The Lemon Fool

I too had the AZ vaccine on Thursday. No side effects other than mild pain in the arm, which persists to today. My wife was done at the same time, and had quite severe shivers, headaches, nausea and tiredness for 24 hours.

Scott.

I had a chat with my sister (to whom I'm closely related..) and she had the AstraZeneca jab a week or two back (in the middle east)
It knocked her out for three days - quite a bad reaction. She's six years younger than me (late 40s)

I'd love to know why there is such a difference in reaction, even between people of similar age. Do we know of any such instances if both were jabbed at the same time with the same vaccine batch?

Bouleversee wrote:I'd love to know why there is such a difference in reaction, even between people of similar age. Do we know of any such instances if both were jabbed at the same time with the same vaccine batch?

Inside Health on Radio 4 discussed all this last week. Available on BBC Sounds https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000t48v

I think the upshot is that people's immune systems react differently, and you can't really predict what's going to happen.

Scott.

Had mine (Azn/Oxford) yesterday in Scotland, where you do not receive a card to show you’ve had the vaccine.

Had it mid afternoon and felt absolutely fine all day and went to bed fairly late with the nagging doubt in my head that maybe it hadn’t worked properly as I could feel absolutely nothing - though I had read enough to see that many had experienced no reaction and generated plenty of antibodies as measured down the line.

Then around 4am, which was around 12 hours after the jab, I felt a stinging pain as I moved onto the arm that received the jab, then as I came to, I realised that the normal side effects had kicked in - aching, sore head, raised temperature though not burning hot.

These started to ease off around 1 pm today and would say I now felt drained and less achey and heading for a good bounce back.

So hopefully all done and dusted within 24 hours and just some lingering drained effects of a disturbed night.

So voted for mild symptoms as duration was not long compared to a normal viral illness, although could have been defined as some symptoms for a fairly short period.

I'm still feeling tired (jab noon Thursday) although no other symptoms remain other than a slight tenderness around the injection site
Hope it clears up soon.
It may of course just be 'work/lockdown stress' fatigue

Contrary to what some expert said on R4 last week, another one on How to Vaccinate the World today said that a reaction showed the vaccination was working. In that case, I may not be protected even after 2 jabs of Pfizer. Difficult to know who to believe.

Bouleversee wrote:Contrary to what some expert said on R4 last week, another one on How to Vaccinate the World today said that a reaction showed the vaccination was working. In that case, I may not be protected even after 2 jabs of Pfizer. Difficult to know who to believe.

A reaction shows a response, but a lack of reaction doesn't mean the opposite.

So you might not be protected, but on the evidence of a lack of reaction, that isn't in itself indicative of that being the likliest scenario.

If is important enough to you why not take a Covid antibody test? The presence of antibodies won't guarantee you are immune, but will demonstrate your vaccination worked.

dealtn wrote:

Bouleversee wrote:Contrary to what some expert said on R4 last week, another one on How to Vaccinate the World today said that a reaction showed the vaccination was working. In that case, I may not be protected even after 2 jabs of Pfizer. Difficult to know who to believe.

A reaction shows a response, but a lack of reaction doesn't mean the opposite.

So you might not be protected, but on the evidence of a lack of reaction, that isn't in itself indicative of that being the likliest scenario.

Another source I saw indicated that a bad reaction to the jab might be an indication that you had some previous exposure to the virus, or a similar one in the past. So when you have the jab the body "recognises" the invader and attacks it as it had done before, causing a reaction.

A reaction might also just indicate something about the state of one's immune system and general health.

Either way I don't buy the theory that only a strong reaction to the jab means that it is "working". The poll indicates that a large majority have little or no reaction, and I find it hard to believe that in all those cases the jab "failed".

