Bloomington Dr. says its not recommended to take medicine before receiving COVID-19 vaccine

Posted on March 22, 2021
Dr. John Wieland, Medical Director of Acute Care Services at Carle BroMenn Medical Center. (Photo courtesy: WJBC/File)

By Blake Haas

BLOOMINGTON – A Bloomington doctor says it’s not recommended to take any premedication before receiving the first or second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Dr. John Wieland, Medical Director of Acute Care Services at Carle BroMenn Medical Center, told WJBC’s Scott Miller, anti-inflammatory medication taken before receiving the vaccine could skew the vaccine.

“The official response and I actually didn’t know this, I had to look this up, but the official response is, it is not recommended to take any premedication of any of those anti-inflammatory medications before either the first or the second dose because that may actually blunt or lessen the immune response.

“There is some data; there is some research that shows that pretreatment can limit some of the antibody response, and so you’re limiting the effectiveness of that vaccine.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 81 million Americans have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, with 44 million fully vaccinated.

LISTEN: Dr. Wieland spoke with WJBC’s Scott Miller: 

“After that second dose, where many people will have some discomfort in some of those symptoms, it’s probably okay to take one of those anti-inflammatory medicines, either Tylenol or ibuprofen, something along those lines,” added Dr. Wieland. “But, it’s still not completely recommended or approved as it were.”

As of Sunday, 4.1 million vaccines had been administered in Illinois.

Blake Haas can be reached at [email protected].

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