Covid vaccines — not including the temporary injection site pain, fever and malaise that may accompany the shots. But in federal databases, thousands of Americans have reported that Covid vaccines caused ringing in the ears, dizziness, brain fog, sharp fluctuations in blood pressure and heart rate, [new](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/imm.13443) or [relapsed](https://academic.oup.com/jcem/advance-article/doi/10.1210/clinem/dgad235/7142864) [autoimmune](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/23247096211063356) [conditions](https://bmcendocrdisord.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12902-023-01387-2), [hives](https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2800873), [vision](https://joii-journal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s12348-021-00275-x) [problems](https://journals.lww.com/corneajrnl/Abstract/9900/Rare_Case_of_Thygeson_Superficial_Punctate.321.aspx), [kidney](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13730-023-00798-3) disorders, [tingling](https://karger.com/crn/article/15/1/6/832427/Small-Fiber-Neuropathy-Triggered-by-COVID-19), [numbness](https://karger.com/crn/article/15/1/6/832427/Small-Fiber-Neuropathy-Triggered-by-COVID-19) and a loss of motor skills. Some studies have examined reports of side effects and largely concluded that there was [no link](https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2805029). Closer scrutiny may reveal that many, perhaps most, of the other reported side effects are unrelated to immunization. Most of [them](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/iid3.875) are [also associated](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-01689-3) with [Covid](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jmv.28187), and may be the [result](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7582442/) of undiagnosed infections. But without in-depth studies, it is impossible to be sure, experts said. [Apoorva Mandavilli](https://www.nytimes.com/by/apoorva-mandavilli) is a reporter focused on science and global health. She was a part of the team that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for coverage of the pandemic. See more on: [BioNTech SE](https://www.nytimes.com/topic/biontech-se), [Johnson & Johnson](https://www.nytimes.com/topic/company/johnson-johnson), [Pfizer Inc.](https://www.nytimes.com/topic/company/pfizer-inc) - Share full article ## Related Content ### [More in Health](https://www.nytimes.com/section/health) - [Measles Outbreak Hits Florida College](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/well/measles-florida-ave-maria-university.html) ![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/02/12/multimedia/WELL-MEASLES-FLORIDA1-wljf/WELL-MEASLES-FLORIDA1-wljf-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale) Zack Wittman for The New York Times - [4 Months Trapped in a Hospital for an Obsolete Way of Treating Their Disease](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/health/tb-sanitarium-cameroon.html) ![Asta Djouma, a tuberculosis patient in isolation at the Djarengol Kodek Health Center in Maroua, northern Cameroon, who hasn’t seen her three children since she was admitted in October. “We’re just here,” she said.](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/01/30/multimedia/00HS-tb-cameroon-01-stillpromo/00HS-tb-cameroon-01-qtfj-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale) Arlette Bashizi for The New York Times - [Bans on Many CBD Products Loom This Year](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/health/bans-on-many-cbd-products-loom-this-year.html) ![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/02/10/multimedia/00HS-HEMP-05-bctm/00HS-HEMP-05-bctm-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale) Bryan Anselm for The New York Times - [TV, It’s Not Just for Humans Anymore](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/science/pets-television-entertainment.html) ![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/02/03/science/00sci-pet-theory-cat-tv/00sci-pet-theory-cat-tv-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale) Julia Rothman ### Editors’ Picks - [I Had Buyer’s Remorse. 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The El Niño weather pattern has far-reaching influence. ](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/02/12/climate/00cli-next-el-nino/00cli-next-el-nino-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350) David McNew/Getty Images - [Sales at McDonald’s Rise, Driven by Value Meals and Grinch Socks](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/11/business/mcdonalds-earnings-sales-value-meals.html) ![It has been a tough slog for restaurants over the past year as many contend with a slowdown in eating out among consumers.](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2025/11/05/multimedia/11biz-mcdonalds-earnings/05biz-mcdonalds-hlgc-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350) John Taggart for The New York Times - [Switzerland to Vote on Capping Population at 10 