Anxiety led dozens to faint or get dizzy after Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine, CDC says
Needles can be scary, and for some, the fear could get the best of them.
Five mass COVID-19 vaccination sites in California, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa and North Carolina have reported 64 anxiety-related events after administering the Johnson & Johnson shot among more than 8,600 people, according to a report published Friday.
Four of the five sites temporarily closed after the reactions while an investigation took place.
Of the cases that occurred over a three-day span earlier this month, 17 involved fainting. The other most common signs and symptoms were dizziness, paleness or excessive sweating, nausea or vomiting and low blood pressure. All of the cases were resolved within 15 minutes, and none were considered serious. The majority of anxiety-related reactions occurred in women (61%); the median age was 36 years old.
What’s more, 13 of the people who experienced the reactions told staff members they had a history of fainting after getting vaccinated.
The CDC says anxiety-related effects such as fainting can happen immediately after getting any vaccine, “and might be caused by anxiety about receiving an injection.”
For that reason, “vaccine providers should be aware of anxiety-related events after vaccination and observe all COVID-19 vaccine recipients for any adverse reactions for at least 15 minutes after vaccine administration.”
Direct comparisons between reactions after the J&J coronavirus vaccine could not be put against those from the Pfizer or Moderna shots because those vaccines were given to different, select groups of people, the agency said.
When the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were authorized for emergency use in the U.S. in December, adults over 65, health care workers and those with medical conditions were prioritized. The J&J vaccine was given mostly to younger adults.
That’s why approximately half of the anxiety-related events after J&J vaccination occurred in people aged 18 to 29, the CDC said. Not to mention, young adults experience higher rates of fainting after vaccinations in general.
For example, there are 7.8 fainting events that occur per 100,000 doses of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, which is given to people 26 years old and younger.
“As use of COVID-19 vaccines expands into younger age groups, providers should be aware that younger persons might be more highly predisposed to anxiety-related events after vaccination than are older persons,” the CDC said.
Instead, the researchers compared anxiety-related events after the J&J vaccine to those after the influenza shot, which are more representative of an adult population.
Fainting, in particular, was about 164 times more common after the J&J vaccine (8.2 cases per 100,000 doses) than after the influenza shot (0.05 cases per 100,000 doses).
Besides a fear of needles or a history of fainting after vaccination, the CDC speculates the pandemic-related stress could be increasing people’s anxiety when it’s time to roll up their sleeves. And because multiple events happened on the same day in the same vaccination sites, the agency said witnessing others pass out or get dizzy could “provoke additional anxiety-induced episodes.”
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