I’ve had three Pfizer shots now and nary a reaction. But I have had just about every conceivable vaccine you can think of – hell, I’m even vaccinated for Japanese encephalitis and hepatitis B, the latter of which entailed three shots over six months – and I’ve never, ever had a bad reaction of any kind that I can remember.
That has been my experience as well, except I had Moderna.
I actually kind of wish I’d of had some reaction other than a slightly sore arm to prove the vaccine was effective in fighting off COVID.
I admit that I was delighted to have a strong but short-term reaction to my booster. Every muscle in my body ached for about a day, and I was tired. I found it very reassuring.
From what I hear, shingles is a real misery-making experience. I’d suggest discussing it with your doctor; I don’t know what your risk might be of being exposed to the virus at all (assuming you truly have never had it). There may be a blood test that shows whether or not you’ve got antibodies.
I got my second Shingrix 2 days ago, and it has indeed hit me harder than the first… for varying definitions of “harder”. The arm is about as sore, overall - and in some odd locations (e.g. if you look at my arm from the side, and say they injected at “12 o’clock”, it’s quite tender at 10 o’clock, and overall sore down around 6 o’clock.
The next day, I woke up early in the morning and felt fairly achy. Nothing I couldn’t have shaken off if I’d needed to, but I took 2 Tylenol, and went back to bed (as I’d planned to do anyway, it was just a bathroom break). A couple hours later I got up for the day, feeling fine, and went on a 2 mile walk.
Later that afternoon, I was relaxing on the couch and really fighting to stay awake (likely unrelated), and realized I felt a tiny bit chilled (possibly unrelated) and overall a little achy (possibly due to the vaccine) - and I took another Tylenol before conking on the couch for a couple hours.
No issues last night / this morning, though this afternoon I had a repeat of the “feeling slightly chilled”, so I took another Tylenol before snoozing again. No achiness. I expect the chills both days were just that - it’s “winter” here, and the house is cooler, and if we’re sitting still we’re gonna feel cold. The arm is still sore, and I expect it will be for a few more days.
All in all, I think some people are just more susceptible to uncomfortable reactions to all sorts of vaccines - those who’ve had a bad time with almost everything, and those (like me) who’ve gotten by with very little.
I wonder if there’s any correlation between vaccine reaction tendency, and other bodily function issues. A friend who reacts badly to vaccines also tosses her cookies with some regularity - and is flabbergasted at my lack of same (as in, as an adult I’ve thrown up exactly twice… and I’m near retirement age).
Errrrr… as another poster said, your doctor is full of baloney; I’d suggest you either ignore the doctor (since you can get the vaccine at any drugstore) or maybe find a new doctor!
I wonder though whether you would have an easier time of the vaccine reaction, or a harder time. No clue.
I must say, the shot itself hurts more than any other vaccine I’ve had as an adult. I had to force myself not to jump away when she was administering it, and I did permit myself some blue language.
When I got my shingrix vaxes, they warned me that it was going to sting. But it didn’t, or maybe only slightly so.
They certainly weren’t traumatic (defined as: If I’d be nervous if I had to get another one).
ETA: I strongly suspect that the pain or discomfort of getting any shot, at the time of the actual shot, is probably a function of the shot-giver’s technique. This is entirely separate from any soreness afterward.
In the last 10-15 years I’ve been getting annual flu shots, I’ve had both Shingrix shots, a couple of booster shots for earlier vaccines, and 2 COVID shots (waiting for my third). No reaction for any of them. My wife typically has a sore arm for a day or two.
Clearly any reaction is a function of your personal immune system function, so whatever happened for previous shots will likely happen for future ones.
I had the J&J and it was an expected day of misery. The Pfizer booster has made me think twice about getting an additional booster after that. It’s been over a week of fun.
Which vaccine did you get? I didn’t think any of the COVID vaccines used a dead virus, but I could be wrong.
I wonder if you happened to get a breakthrough case when you got the vaccine. Maybe take a home test, if you can find one.
mRNA is a very new technology. He likely doesn’t understand how it differs from dead/live vaccines.
At least one of the Chinese vaccines uses dead virus. Maybe two of them.
Learn something new every day!
I guess it’s possible that a poster named jamespeterson got a Chinese vaccine.
Sorry, what do you mean by breakthrough case? I actually looked at a home kit at a drugstore and they wanted $170 for it. It felt heavy, maybe it was for 10 of them but that was way over priced. I wouldn’t mind getting tested.
I mean, if you happened to get COVID, even though you’re vaxxed with J&J, it would be considered a breakthrough case. So, maybe you got infected with COVID right around when you got the booster, so the week of side effects was actually a breakthrough case of COVID, not the effects of the booster.
Around here (NJ), there are tons of testing places that are free if you have insurance. I imagine that’s the case in most places?
I’ll have to poke around and find a test. I keep track of my oxygen levels and ECG in case I get covid so I’ll know if it’s causing problems.
I huat bought a 2 test kit on Amazon for under $20 earlier today.
A seven-test kit has just arrived in the mail this morning.
It was free.
UHC is awesome.
Layman’s take here, but my understanding is that most viruses cause illness as a consequence of binding its spike to a human cell’s receptors, then entering the cell, and reproducing until it kills the cell.
Sars-Cov-2 does all those things, but it seems like it causes most harm merely in the first phase of binding the ACE2 receptor (by disrupting the balance of Angiotensin-II). The entire live virus is not needed for this, just the spike protein. Every COVID vaccine introduces some spike protein to the body, whether it comes from mRNA or dead virus.
The COVID vaccine is different in that it stimulates production of viral fragment can bind and cause harm like a live virus would. But it will never accumulate to any dangerous level because the spike protein alone lacks the machinery to produce a live functioning virus.
I had to make a run to the drug store for meds so I picked up a kit for $10. It appears I’m getting a cold so I may be using it sooner than later. I read through the instructions and there’s nothing about pushing the swab stick into your brain. Only need to go in 3/4 of an inch. Makes me wonder about those horror stories you see on the news with the long swab sticks.
The PCR test is the one which usually needs the deep penetration swabbing. The RAT 15-minute tests allow for less penetrating but in both nostrils as an option.
Thanks, something to read up on.
RAT (Rapid antigen tests) The disadvantage of a much higher false negative rate than PCR.
PCR (polymerase chain reaction) appears to be the more expensive version that requires a lab to process.