Korean consumers are increasingly purchasing fever reducers they prefer, as the nation’s Covid-19 vaccination rate is picking up.

According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, over 64.5 percent of the Korean population aged 18 or more have completed receiving the full doses of Covid-19 vaccines as of Wednesday midnight.

While most people aged 50 and more received the AstraZeneca’s vaccine first, younger adults have been recently getting Pfizer and Moderna’s mRNA vaccines, which are known to be less likely to cause adverse reactions in younger generations.

As people are getting Pfizer and Moderna jabs, they frequently ask hospitals about myocarditis and pericarditis, the typical side effects of the two vaccines. In addition, some hospitals said they received many calls from people asking about the vaccines’ adverse reactions and how to prevent them.

In the U.S., where most of the population received mRNA vaccines, myocarditis occurred one in 100,000 vaccinated people, and pericarditis, 1.8 per 100,000. Therefore, if a vaccinated person has a sharp stabbing pain in the chest and feels like indigestion has persisted for a long time, the person should suspect myocarditis.

Pharmacists said the sales of ibuprofen-containing products rose recently.

While acetaminophen drugs show only analgesic and antipyretic effects, ibuprofen medicines also offer anti-inflammatory effects.

So, pharmacists recommend ibuprofen, rather than acetaminophen, to those having inflammation-related side effects.

However, most health experts recommend acetaminophen first, rather than ibuprofen, to address the side effects of Covid-19 vaccines because data showed that non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) could interfere with antibody formation.

Still, the U.S. CDC and the European Medicines Agency said on their websites that the vaccinated could take other antipyretic analgesics such as ibuprofen, in addition to acetaminophen, after vaccination.

The Korean Pharmaceutical Association (KPA) and the Korean Medical Association (KMA) also said recently that they recommend acetaminophen after vaccination, but ibuprofen may be used, too.

If people have Covid-19 vaccine-related symptoms, they can take ibuprofen as well as acetaminophen after consulting with a doctor or a pharmacist.

If acetaminophen does not work, ibuprofen can be tried.

However, if the patient has a fever of 39 degrees Celsius or more, or fever, headache, or general pain persists for more than two to three days, the patient has to see a doctor, the KMA said.