This is an interesting read explaining about reactions to vaccines.
It's not very long, but for those time-poor amongst you
- strong reaction doesn't mean better/worse protection
- older people less likely to have reaction
- those previously infected with Covid may get very strong reaction
- second jab much less likely to give reactions than the first jab

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-56375307

My wife had quite a severe reaction to the first AZ but, 36 hours on, none to the second.
I had no reaction to the first or second other than a slight itch in the arm which has persisted for 12 weeks now.

V8

Covid vaccine: Sore arm and headache most common side effects

BBC News

The most common side effects of the Covid-19 vaccines are pain or tenderness at the injection site - in other words, a sore arm - a UK study has suggested.

"Roughly one in four people had wider effects like fever, headache, nausea and fatigue.

But these only lasted on average for one day."

I had some unpleasant symptoms the day after the second AZ jab, but really cannot be sure they were a side effect of it. Just because you are unwell shortly after having the jab, does not necessarily prove causation?

XFool wrote:Covid vaccine: Sore arm and headache most common side effects

BBC News

The most common side effects of the Covid-19 vaccines are pain or tenderness at the injection site - in other words, a sore arm - a UK study has suggested.

"Roughly one in four people had wider effects like fever, headache, nausea and fatigue.

But these only lasted on average for one day."

Based on an unscientific sample of my friends I'd say it's more like 50% for AZN vacc - varying from 'fluey' for less than a day to knocked out for 3 days+
Pretty even M/F split, mostly 40s/50s
Perhaps the no side effect lot didn't post about it...

Had my second AZ jab one Tuesday, after no side effects from first one was not expecting any this time.

On Friday I started to feel quite achey and when I went to bed I experience a bout of shivering. Achey and tired all day Saturday but now OK .

John

redsturgeon wrote:Had my second AZ jab one Tuesday, after no side effects from first one was not expecting any this time.

On Friday I started to feel quite achey and when I went to bed I experience a bout of shivering. Achey and tired all day Saturday but now OK .

John

I had second AZ last Wednesday (today being Sunday, so 10 days or so ago).
Had bad headaches from Monday to Thursday. Now seem fine.
May or may not be anything to do with the jab.
Didn't have them first time around.

Tiredness and intermittent light-headedness/mild malaise after my second Pfizer (yesterday morning). I suspect it's half-and-half jab and weather, with the third half coming from poor sleep.

No sign (yet) of the cramps I had in the days following my first jab (after already having ticked "all clear" in the poll). I'd call those middling-level side-effects, or else pure coincidence. Most memorably I couldn't sit at the 'puter for an online meeting on the Tuesday following a Friday jab, but was absolutely fine for a closely-related meeting on the Thursday.

The general view is (was?) one can expect fewer/less severe side effects with AZN#2 , and more with Pfizer
Of course it's never easy to work out what was caused by the jab, what was general lockdown malaise, and what was purely psychosomatic

Somebody I know has just had their second Pfizer vaccination, at the same clinic I had both my AZN vaccinations.

They and everyone else was asked to wait 15 minutes before leaving. When I had the AZN vaccination I was told both times to wait 15 minutes, but only if I was driving. As I was walking I just left straight away both times.

Is there any known explanation for this apparent difference in policy, or simply different people giving out differing advice?

(Just reread the immediately preceding post - could be an explanation?)

XFool wrote:Somebody I know has just had their second Pfizer vaccination, at the same clinic I had both my AZN vaccinations.

They and everyone else was asked to wait 15 minutes before leaving. When I had the AZN vaccination I was told both times to wait 15 minutes, but only if I was driving. As I was walking I just left straight away both times.

Is there any known explanation for this apparent difference in policy, or simply different people giving out differing advice?

(Just reread the immediately preceding post - could be an explanation?)

I had to wait after both Pfizers. Seemed to be an indiscriminate blanket requirement.

If I'd been driving, the wait would definitely have been justified, due to (very mild) lightheadedness and hint-of-nausea. Neither remotely serious at walking pace. Yesterday's post-jab malaise was worse, but is now (touch wood) gone.