Local woman says she had severe reaction after getting COVID-19 vaccine

CHARLOTTE — As of Thursday, more than 6% of the United States population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19. That’s more than 20 million people.

In North Carolina, more than 3 million doses of the vaccine have been administered.

While it is rare, some people do experience severe side effects after getting the COVID-19 vaccine. All that information is collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention so that it can keep track of it in the event others experience similar symptoms.

Based on the number thus far, the chances of someone having a severe reaction to the shot still don’t add up to a thousandth of a percent, but the CDC said it does happen.

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One local woman told Channel 9 that after her first shot she was fine. But after the second dose, she started noticing some pretty severe reactions. She told reporter DaShawn Brown that her experience isn’t changing her stance on getting vaccines, though.

It’s been three weeks since Tiffani Capozziello started measuring her pain level. That’s around the same time the medical assistant and mother of two got her second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

“It was about four days later when I started experiencing pain in my legs and my feet. Numbness in my fingertips,” she said. “And then the next day, I realized I had no energy to walk.”

Tiffani Capozziello Tiffani Capozziello (WSOC)

Capozziello was concerned the second shot triggered a severe reaction. For context, she’s also living with a medical condition called fibromyalgia. Among its symptoms are widespread pain, fatigue and the struggle to focus.

Channel 9 asked Capozziello why she believed the reaction was from the vaccine.

“The symptoms literally happened three to four days after getting the vaccine, and I had been doing so good,” she said. “It’s just really hard. My body is definitely lagging something that it wasn’t lagging before.”

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The latest figures show that severe reactions to the shot have happened but are extremely rare. In the first month, the CDC reported more than 13 million doses administered and, of them, 640 cases were considered serious reactions.

“And I will say we have seen an incredibly minimal number of immediate reactions afterward,” said Dr. Meg Sullivan, the Mecklenburg County medical director. “Every time someone comes in to get the vaccine, we give them information about a program called V-safe, which is actually run through the CDC.”

V-safe allows someone to register their symptoms in real-time. First, after a few days and, if needed, weeks.

Capozziello said she registered with the website and also reported her experience to both the county and CDC.

“I’m not against vaccines or anything like that,” she said. “This was just the first severe reaction I’ve ever had to anything.”

The CDC said it doesn’t have safety or efficacy data yet for someone with an autoimmune disease and doesn’t specify each of the chronic conditions. The key is for people to report their symptoms.