Vaccine Side Effects Will Be Treated Quickly: Expert

An expert on a government panel tasked with monitoring the use of coronavirus vaccines in Hong Kong said on Tuesday that health authorities would make sure people are treated quickly if they develop severe side effects after getting the jabs.

Professor Ivan Hung of the University of Hong Kong said a panel comprising specialists in infectious diseases, nerve and immune systems, as well as microbiologists and pharmacists will look into reports about side effects and study whether they are directly linked to the vaccines.

He said the most important thing is to identify the cases quickly.

"For mild symptoms, people can visit their family doctors," he said.

But Hung said for more serious side effects, such as Guillain-Barre syndrome and facial paralysis, there will be special arrangements.

“For example, the setting up of a hotline, to make sure patients receive proper care and treatment as soon as possible,” he said. “This will help them recover."

Hung said if there were serious side effects, they would happen within 15 minutes after the shots are given. He explained this was why people would be required to stay for a while at the place where they have been vaccinated, so they can be monitored.

"Other serious side effects might happen in the four weeks after the vaccination, most of them within one week," he said.

He noted that people would be asked to record any mild side effects they have after getting the jabs, such as fever and pain at the shot sites, and the expert panel would analyse this data.

Hung said the experts will also look at side effects that may happen after a longer period.

"It's a new vaccine,” he said. “We don't know whether there will be side effects in the long term. We will monitor the situation for one year or more.”