It’s your Big Day and you’re ready to celebrate. Is it still OK to have a beer, glass of wine or cocktail after your COVID-19 vaccination?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers exhaustive vaccine guidance, including avoiding over-the-counter medications like ibuprofen, aspirin, or acetaminophen before (but not after) your inoculation, yet nowhere does it address the pop-the-cork question. Food and Drug Administration guidance also does not mention alcohol.
Clinical trials for the Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines did not ask participants to avoid alcohol. Trial results also did not mention any alcohol-related issues.
“There is no true data either way at this time,” says Keith Grant, APRN, Hartford HealthCare’s Senior Director of Infection Prevention, “but I would expect a drink or two to have little to no impact.”
Although the consensus among health experts in the United States suggests no interaction between the vaccine and alcohol, United Kingdom residents have been advised to abstain from alcohol in the days before and after the vaccine.
“You need to have your immune system working tip-top to have a good response to the vaccine,” Sheena Cruickshank, an immunologist at the University of Manchester, told UK Metro.
In Russia, a health official advised people receiving the Sputnik V vaccine to avoid alcohol for two months, though the vaccine’s developer suggested abstaining only three days after each injection.
Some vaccine side effects — headache, fatigue and body aches — can feel a lot like a powerful hangover. So if you do want to celebrate, don’t overdo it. A vaccine headache combined with an alcohol-induced headache might turn your Big Day into a Long Day.