The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a new warning out about whether or not to take medication before getting the COVID-19 vaccine.
What’s going on?
The CDC said people should avoid taking medications such as Tylenol or Motrin — also known as acetaminophen or anti-inflammatory drugs — before getting a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
“Antipyretic or analgesic medications (e.g., acetaminophen, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) can be taken for the treatment of post-vaccination local or systemic symptoms, if medically appropriate. 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.”
People might take medications before the vaccine due to worries over discomfort, according to WKBN. But the CDC recommends against doing so.
However ...
Jonathan Watanabe, a pharmacist at the University of California, Irvine, told NBC News you shouldn’t stop taking these drugs before a vaccine if you need them for a specific medical condition.
- He said people shouldn’t take pain killers as a preventative measure, though.
- “If you don’t need to take it, you shouldn’t,” Watanabe said, per NBC News.