Fact Check: Social Media Posts Do NOT Accurately Represent Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine Side Effects As Of January 2025

Do social media posts share the real side effects of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine as of January 2025? No, that’s not true: The post lists ‘adverse events of special interest’ that researchers are required to report if they happen during drug trials, it is not a list of things that actually were observed. The most common side effects are feeling tired, headaches, muscle aches, chills, fever, or feeling sick to your stomach, according to Pfizer and the FDA. One may also experience pain, redness, or swelling where the shot was given, and a few people may faint. More serious side effects, like allergic reactions or swelling of the heart or its lining, are rare.

The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on Facebook on January 23, 2025. It opened:

PFIZER JUST RELEASED ITS LIST OF SIDE EFFECTS OF ITS
“COVID-19 VACCINE”💉

This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:

(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Mon Jan 27 16:16:09 2025 UTC)

Here’s the full list from the post:

The list of some side effects of the Pfizer-Biontech Covid-19 Vaccine. 💉
Take the Ddimmer blood test to detect:
Blood thrombosis.
Acute kidney injury,
Acute flaccid myelitis,
Positive antisperm antibodies,
Brainstem embolism,
Brainstem thrombosis,
Cardiac arrest (hundreds of cases),
Heart failure,
Cardiac ventricular thrombosis,
Cardiogenic shock,
Central nervous system vasculitis,
Neonatal death,
Deep vein thrombosis,
Brainstem encephalitis,
Hemorrhagic encephalitis,
Frontal lobe epilepsy,
Foaming at the mouth,
Epileptic psychosis,
Facial paralysis,
Fetal distress syndrome,
Gastrointestinal amyloidosis,
Generalized tonic-clonic seizure,
Hashimoto’s encephalopathy,
Hepatic vascular thrombosis,
Herpes zoster reactivation,
Hepatitis Immune-mediated,
Interstitial lung disease,
Jugular vein embolism,
Juvenile myoclonic epilepsy,
Liver damage,
Low birth weight,
Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children,
Myocarditis,
Neonatal seizure,
Pancreatitis,
Pneumonia,
Stillbirth,
Tachycardia,
Temporal lobe epilepsy,
Testicular autoimmunity,
Thrombotic stroke,
Type 1 diabetes mellitus,
Neonatal venous thrombosis,
Vertebral artery thrombosis,
Pericarditis,
Sudden death.”
Even after a federal pardon, he can still be charged by the “State”. Idaho is filing charges against him as I’m typing this. Yup he will still be held accountable 👈

This post provided no evidence supporting the assertion that it shares the real side effects of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine as of January 2025. None of the conditions referenced in the post other than myocarditis and pericarditis are listed as potential side effects in the official documentation for the shot.

Pfizer

When asked about the reported side effects of its COVID-19 vaccine in an email on January 27, 2025, Pfizer told Lead Stories to check the company’s website (archived here) for COMIRNATY, the vaccine’s official name. The web page listed the potential “serious risks” of the shot and the common side effects. It said:

Serious risks of COMIRNATY can include:

• Severe allergic reactions
• Myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle)
• Pericarditis (inflammation of the lining outside the heart)

Some people may faint after vaccination, and people with weakened immune systems may have a reduced immune response.

Common side effects of COMIRNATY in people 12 years of age and older include:

• Pain, swelling, or redness where the shot is given
• Tiredness (fatigue)
• Headache
• Chills
• Muscle and/or joint pain
• Fever

These may not be all the possible side effects of COMIRNATY. Ask your healthcare provider about any side effects that concern you.

Pfizer’s patient package insert (archived here) for the 2024-2025 vaccine formulation also includes a list of reported side effects.

Food and Drug Administration

Additionally, the Food and Drug Administration provides a much longer prescribing information insert (archived here) for the vaccine, which lists the same side effects as Pfizer and goes into greater detail about the clinical studies used in the safety assessment of the shot.

Adverse events of special interest

Many of the conditions listed in the social media post showed up in a report (archived here) on the original COVID-19 vaccine prepared by Pfizer near the beginning of the pandemic called “5.3.6 CUMULATIVE ANALYSIS OF POST-AUTHORIZATION ADVERSE EVENT REPORTS OF PF-07302048 (BNT162B2) RECEIVED THROUGH 28-FEB-2021.” It was published at the end of April 2021.

It lists adverse events of special interest (archived here), which are prespecified events that have the potential to be causally associated with a vaccine product, in this case, the Pfizer COVID-19 shot. Instead of being a list of side effects, drug companies, health agencies, or researchers focus on these things closely during clinical trials or soon after a drug is available to the public.

If a cause and effect is found between the vaccine and any of the conditions, it becomes a side effect.

Recommended vaccines

COMIRNATY is one of two fully approved COVID-19 vaccines in the United States for people six months and older, along with SPIKEVAX by Moderna, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website (archived here). A third vaccine, Novavax, is available under emergency use authorization.

Read more

Additional Lead Stories fact checks of claims about vaccines can be found here.