COVID-19 vaccines and homoeopathy – An integrative review

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has brought millions of people at risk. Clinical trials of several known antiviral drugs and vaccines have been done. Homoeopathy is known to be effective in the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases as well as in overcoming some adverse effects of vaccination. Objectives: The objectives of this review were to identify the adverse effects of COVID-19 vaccination from the published literature and doing homoeopathic repertorisation to find out indicated remedies for alleviating the ill effects of COVID-19 vaccines. Methods: Published literature was searched for ‘Covid-19’, ‘Vaccination’ and ‘Adverse events’ in PubMed between January 2020 and July 2021. The related symptoms pertaining to known adverse effects were picked and repertorised with appropriate rubrics from the ‘Vaccination’ chapter of Murphy’s clinical repertory and synthesis repertory. Results: Repertorial totality of identified symptoms was analysed. Thuja scored high when symptoms related to the adverse effects of COVID-19 vaccines were repertorised according to Murphy’s and synthesis repertories. Indications of the common remedies for the ill-effects identified for COVID-19 vaccination are discussed. Conclusion: Vaccines against nCoV- 19 are still not fully researched, especially for their long-term effects. Hence, whether they would prove to be friends or foes to humankind, in the long run, is the arena of future research. Meanwhile, homoeopathy can lend its services to overcome the ill effects of the vaccination. Studies with rigorous designs to find out the efficacy of homoeopathic medicines in relieving the adverse effects of vaccination are suggested.