Can I take painkillers before or after a COVID-19 vaccine?

Can I take painkillers before or after a COVID-19 vaccine?

If you’re already taking one of those medications for a health condition, you should not stop before you get the vaccine — at least not without asking your doctor, said Jonathan Watanabe, a pharmacist at the University of California, Irvine. People should not take a painkiller as a preventive measure before getting a vaccine unless a doctor has told them to, he said. The same goes for after a shot: “If you don’t need to take it, you shouldn’t,” Watanabe said. If you do need one, acetaminophen (Tylenol) “is safer because it doesn’t alter your immune response,” he added.