GivemTheAxe said:
dimitrig said:
oski003 said:
This is my perception as well. I only know two people that had serious side effects, one being mrna but had covid and the vaccine put her in the hospital (she fully recovered) and the other was sick for two days post jnj and saw a doctor (still has some medical issues but likely not vaccine related).
I thought feeling like crap for 1-3 days was at least a moderate side effect, which seems to be what most people experience. I felt like crap for one day after second shot.
Here is the disconnect:
I don't find "Very tired, aches in the joints, and flu-like symptoms for 3 days" to be only a minor side effect.
Technically, I suppose it is in the grand scheme of things versus, say, being hospitalized, but to me that's a big deal. I felt sick for a week after the first shot. I wasn't so sick I missed any work (although my productivity did suffer a little bit) but I was sick. It's worrisome when you're sick and you've just taken a vaccine that was rushed through trials. If the second shot is supposed to be worse then I don't know what to think except that I need to be 100% before I go do that. I was talking to a nutritionist (who herself has only had the first shot) who said that a lot of her clients are "preparing" for the vaccine by taking supplements, reducing alcohol intake, hydrating, etc.
Like I said earlier, the ONLY people I know who did not have ANY side effects other than a sore arm (duh!) are all over 60 except my sister and she is closer to 60 than 50. Every other person I know who got fully vaccinated had side effects including fever, joint pain, headache, runny nose, extreme fatigue, and sometimes even more than that. Usually, it resolved in a day. Sometimes, it took two or three days - or even longer. A have a friend whose sister is having "female issues" and her doctor advised her that it may be related to the vaccine.
I think as more young people take the vaccine it will come out that there are more side effects than we were led to believe and it will be altered to be safer and more effective with fewer side effects. That said, I wouldn't sit around waiting for 2 years for that to happen at my age, but if I was young and healthy - and especially if I was a woman thinking about getting pregnant - I might think twice about it.
Three thoughts.
1. I have had ordinary annual flu shots that had worse side effects than my second COVID shot. Some of those shots I felt caused some of the worst cases of flu that I have ever had. The explanation I got from Kaiser was, well you probably caught the flu waiting in line to get your shot. The shot didn't have time to get into your system fast enough to provide the protection sought.
2. I have talked to a large number of people of different ages comparing my experience with their experiences. Only one felt there was more than average difficulties. That person I know had reported similar symptoms to me BEFORE he had had the COVID shot.
3. My daughter in law is pregnant and has decided (based upon advice from her pediatrician) not to get the shot. Her pediatrician said there probably would not be a problem but why take the chance of introducing a foreign substance into her blood stream that wasn't there before when she is in the middle of her pregnancy. To me that is a rational decision.
However it means that she wears a mask and maintains social distance and can't take part in any family gatherings of more than a few people (let alone any public gatherings). To me those are also rational decisions.
The "side effects" of a cold, the flu, and COVID like runny nose, coughing, fever, aches and pains, diarrhea, nausea, headaches....are all from your body's immune reaction to the virus, not the virus itself. It is your body trying to eliminate the virus. "Hay fever" and other allergies is your body reacting to pollen like it is a virus or bacterium. Thus, a vaccine that stimulates an immune response will often produce similar side effects. It is just your immune system kicking in, it is actually a good sign. Young people have strong immune systems, so it makes a sense they can have more symptoms from the vaccine. It also means they can have mild cases of COVID and spread it b cause their immune systems keep it from being full blown. It is actually when COVID spreads to the lungs and the body responds white blood cells and inflammation, phlegm and mucus that oxygen levels can drop, stress the heart and become life threatening (simplifying, there are direct impacts on the heart too, we are still learning all the impacts from the virus).
Over the counter cold and flu medications just suppresses the side effects. When you actually have a virus, they can be counterproductive, fever helps to fight the virus. If you are having symptoms from immune response to a vaccine that is not a concern so people should be advised to go ahead and take medications that will help them out.
My wife and I are under 60 by a few years and had no concrete symptoms from the vaccine (maybe we could imagine more aches and pains or fatigue in the AM than usual). However I do know a younger couple in their 30s that had a couple of days like having the flu.
The key is even though you may have normal immune response side effects from the vaccine, it is not going to create phlegm in your lungs (you do not inhale the vaccine, it is not airborne) like the actual virus could. It might be uncomfortable, but it shouldn't be life threatening except in very rare cases, and those cases are logically people who would fare far worse with the actual virus for the same reason.
And most importantly, with the vaccine you might feel bad for a few days, but you won't die and you won't pass on the virus to someone who will then die.
