Over 57,000 side-effects reported after Covid vaccine; Most minor

Up to and including March 14, Dutch side effects center Lareb received nearly 11 thousand reports containing 57,391 possible side effects experienced after a coronavirus vaccine. By March 14, the Netherlands administered approximately 1.89 million coronavirus vaccines.

According to Lareb, most of the reported possible side effects were minor and expected side effects. The most commonly reported side effects were muscle pain, headache, and feeling unwell. 

The center also received 138 reports of people who died in the period after being vaccinated. "Almost all had fragile health because of a wide variety of serious underlying health problems and/or advanced age," Lareb said. In most of these cases, underlying health problems seem to be the most obvious cause of death. "At present, Lareb does not see any patterns of complaints in the reports that indicate serious side effects from which vaccinees may have died."

Lareb received "several dozen" reports of coagulation problems such as thrombosis and pulmonary embolism on all coronavirus vaccines. "The reports now give no reason to believe that thrombosis is a side effect of the coronavirus vaccine," Lareb said.

On Sunday the Dutch government decided to pause the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine after reports of a serious combination of thrombosis and a decreased number of platelets in Denmark and Norway. Lareb again stressed that "in the Netherlands, this specific picture has not been reported so far". 

The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was most often mentioned in side effect reports. This may be because it is also the vaccine that's been used most often in the Netherlands. AstraZeneca and Moderna received the second and third most reports. In 116 reports, the specific vaccine was not mentioned.