Medical care fainted after COVID vaccine is not due to shot ingredients, says doctor

A nurse in Tennessee fainted shortly after receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday, but a doctor assured the public that such reactions are not uncommon.

Nurse Tiffany Dover of CHI Memorial Hospital in Chattanooga, Tennessee, was one of the first front-line workers in Hamilton County to receive the vaccine, WTVC NewsChannel reported.

But about 15 minutes later, Dover reported that she became dizzy and fainted shortly afterwards, with a doctor sitting in the back, catching her when she fell.

The nurse recovered quickly and was able to get up and talk to reporters who were present at the hospital.

“It hit me all of a sudden, I felt it coming. I felt a little disoriented, but now I feel good and the pain in my arm is gone,” Dover told WTVC.

CHI Memorial Hospital doctors said the reaction was not related to the ingredients in the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which has been authorized for emergency use by the US Food and Drug Administration.

The nurse told reporters that she has a condition that often causes her to faint when she suffers from pain. As a result, Dover said she was not surprised she fainted after receiving the vaccine.

“I have a history of having an over-reactive vagal response, and so if I have pain from something – my fingernail or my toes – I can faint,” Dover told WRCB Channel 3.

The vagal response is an automatic response in the body that occurs due to stimulation of the vagus nerve, which passes from the brain through the face and chest to the abdomen. The nerve can be stimulated by several triggers, including pain.

When this happens, a person may suddenly experience a variety of symptoms, such as dizziness, fainting, or nausea.

Doctors at the hospital said that such reactions are not uncommon after people receive vaccines.

“It’s a reaction that can happen very often with any vaccine or shot,” Dr. Jesse Tucker, medical director of critical care medicine at CHI Memorial, told WTVC. “No reason to suspect this is due to the vaccine.”

Tucker was one of many hospital employees who also received the vaccine on Thursday.

Fainting – otherwise known as syncope – is a temporary loss of consciousness that results from a reduction in blood flow to the brain. There are many causes of fainting, but it is often triggered by pain or anxiety.

About three percent of men and 3.5 percent of women are believed to report fainting at least once in their lives, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The CDC said it had received reports of people fainting from almost all vaccines, with “many reports of syncope each year, and many more will go undeclared.”

However, the exact incidence of fainting after vaccinations is not known, in part because it does not tend to have lasting effects and is difficult to study due to its transient nature. Fainting can also be triggered by many other types of medical procedures, in addition to vaccinations.

Most reports of fainting after vaccination are related to three photos taken of adolescents: HPV, MCV4 and Tdap.

The ingredients of these vaccines are all different, which has led scientists to conclude that fainting can result from the vaccination process itself, which can cause temporary pain at the injection site, and not the ingredients inside.

Because of the risk of fainting, patients should stay or lie down when receiving any vaccine, according to the CDC. If a patient faints, medical staff should stay with them until they regain consciousness, which usually happens within minutes.