Local health care providers use smartphones to track vaccine side effects

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Health care providers and some long term care facility employees have gotten vaccinated against COVID-19. Some local health care providers with University of Missouri Health Care are using their phones to report information to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC created v-safe, a smartphone-based tool that sends alerts to people's phones when they sign up.

Once someone registers to use it, they can report any side effects they are experiencing after getting the vaccine.

According to the CDC and University of Missouri Health Care, some of the possible side effects of the Pfizer - BioNTech vaccine are as follows:

• injection site pain
• tiredness
• headache
• muscle pain
• chills
• joint pain
• fever
• injection site swelling
• injection site redness
• nausea
• feeling unwell
• swollen lymph nodes

Possible side effects from an allergic reaction are as follows:

• difficulty breathing
• swelling of your face and throat
• a fast heartbeat
• a bad rash all over your body
• dizziness and weakness

Anyone can use the website to report side effects or to be reminded when they should get their second dose of the vaccine.

MU Health Care is recommending its staff members use the tool.

"We have the poster and QR code posted in the vaccination clinic and have provided handouts to staff who have received the vaccine," said MU Health Care spokesperson Eric Maze.

Dr. Laura Morris is a family physician at MU Health Care. She uses v-safe herself.

"I got my buzz today because I got my second dose of vaccine yesterday, and so it has checked in on twice," she said.

Morris said it took her about 15 seconds to complete the questions.

When someone registers on the website, they can put in when they got the vaccine. V-safe will send text messages to ask how that person is doing.

The person using v-safe will get check-in messages once a week for up to five weeks. They can click a link to answer questions, which takes less than five minutes.

After someone gets a second dose of the vaccine, v-safe provides a six-week check-in process.

"If a person's having concerning symptoms there's a possibility that someone from the CDC will actually contact to get in touch and find out about their symptoms," Morris said.

Since the COVID-19 vaccine is so new, health experts and the CDC are working to gather data on it. Morris said v-safe is one way the CDC can gather data on the vaccine as more people register to use it.

"We think that this is a really important opportunity to collect data. You know, the concerns about a new vaccine is for one thing, we know what we know, but we don't even know everything we don't know," Morris said. "This app really helps us to track on safety and give us an idea of in the real world what those side effects or adverse effects really look like."

Morris said that kind of data is important because many people may have concerns, and because side effects can impact people's lives.

"It's one thing to have a study that has tens of thousands of patients, and that's a really good trial, but now we have millions of people have received the vaccine and so that kind of data is really powerful," she said.

Morris said there are also other ways that health care providers can report any adverse reactions from a COVID vaccine to the CDC if they do not use v-safe.

Anyone can register to get texts from v-safe and can find directions on the CDC website.