Evaluating the Adverse Events Associated with Three Doses of the COVID-19 Vaccination in Adults in theWestern Region of Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Study

Journal Article

2023

Published in: https://doi.org/10.3390/ vaccines11020266

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was one of the countries earliest affected by the coronavirus

2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and had taken precautions including compulsory COVID-19 vaccination.

Both the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine (Oxford AstraZeneca) and the BNT162b2 vaccine (Pfizer) were

approved by the Saudi Ministry of Health, followed by mRNA-1273 (Moderna), all of which were

used for population-wide vaccination. This study aimed to assess the short-term side effects following

the COVID-19 vaccinations among participants who had received all three doses in the western

region of Saudi Arabia. An online survey was distributed to the participants who received either

BNT162b2, ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, or mRNA-1273 vaccines, and the type of side effects and their severity

were evaluated. Fatigue and headache, pain at the site of the injection and muscle pain were the most

common side effects in all three doses. However, the severity depending on the type of vaccination

was significant only for the first and second dose, but not the third dose. In contrast, there was a

higher percentage of participants who encountered severe side effects from the third dose compared

to the first and second. Nevertheless, the majority of participants described all three doses’ side

effects to be moderately severe. A future evaluation could be made to access the individual types

of vaccination and compare between the side effects of the BNT162b2, ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, and

mRNA-1273 vaccines specifically for the booster dose.

• Publisher Name: Vaccines