On Friday, Elon Musk tweeted inaccurately about the second dose of the coronavirus vaccine saying that there has been “some debate” about it being more harmful than the first. However, experts on the matter have said that both doses are safe and the side effects, which occur in a small percentage of people, will subside in a few days.

According to research conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, although allergic reactions occur, they are rare. A very small percentage of people get allergic reactions; about 4.5 reactions per one million doses which is 0.00045%.

Studies on the Pfizer vaccine have shown that it is safe to use. Research data by FDA mentions that some participants had side effects such as headache, fever and fatigue after the second dose but the numbers are low.

The FDA research showed that 31% of people who were in 18-55 age group reported that they got fever after getting the second jab of the Pfizer vaccine and 17% of them got it after the second jab of the Moderna vaccine.

All vaccines, not only the COVID-19 vaccines, can have mild side effects on certain individuals but the side effects generally go away within a day or few days.

The timing of Musk’s tweet has been pondered upon as The Washington Post reported on Friday, the same day as the tweet that of the roughly 10,000 workers tested for COVID-19 at the Tesla factory in California more than 400 tested positive for the coronavirus between May and December. Despite local state orders, Musk had kept the factory open.

In March 2020 he had tweeted that the “coronavirus panic is dumb.” He grandiosely stated that there would be “close to zero new cases in April.” He also proposed that mass infections should be allowed before vaccines were made available.

Incidentally Elon Musk himself caught COVID-19 and had to miss the legendary first NASA full crew launch on SpaceX to the ISS in November 2020. He has even been called a Space Karen recently.