{"id":1257,"date":"2021-03-26T08:56:52","date_gmt":"2021-03-26T12:56:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/?p=1257"},"modified":"2021-03-26T08:56:52","modified_gmt":"2021-03-26T12:56:52","slug":"what-causes-covid-arm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/?p=1257","title":{"rendered":"What causes “COVID arm”?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Quick note: No Q&A this weekend; back to my writing project. And since some of you asked, I committed to writing a book chapter and have to fulfill my promise. Q&A will likely be paused over weekends for the next month or so.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Question:<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0What are the\u00a0 mechanisms by which someone might develop “COVID arm” 10 days after receiving the shot and with no prior symptoms?\u00a0 I am asking because I developed COVID arm, and thought my body was gaslighting me until I googled it and found one news article that said that a rash 10 days later was a thing — mine was just around the injection site, but with significant swelling, 8 days after the shot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Answer:<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0 You are not alone in your experience.\u00a0 COVID arm is indeed a thing, and it’s nothing to be alarmed by!\u00a0 While it’s not that common,* it is\u00a0happening enough to have made the news, been incorporated into some CDC guidance<\/a>, been written about in the scientific literature.\u00a0 For readers who are wondering what we’re talking about, “COVID arm” is a delayed reaction associated with the Moderna\u00a0and Pfizer mRNA vaccines that can include a localized rash, swelling, pain and itching on\/around the vaccine injection site.\u00a0 Earlier this month, the New England Journal of Medicine<\/em>\u00a0published a comment describing the phenomena, Delayed Large Local Reactions to mRNA-1273 Vaccine against SARS-CoV-2<\/a>.\u00a0 Authors note that the delayed reaction generally occurs 8 days after injection (range: 4-11 days) and resolves within 4-5 days.\u00a0 Furthermore, the authors propose that “T-cell\u2013mediated hypersensitivity” is the biological mechanism causing the delayed reaction and present some compelling data supporting this hypothesis.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now you may be wondering, what is “T-cell-mediated hypersensitivity”?\u00a0 Basically, it’s an allergic\u00a0reaction caused by an intense immune reaction stemming from T-cells (likely CD4 “helper” cells).\u00a0 Since it takes several days for the adaptive immune system to kick in and for T-cells to mature, the reaction is generally delayed.\u00a0 We still don’t know why some people experience such hypersensitivity; scientists are exploring the factors\/mechanisms<\/a>.\u00a0 In good news, when it comes to COVID-arm, there is nothing to be overly concerned about– though uncomfortable and even painful, it will resolve and it will not cause lasting harm– and experts encourage<\/a> and recommend<\/a> that individuals experiencing COVID-arm take the second dose. In terms of treatment,\u00a0CDC recommends<\/a>\u00a0“If the rash is itchy, you can take an antihistamine. If it is painful, you can take a pain medication like acetaminophen or a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID).”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*In the Moderna clinical trial, 0.8% of participants experienced a delayed reaction after the first dose, and 0.2% experienced delayed reaction after the second dose.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Quick note: No Q&A this weekend; back to my writing project. And since some of you asked, I committed to writing a book chapter and have to fulfill my promise. Q&A will likely be paused over weekends for the next month or so.\u00a0 Question:\u00a0What are the\u00a0 mechanisms by which someone might develop “COVID arm” 10 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1258,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[38,34,64],"tags":[159],"class_list":["post-1257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-immunity","category-symptoms","category-vaccines","tag-moderna","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covidqanda.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/pexels-photo-3693901.jpeg?fit=867%2C1300&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1257"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1259,"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1257\/revisions\/1259"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}