CDC Says Don’t Take These Common Painkillers Before Vaccination

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Feb 16, 8:00AM EST

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CDC Says Don’t Take These Common Painkillers Before Vaccination — © fizkes / Getty Images

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has stated it has become worried that people who think they will have aches, pains and fever after receiving a COVID-19 vaccination may decide to take Tylenol or Motrin. The organization recently has warned against this.

The new advice does not relate to any study of reactions. Rather it has its foundation in the fact that no studies have been done at all, according to the “Interim Clinical Considerations for Use of mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines Currently Authorized in the United States.”
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In its advice about the use of antipyretic or analgesic medications (e.g., acetaminophen, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) before vaccination, the CDC experts write:

However, routine prophylactic administration of these medications for the purpose of preventing post-vaccination symptoms is not currently recommended, because information on the impact of such use on mRNA COVID-19 vaccine-induced antibody responses is not available at this time.

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These painkillers and fever treatments are taken after the vaccine dose is given, the same document says.

The concern about symptoms after vaccination remains a fair one. The CDC also said:

Depending on vaccine product (Pfizer vs. Moderna), age group, and vaccine dose, approximately 80–89% of vaccinated persons experience at least one local symptom and 55–83% experience at least one systemic symptom following vaccination.

These symptoms may include pain, swelling or erythema (superficial reddening of the skin) at the injection site, or more broadly, fever, fatigue, headache, chills, myalgia (muscle pain) or arthralgia (joint pain).

Tylenol or Motrin, understandably, are the over-the-counter drugs people would turn to. YouGov reports that since the start of the pandemic, nearly 20% of Americans said they are likely to buy Tylenol. That is a jump from an average of 12% in the previous year.

How many people will take the advice? No one will ever know. The CDC has put out its warning, to both doctors and patients. Whether people will heed the caution is anyone’s guess.

Click here to read, “CDC Just Warned State Leaders About This Mask Problem.”

Click here to read, “What to Do Without a Second Dose of Vaccine, Experts Say.”
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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.