A top official at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) admitted in a presentation Thursday that the CDC is aware of some individuals suffering “debilitating illnesses” following receipt of the mRNA shots sometimes described as COVID-19 vaccinations.
“We are aware of these reports of people experiencing long-lasting health problems following COVID vaccination,” CDC Deputy Director Tom Shimabukuro said during a live meeting with various federal health officials.
Federal health officials have previously downplayed the potential adverse reactions people may have to COVID-19 vaccinations as part of the effort to get as many people as possible to take the shots.
Shimabukuro also presented information during the presentation that suggested that individuals who get the common influenza vaccination at the same time as the mRNA shots may be at higher risk of stroke.
In Maine, adverse reactions to the COVID-19 shots have been somewhat rare, though there have been several severe vaccine reaction and multiple vaccine-related deaths.
According to Maine’s CDC data, somewhere around 75 percent of Maine’s 1.34 million residents have gotten the shots, and the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), a database maintained by the CDC, shows 4,474 adverse events reported in Maine.
According to the official VAERS data, by far the most commonly reported side effects of the shot were headache, fatigue, pain, dizziness, chills and nausea.
However, there have been 95 life threatening reactions, 217 hospitalizations, and 45 deaths linked to vaccines, according to the CDC’s own data.
