Coronavirus Vaccine: Is It Safe?

Alongside wild conspiracy theories, many people have raised doubts over approved COVID-19 vaccines. Is their dose of scepticism well-founded?

- Thomas Ling

Within a year of COVID-19 appearing in the UK, the seemingly unthinkable has happened: vaccines for it have started being administered to people across the country.

The first of the vaccines, developed by Pfizer/ BioNTech, was approved by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) as safe to use on 2 December 2020. This assessment was made, according to the MHRA’s chief executive Dr June Raine, after “a rigorous scientific assessment of all the available evidence of quality, safety and effectiveness.”

For some people, however, the news was too good to be true. A YouGov survey indicated that one in five British people (and 42 per cent of those aged between 25-49) say they’re unlikely to take the vaccine. The majority of those surveyed cite safety concerns as the reason for their reluctance.

COULD THE CORONAVIRUS VACCINE HAVE HIDDEN LONG-TERM EFFECTS?

With all coronavirus vaccines having been trialled for less than a year at this point, it’s true that their long-term effects are not completely understood. Yet scientists say it’s unfair to compare the vaccines to the likes of thalidomide. First sold in the UK in 1958, thalidomide – a drug marketed as a sedative and treatment for morning sickness – was found to cause major birth defects when taken by pregnant women, three years after it appeared on the market.