1. Traditional Chinese medicine auricular point acupressure for the relief of pain, fatigue, and gastrointestinal adverse reactions after the injection of novel coronavirus-19 vaccines: a structured summary of a study protocol for a multicentre, three-arm, single-blind, prospective randomized controlled trial
2. The people who receive the vaccinations will meet the conditions necessary to receive the injections and will have no contraindications to the vaccinations. APA group participants will perform bilateral, symptom-specific TCMAPA in 5 auricular points (per side, 10 points bilaterally) for 5 days, 3-4 times (for *1 minute each time) of selfacupressure per day, after each vaccination (10 days in total). Sham APA group participants will perform bilateral, non-symptom-specific, sham APA in 5 auricular points (per side, 10 points bilaterally) for 5 days, 3-4 times (for *1 minute each time) of self-acupressure per day, after each vaccination (10 days in total). A blank control group will not perform any intervention. The Hebei Medical Device Co. Ltd., in Hebei, China manufactured the auricular point adhesive tapes to be used in the study.
3. Participants will be randomized in a 1:1:1 ratio to each group by a computerized random number generator, and independently in each subcenter. Participants, information collectors, and statistical evaluators will be blinded between the APA group and sham-APA group. There will not be blinding for the blank control group. No less than 360 participants will be randomized in that 1:1:1 ratio to each group. Recruitment is expected to start on February 18, 2021, and to finish on March 12, 2021.
4. Clinical trial registration: China Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR) (ChiCTR2100043210) on February 8, 2021.
5. Yang Y, Litscher G, Sun Z, Sun W. Evid-Based Complement Alternat Med. 2021:2021:6646237. E xperimental studies on animals are conducted in