Doctors tracking potential vaccine side effects with ‘V-Safe’ app

NOTE: No COVID-19 vaccine is currently available to the general public on request.

Doctors are closely watching COVID-19 vaccinations for reported side effects. To track them, and potentially help people in the future, the Centers for Disease Control are going to use a text-based app called V-Safe.

While news of adverse reactions can make people nervous about getting vaccinated, experts say the vaccines are safe.

“There have been a few people around the country and around the world that had some severe adverse effects,” said Robert Hawkes, director of Florida Gulf Coast University’s physician assistant program. “Many of these folks had underlying allergies, as well, to other vaccines, so it would not be common to have a severe adverse effect for someone who has not had a response.”

Once the app is launched, its features will include daily symptom checks and text messages checking in on you. A big concern when using apps like this is the possible risk to your personal information. Cybersecurity experts say it’s all about doing your homework.

“You should make sure that you kinda read up on the government’s website, to see what information they’re actually asking [for] before you use the app,” said Gene Hoyt, computer systems instructor at FGCU. “Because if you go to the website and it says, ‘Hey, we’re not going to ask for your social security number,’ and this app is asking for it, then you know that something’s possibly wrong, that you may have gotten the wrong app.”

Hawkes says the CDC always tracks the side effects of vaccines, but because this COVID-19 vaccine is new to all of us, it’s under extra scrutiny.

“Yeah, the adverse effects are going to be very, very limited,” Hawkes said. “So don’t do this as a reason to say, ‘Oh, I don’t want to get the COVID-19 vaccine.’ This appears to be very safe… certainly they’re going to put us under extra scrutiny to make sure that it’s safe for public distribution.”