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Safety and impact of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in elite athletes

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By on Olympic data
As SARS-CoV-2 vaccination policies have evolved to include younger and active populations,
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  • Narducci DM
  • Diamond AB
  • Bernhardt DT
  • Roberts wo
COVID vaccination in athletes and update to interim guidelines on pre-participation physical examination during the SARS-Cov-2 pandemic.

there has been evidence of reluctance to vaccinate in some groups.

2
  • Ainslie D
  • Ogwuru C
  • Sinclair R
Coronavirus and vaccine hesitation, Great Britain: August 9, 2021.

For athletes, a major concern is the potential effect of side effects associated with the vaccine on sport participation;

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Some British Olympic athletes are refusing the COVID vaccine for fear of side effects.

,

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  • JH shell
  • Deputy Schwellnus
  • BD Pyne
  • Shah A
COVID-19 vaccination in athletes: ready, ready, go….

even brief interruptions in training can affect athletic performance.

5
  • Drew MK
  • Raysmith BP
  • Charlton PC
Injuries Compromise Athletes’ Chances of Success: A Systematic Review.

To assess this concern, in the context of the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, we set up a prospective surveillance system to characterize the side effects of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine and their effects on sport participation. Elite international athletes (UK athletes preparing for Olympic and Paralympic competitions) completed a daily electronic questionnaire for 10 days after the SARS-CoV-2 vaccination via a mobile phone app. Serious vaccine complications were recorded in a separate electronic medical record system. Prior informed consent for the use of anonymized athlete data has been obtained.

Complete data were available for 127 athletes (57 [45%] woman, 70 years old [55%] Male; average age 27.5 years [SD 4·9]) who received two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech tozinameran vaccine (BNT162b2), administered between May 12 and September 2, 2021, according to licensed recommendations, from 435 athletes regularly using a COVID-19 monitoring app. Of these participants, 97 (76%) were Olympic athletes and 30 (24%) were Paralympic athletes, 67 having subsequently competed in the Tokyo Olympics and 22 in the Tokyo Paralympic Games.

The most common side effect was arm pain around the injection site (in 94% of athletes), lasting a median of 2 days (IQR 1–3). Systemic side effects were reported in 70% of participants, with generalized fatigue in 28% after the first vaccination (median 1 day [1–2]) and 37% after the second vaccination (1 day [1–3]; figure A). Several side effects have been more frequently reported (pvs 18% after the second vaccination), muscle pain (7% vs 33%) and headaches (16% vs 34%). Most athletes (93 [73%]) reported no or only minor effect on their ability to train (Figure B); eight (6%) athletes felt completely unable to train, of which seven resumed training after 1 day. There was no difference in vaccine side effect profiles between Paralympic and non-Paralympic athletes, nor between male and female athletes.

FigurePrevalence and Duration of Side Effects of SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine in Athletes and Effect on Sport Participation

Show full legend

(A) Prevalence and duration of side effects of Pfizer-BioNTech SARS-CoV-2 tozinameran (BNT162b2) vaccine in a cohort of elite international athletes. (B) Severity and duration of training restrictions due to vaccine side effects. The width of each shape indicates the number of athletes at that time.

Our results correspond to those reported in a community study in the United Kingdom; Data from the Zoe COVID-19 tracking app revealed that 66% of individuals reported at least one local side effect and 25% had at least one systemic side effect, including fatigue and headache, lasting in average 1 day and being more prevalent after the second. vaccination.
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  • Menni C
  • Klaser K
  • one may
  • et al.
Vaccine side effects and SARS-CoV-2 infection after vaccination in users of the COVID Symptom Study app in the UK: a prospective observational study.

Vaccination against a wide range of pathogens plays an important role in maintaining the health of athletes and is usually done without the need to interrupt the training program.
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Vaccination in elite athletes.

Our results indicate that continuing to exercise after vaccination against SARS CoV-2 is also appropriate. Indeed, exercising during the peri-vaccination period could improve the immune response,

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  • Baker FL
  • Smith KA
  • Zúñiga TM
  • et al.
Acute exercise increases immune responses to SARS CoV-2 in a previously infected man.

although further studies in this area are needed. Protecting elite athletes from infection with SARS-CoV-2 is important, 2021 report says about one in four has not fully returned to sport within a month of onset of infection .

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  • JH shell
  • Wootten M
  • Moghal M
  • et al.
Clinical models, recovery time and prolonged impact of COVID-19 disease in international athletes: the UK experience.

Potential weaknesses of our study include the fact that the cohort was small and therefore insufficiently fed to detect infrequent adverse events. Our dataset also only provides information on tozinameran; the UK vaccination strategy has promoted the use of this type of vaccine in young people, so more work is needed to assess the impact of other SARS-CoV-2 vaccines in this population. Our methodological approach could also be used to assess the tolerability and impact of non-SARS CoV-2 vaccines.

In conclusion, in elite athletes, vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 with the Pfizer-BioNTech tozinameran vaccine appears to be well tolerated and associated with few significant side effects. When side effects did occur, they were short lived and did not affect sports participation. This analysis should help inform the discussion regarding the risks and benefits of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in the context of sport.

We do not declare any competing interests. We thank the athletes for their contribution to the data collection and to the EIS Athlete Health and Performance Data teams for the development of the tracking application.

The references

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Publication history

Posted: December 10, 2021

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-2600(21)00548-8

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© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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