“Brutal Vaccine Story offers a Dose of Reality,” Australian Financial Review, January 11, 2021, p.7, is an interesting piece, discussing the case of Kristen Choi, who experienced adverse outcomes from the vaccine that Australians are going to have jabbed into them. The account is in JAMA Internal Medicine.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2773790
“I sent up a final prayer for the active vaccine as the research nurse finally administered the blind-to-me injection. A visit for the second injection was scheduled for 1 month later. My arm was sore, but I did not notice anything out of the ordinary. I could not begin to guess whether I had received the vaccine or the placebo.
I returned to the research clinic the next month. It was easier and faster this time, although I was dismayed to find that there was another nasopharyngeal swab test. I received the injection and returned home.
The experience after the second injection was different. My arm quickly became painful at the injection site, much more than the first time. By the end of the day, I felt light-headed, chilled, nauseous, and had a splitting headache. I went to bed early and fell asleep immediately. Around midnight, I woke up feeling worse—feverish and chilled, nauseated, dizzy, and hardly able to lift my arm from muscle pain at the injection site. My temperature was 99.4 °F (37.4 °C). I tossed and turned, sleeping little during the rest of the night.
When I woke up again at 5:30 am, I felt hot. Burning. I took my temperature and looked at the reading: 104.9 °F (40.5 °C). This was the highest fever I can ever remember having, and it scared me. I took acetaminophen and drank a glass of water. When the research office opened at 9 am, I called to report my reaction to the injection. Thankfully, my fever had come down to 102.0 °F (38.9 °C) by then. The research nurse said, “A lot of people have reactions after the second injection. Keep monitoring your symptoms and call us if anything changes.” My fever hovered around 99.5 °F (37.5 °C) for the rest of the day. By the next morning, all my symptoms were gone except a sore, swollen bump at the injection site.
I cannot be certain, but based on my reaction, I have a strong suspicion that I received the experimental vaccine, not the placebo. While waiting for the research office to open that morning, I had read the research report2 on the earlier Pfizer-BioNTech trial. To my surprise, the nurse was right about how common my symptoms were. In the phase 1 trial of BNT162b2, the following adverse effects were observed in the intervention arm of adults aged 18 to 55 years after receiving the second dose of BNT162b2: fatigue (75%), headache (67%), chills (33%), muscle pain (25%), fever (17%), and joint pain (17%).2 If this vaccine is approved, it is possible that most people receiving the vaccine could have 1 or more reactions to the vaccine like I did. Fortunately, my experience of having all symptoms together seems to be rare.
The adverse effects of the vaccine—even if, at worst, they all happen at once—are transient and a normal sign of reactogenicity signaling an effective immune response. But I worry that they could be a major barrier to vaccine uptake. Clinicians will need to be prepared to discuss with patients why they should trust the vaccine and that its adverse effects could look a lot like COVID-19. They will need to explain that fatigue, headache, chills, muscle pain, and fever are normal, reactogenic immune responses and a sign that the vaccine is working, despite the unfortunate similarities with the disease’s symptoms.
Despite the extensive information I had on the research process and vaccine, on a personal level I did not get the message that I should anticipate a reactogenic response. I was scared when I saw that I had a fever, and my gut reaction after months of scrutinizing myself for all the possible COVID-19 symptoms was: Do I have COVID-19?
I texted a few friends about my experience, and their response was the same: “Wait, does this mean you have COVID-19? Are you contagious?” I assured them I did not and was not, but every physician and nurse in the US needs to be prepared to have a conversation about adverse effects with patients. I can already see the wrong message about the COVID-19 vaccine going viral.”
Things like this are worrying medics, who will have to get the jab, being part of the religious faith.
https://www.ft.com/content/c576e15f-e5b1-4369-a5f0-073b4466036f
“Signs that a relatively high number of healthcare workers are unwilling to receive the coronavirus vaccine in some parts of Europe and the US have alarmed politicians and health experts, as countries struggle to contain a surge in infections and carry out mass vaccination. A poll released in mid-December caused surprise in Germany — the country that has been at the forefront of the race for a vaccine with biotech company BioNTech — by showing that half of surveyed nurses did not want to be vaccinated, along with a quarter of doctors. Those worries came back to the fore this week when the head of one German state said only a third of healthcare workers in his state were willing to get the jab. A high degree of reluctance among medical staff has also been observed in other parts of Europe and in the US. In France, 76 per cent of senior care home staff said they did not want to get vaccinated, according to a poll of 2,000 such workers carried out last month. In Austria, only half of the staff of care facilities in the region of Vorarlberg said they were willing to be inoculated, according to Austria’s public broadcaster. The Italian Federation of Medical Professional Associations (FNOMCEO) said about 100 doctors were unwilling to receive the immunisation across the country. In the US, a survey released last month by the Kaiser Family Foundation health think-tank found that 29 per cent of US healthcare workers would probably or definitely not get a vaccine, a slightly higher proportion than in the overall population (27 per cent). Anecdotal evidence from the first weeks of rollout in the US suggests staff at care homes are particularly hesitant to be vaccinated. Mike DeWine, the governor of Ohio, said recently he was “troubled” by the relatively low numbers of nursing home workers taking the vaccine, with around 60 per cent of nursing home staff having declined the shot. Asked about vaccine hesitancy among health workers on Wednesday, Germany’s health minister Jens Spahn said his ministry had only anecdotal data, with starkly divergent results. In some nursing homes, he said, only 20 per cent of medics received a jab, while in others it was as high as 80 per cent. But he said data showed regular flu vaccines among medics was “unfortunately very, very below average”.
I have no sympathy, since medicos have been a leading force in the whole Covid-1984 freak out. What goes around, comes around.