Women account for 70% of side effects from Covid vaccines in Switzerland

So only 11 out of 100 Swiss residents have been vaccinated. Keystone / Anthony Anex

Of the 597 cases of adverse reactions to Covid-19 vaccines reported in Switzerland, 68.7% concerned women. 

On Thursday the Swiss medicines regulator Swissmedic released data on side effects of Covid-19 vaccines as of March 8. While women were clearly more affected by the jabs, overall the majority of reports (70%) were not serious. Of the minority that were classified as serious the most common adverse reactions were fever (24), shortness of breath (18), Covid-19 disease (14), vomiting (11), hypersensitivity (11), anaphylactic reactions (8), headache/migraine (11) and reactivation of shingles (8). 

A total of 21 people died at various intervals after receiving the vaccine. However, their average age was 85 and the majority had pre-existing conditions.  

“As far as is known at present, death was caused by conditions such as infections, cardiovascular events or diseases of the lungs and airways that occurred independently of the vaccination. Despite a chronological correlation, there is no concrete evidence to suggest that the vaccination was the cause of death,” said an official statement. 

There was not much of a difference between the two vaccines administered in the country when it came to side effects. Pfizer/BioNTech’s Comirnaty accounted for 343 adverse reaction reports while Moderna’s vaccine was responsible for 251. The AstraZeneca vaccine has not yet been approved by Swissmedic.

Overall, the medicines regulator said the data on adverse reactions was within the norm and no new worrying trends were identified.  

“The reports corroborate the side effects profile identified during the authorisation studies and described in the medicinal product information. There is no evidence to date of any new safety signals, so the positive ratio of benefits to risks of the two authorised vaccines is still the same,” said the authorities.