MORE than a hundred people in Southend and Basildon have reported suffering adverse medical reactions to the Covid-19 vaccines.

Data released under a Freedom of Information request by Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency reveals 1,404 suspected adverse drug reaction reports at Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust Hospitals as of May last year.

People across the UK have reported side effects, such as headache, fatigue, and soreness at the injection site, that are generally mild to moderate and go away within a few days.

The adverse drug reaction reports are submitted by healthcare professionals via the regulatory agency’s Yellow Card scheme, which is the system for recording adverse incidents with medicines and medical devices in the UK.

In Southend Hospital, there have been 421 adverse drug reaction reports while in Basildon that number is higher at 514.

The leading cause for reports at both hospitals is the Covid-19 Pfizer/ BioNTech Vaccine, with 53 and 58 reports respectively.

Clozapine, an antipsychotic medication which can be used to treat schizophrenia, is the subject of the second most reports at Basildon - totalling 37.

While the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine has been the subject of 25 reports at Southend and 19 at Basildon.

“When considering the data, it is important to be aware of the following,” an agency spokesman said.

“The number of reports received via the Yellow Card scheme does not directly equate to the number of people who suffer adverse reactions and therefore cannot be used to determine the incidence of a reaction.

“Adverse drug reaction reporting rates are influenced by the seriousness of reports, their ease of recognition, the extent of use of a particular medicine, and may be stimulated by promotion and publicity about a drug. Reporting tends to be highest for newly-introduced medicines during the first one to two years on the market and then falls over time, therefore comparisons of absolute numbers between products may be invalid.”

All of the main Covid vaccines used in the UK - Pfizer/BioNTech, AstraZeneca and Moderna - were authorised as safe for use by the MHRA.