Do I take a paracetamol before getting vaccinated or not? And then? Is it better than an ibuprofen? These are the doubts that have arisen in thousands of patients when visiting any of the doses of the different remedies against covid-19. In Spain, for now, only Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Janssen vaccines are authorized, this is how these remedies act against pain and fever.
The Junta de Andalucía to clarify some of the most recurrent unknowns in the fight against the coronavirus. Some doubts where the drugs against the pandemic and their remedies to generate antibodies are the most common among the more than 62 million doses administered.
In paracetamol or ibuprofen, it is the first of the drugs that best acts against the symptoms that arise with the puncture. Of course, always under the health recommendation, it is better to take advantage of this only if you already suffer from symptoms such as headache, arm pain or fever (the most common).
However, there are cases where you can also opt for this medicine under the famous motto “the remedy is better than the disease”. A step where the aforementioned Board has entered, in order to make it clear that paracetamol works differently depending on the vaccine.
AstraZeneca’s vaccine has a different response
Only with AstraZeneca, since its design is different from those of Pfizer, Moderna or Janssen (mRNA vaccines), it is recommended to take a 1-gram paracetamol prior to the appointment to be inoculated, as well as one every 6 hours during the first 24 hours, in case there are symptoms. This consumption does not affect the generation of antibodies and can relieve painful symptoms.
For its part, with the other three vaccines, there is no reliable evidence to show that their prior intake helps prevent symptoms. For this reason, it is not recommended to take paracetamol before vaccination, and only in case of fever or headache, resort to this drug.