Although the country’s vaccine rollout is not progressing entirely as planned, thousands of Australians continue to receive their COVID-19 vaccines every week.

As a GP administering the AstraZeneca vaccine, I find it strange that my patients all know about the very rare potential complications — such as blood clots — yet often don’t know what side effects they can realistically expect.

Possible reactions to vaccines include headache, fever, injection site pain, muscle and joint pain, and fatigue. Side effects tend to vary slightly between different vaccines, and different people will experience them differently.

Because COVID-19 vaccines are so new, Australia’s TGA has requested every reaction suspected to be from a COVID-19 vaccine be reported. This is happening in a number of ways.