Million](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/11/world/europe/switzerland-to-vote-on-capping-population-at-10-million.html) ![A man walking with two children in Zurich. Switzerland will vote in June on a proposal to cap its population at 10 million through 2050.](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/02/11/multimedia/11int-switzerland-population-wkbt/11int-switzerland-population-wkbt-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350) Michael Buholzer/EPA, via Shutterstock - [Constant Sexual Aggression Drives Female Tortoises to Walk Off Cliffs](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/14/science/tortoises-island-sex-cliff.html) ![A Hermann’s tortoise of North Macedonia’s Golem Grad island, with an injury from a fall on its carapace.](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/02/14/multimedia/14HS-tb-tortoises-stillpromo/14HS-tb-tortoises-stillpromo-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350) Dragan Arsovski Advertisement [SKIP ADVERTISEMENT](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/03/health/covid-vaccine-side-effects-takeaways.html#after-bottom) ## Site Index [Go to Home Page »](https://www.nytimes.com/) News - [Home Page](https://www.nytimes.com/) - 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Advertisement [SKIP ADVERTISEMENT](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/03/health/covid-vaccine-side-effects-takeaways.html#after-top) Thousands of Americans believe they experienced rare but serious side effects. But confirming a link is a difficult task. ![A close-up view of a blue tray of Covid-19 shots and bandages on a blue table.](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2024/04/26/multimedia/00vaccine-takeaways-fwlq/00vaccine-takeaways-fwlq-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale) Credit...Hilary Swift for The New York Times [Apoorva Mandavilli](https://www.nytimes.com/by/apoorva-mandavilli) Apoorva Mandavilli spent more than a year talking to dozens of experts in vaccine science, policymakers and people who said they had experienced serious side effects after receiving a Covid-19 vaccine. May 3, 2024 Soon after their arrival in late December 2020, the Covid-19 vaccines turned the pandemic around and opened a path back to normalcy. They prevented about 14.4 million deaths worldwide, according to [one estimate](https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099\(22\)00320-6/fulltext). In a small percentage of people, they also produced side effects. Over the course of more than a year, The New York Times talked to 30 people who said they had been harmed by Covid vaccines. Their symptoms may turn out to be unrelated to the shots. But they — along with more than a dozen experts — felt federal officials are not doing enough to investigate their complaints. All vaccines carry some risk of side effects. More than 270 million Americans received about 677 million doses of the Covid vaccines, and even rare side effects — occurring, say, in just 0.001 percent of patients — might mean thousands of recipients were affected. Indeed, more than 13,000 have submitted claims to a government fund that compensates people for Covid vaccine injuries. So far, however, only a dozen people have been compensated, nearly all of them for a heart problem caused by the vaccines. Here are four takeaways from our investigation. ## For most people, the benefits of Covid vaccines outweigh any risks. Even the best vaccines and drugs have some side effects. That does not negate their benefits, nor does it suggest that people should stop taking them. The rotavirus vaccine, for example, is an unmitigated success, but it can lead to intussusception — a life-threatening condition in which the intestine folds in on itself — in about 0.02 percent of children who are vaccinated. Some side effects caused by the Covid vaccines may be equally rare. Researchers in Hong Kong analyzed that country’s health records and found that about seven of every million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine triggered a [bout of shingles](https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanwpc/article/PIIS2666-6065\(22\)00012-8/fulltext) serious enough to require hospitalization. Other side effects are slightly more common. The Covid vaccines may lead to myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart, in one of every 10,000 adolescent males. (Myocarditis is one of the four serious side effects acknowledged by federal health officials.) Deaths from the vaccines are vanishingly [rare](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-35653-z), despite [claims](https://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/nurse-speaks-out-after-being-subject-of-anti-vaccine-conspiracy-theory-169818693905) from some [conspiracy theorists](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/01/03/damar-hamlin-charlie-kirk-vaccines-coronavirus/) that vaccines [have led](https://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/public_surveys/died_suddenly_more_than_1_in_4_think_someone_they_know_died_from_covid_19_vaccines) to a [spike](https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2023-04-11/anti-vaxxers-loved-to-cite-this-study-of-covid-vaccine-deaths-now-its-retracted) in mortality rates. More intensive analysis may indicate that in some groups, like young men, the benefit of Covid shots may [no longer outweigh](https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.07.23298573v1.full.pdf) the risks. But for the majority of Americans, the vaccines continue to be far safer than contracting Covid itself. *** ## Federal surveillance has found some side effects but may miss others. To detect problems with vaccines, federal agencies rely on multiple databases. The largest, the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, is useful for generating hypotheses, but contains unverified accounts of harms. Other databases combine electronic health records and insurance claims. These systems spotted blood-clotting problems associated with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and a potential risk of stroke after mRNA immunizations, which is still under investigation. But federal researchers trailed Israeli scientists in picking up myocarditis as a problem among young men. The American health care system is fragmented, with medical records stored by multiple companies that do not collaborate. Electronic health records do not all describe symptoms the same way, making comparisons difficult. Insurance claims databases may have no record of shots administered at mass vaccination sites. Federal systems may also miss symptoms that defy easy description or diagnosis. *** ## Proving vaccination led to an illness is complicated. Among the hundreds of millions of Americans who were immunized against Covid, there were deaths, heart attacks, strokes, miscarriages and autoimmune illnesses. How to distinguish illnesses caused by the vaccine from those that would have happened anyway? The rarer the condition, the harder it is to answer this question. Merely judging by the timing — the appearance of a particular problem after vaccination — can be misleading. Most famously, childhood vaccines were mistakenly linked to autism because the first noticeable features often coincided with the immunization schedule. Serious side effects may first turn up in animal studies of vaccines. But few such studies were possible given the nation’s desperate timeline in 2020. Clinical trials of the vaccines were intended to test their effectiveness, but they were far from big enough to detect side effects that may occur only in a few people per million doses. Most independent studies of side effects have not been large enough to detect rare events, nor to exclude their possibility; others have looked only for a [preset list of symptoms](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X24001270?via%3Dihub) and might have missed the rare outliers. An expert panel convened by the National Academies concluded in April that for most side effects, there was not enough data to accept or reject a link to Covid vaccination. *** ## Understanding the full range of side effects may take years. Federal health officials acknowledge four major side effects of Covid vaccines — not including the temporary injection site pain, fever and malaise that may accompany the shots. But in federal databases, thousands of Americans have reported that Covid vaccines caused ringing in the ears, dizziness, brain fog, sharp fluctuations in blood pressure and heart rate, [new](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/imm.13443) or [relapsed](https://academic.oup.com/jcem/advance-article/doi/10.1210/clinem/dgad235/7142864) [autoimmune](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/23247096211063356) [conditions](https://bmcendocrdisord.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12902-023-01387-2), [hives](https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2800873), [vision](https://joii-journal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s12348-021-00275-x) [problems](https://journals.lww.com/corneajrnl/Abstract/9900/Rare_Case_of_Thygeson_Superficial_Punctate.321.aspx), [kidney](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13730-023-00798-3) disorders, [tingling](https://karger.com/crn/article/15/1/6/832427/Small-Fiber-Neuropathy-Triggered-by-COVID-19), [numbness](https://karger.com/crn/article/15/1/6/832427/Small-Fiber-Neuropathy-Triggered-by-COVID-19) and a loss of motor skills. Some studies have examined reports of side effects and largely concluded that there was [no link](https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2805029). Closer scrutiny may reveal that many, perhaps most, of the other reported side effects are unrelated to immunization. Most of [them](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/iid3.875) are [also associated](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-01689-3) with [Covid](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jmv.28187), and may be the [result](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7582442/) of undiagnosed infections. But without in-depth studies, it is impossible to be sure, experts said. [Apoorva Mandavilli](https://www.nytimes.com/by/apoorva-mandavilli) is