Aged care residents were given a higher dose of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. What’s the danger?

The case of two aged care residents mistakenly being given four times the recommended dosage of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in the first week of Australia’s rollout is not without precedent, but nor is it a cause for panic.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said the pair — an 88-year-old man and a 94-year-old woman — were being monitored and were “showing no signs at all of an adverse reaction”.

In Germany’s Pfizer vaccine rollout, eight aged care workers received up to five times the recommended dose of the Pfizer jab. Four were later hospitalised after developing flu-like symptoms.

All eight workers went on to recover without any adverse effects.

But what happens to our body if we do get a larger dose?

Here’s what the science tells us…