a reporter focused on science and global health. She was a part of the team that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for coverage of the pandemic. ## Related Content [More in Health](https://www.nytimes.com/section/health) - ![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/02/12/multimedia/WELL-MEASLES-FLORIDA1-wljf/WELL-MEASLES-FLORIDA1-wljf-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale) Zack Wittman for The New York Times - ![Asta Djouma, a tuberculosis patient in isolation at the Djarengol Kodek Health Center in Maroua, northern Cameroon, who hasn’t seen her three children since she was admitted in October. “We’re just here,” she said.](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/01/30/multimedia/00HS-tb-cameroon-01-stillpromo/00HS-tb-cameroon-01-qtfj-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale) Arlette Bashizi for The New York Times - ![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/02/10/multimedia/00HS-HEMP-05-bctm/00HS-HEMP-05-bctm-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale) Bryan Anselm for The New York Times - ![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/02/03/science/00sci-pet-theory-cat-tv/00sci-pet-theory-cat-tv-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale) Julia Rothman Editors’ Picks - ![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/02/15/fashion/15ST-MODERN-REALESTATE-DELAMARTRE/15ST-MODERN-REALESTATE-DELAMARTRE-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale) Brian Rea - ![Harmony, a nature retreat on Iceland’s southern coast, consists of two small cabins with unobstructed views of the surrounding mountains.](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/02/11/t-magazine/entertainment/11tmag-tlist-slide-23QU-copy/11tmag-tlist-slide-23QU-copy-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale) Zsophia Bodnar Trending in The Times - ![The 20-year-old streamer goes to extremes to achieve an ideal of male beauty, but that’s not the only reason he’s become an online sensation.](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/02/12/multimedia/ST-CLAVICULAR-01-bpkt/ST-CLAVICULAR-01-bpkt-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350) Cassidy Araiza for The New York Times - ![A masked Customs and Border Protection agent during an arrest in Minneapolis last month. ](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/02/12/multimedia/12dc-masks-new-wlbj/12dc-masks-new-wlbj-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350) David Guttenfelder/The New York Times - ![American troops in Syria in 2019.](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/02/12/multimedia/12dc-syria-qwmz/12dc-syria-qwmz-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350) Agence France-Presse — Getty Images - ![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/02/13/arts/RV_RomanceRoulette/RV_RomanceRoulette-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350) - ![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/02/15/nyregion/15MET-AFFORDING-NYC-FERNANDEZ-promo/14MET-AFFORDING-NYC-FERNANDEZ--01-bphq-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350) Anna Watts for The New York Times - ![Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s promise of “fast and free buses” was popular with voters and is central to his affordability agenda.](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/02/13/multimedia/11met-bus-pilot-01-kfqc/11met-bus-pilot-01-kfqc-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350) Olga Fedorova for The New York Times - ![A storm in California during the last El Niño phase, in 2023. The El Niño weather pattern has far-reaching influence. ](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/02/12/climate/00cli-next-el-nino/00cli-next-el-nino-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350) David McNew/Getty Images - ![It has been a tough slog for restaurants over the past year as many contend with a slowdown in eating out among consumers.](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2025/11/05/multimedia/11biz-mcdonalds-earnings/05biz-mcdonalds-hlgc-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350) John Taggart for The New York Times - ![A man walking with two children in Zurich. Switzerland will vote in June on a proposal to cap its population at 10 million through 2050.](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/02/11/multimedia/11int-switzerland-population-wkbt/11int-switzerland-population-wkbt-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350) Michael Buholzer/EPA, via Shutterstock - ![A Hermann’s tortoise of North Macedonia’s Golem Grad island, with an injury from a fall on its carapace.](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/02/14/multimedia/14HS-tb-tortoises-stillpromo/14HS-tb-tortoises-stillpromo-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350) Dragan Arsovski Advertisement [SKIP ADVERTISEMENT](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/03/health/covid-vaccine-side-effects-takeaways.html#after-bottom)
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