Apparently, since I was an infant, I would get some pretty heavy duty reactions to any vaccine: fever, swelling, being miserable for a few days. As a child, my DPT vaccine was given in the morning and by the afternoon, they had to cut my sleeve off my shirt due to swelling in the arm where I got the injection. As an adult, even the flu vaccine is something I schedule for a Friday because I know that I will be worthless for a few days.

I am two days past my first COVID vaccine dose and still feel lousy, although I can finally lift my arm up ninety degrees now without a lot of pain and the swelling is mostly gone. I'm dreading what Dose #2 will do.

I know, everyone perkily says "That means your immune system has noticed!" but good grief, I often wish they would make vaccine variants without adjuvants.

"I've seen reports "

Data would be better. From what I've read, more severe reactions are extremely rare.

How about more first hand reports from nurses that I know? All had a day of mild to moderate flu-like symptoms.

Not data, not a large sample size, but very consistent and from knowledgeable observers.

I know exactly two people who have gotten both doses. Both reported significant symptoms after the second dose which would have precluded them working for 1 day in one case and 2 days in the other.

Yes, 100% of those in my network who have received both doses (sample size of 6) have all experienced this. Mostly Moderna, but a couple Pfizer as well.

Can you provide a source? Thank you.

From the US Center for Disease Control: What to Expect after Getting a COVID-19 Vaccine. Common side effects include Fever, Chills, Tiredness, Headache [0].

This is not unusual for some types of vaccines, however my spouse is a medical professional and we know many PAs, nurses, and doctors that have already gotten the vaccine and it does seem that the rebound effects of the vaccine are more severe than other vaccines. That said, they also reported feeling better in 24 hours or less.

[0] https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/expect/af...

Other gave sources. Just adding it’s not a concern. It’s the body’s immune reaction. That’s how the vaccine works, and it’s pretty common with vaccines.

I felt a bit crappy after my first. My colleague said it was much worse for them after the second. All anecdotal of course.

Which one did you get?

moderna

There's already a potential bad batch of over 1 million vaccines already distributed [1]. I really don't know why anyone would trust getting the v1 of a novel type of vaccine.

[1] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-modern...

This is why healthcare facilities are staggering vaccinations across departments.

We still see <1% of those kinds of reactions to dose 2 though.

That's weird. Because it's the same shot twice. At work my entire team has had the pfizer vaccine (Noone sick). A few vaccines have a two shot dose. Is this like the flu shot gives you the flu type of FUD?

No, it's like the “shot designed to produce an immune reaction gives you an immune reaction” story. Which is true. Also true for the flu shot.

Which doesn't give you the flu, but can give you (shorter-lived, milder) flu symptoms, because “flu symptoms” are mostly symptoms of the immune response to the flu.

Is it also true that people also had no side effects what so ever?

Your immune system reacts differently with the second dose. In my anecdotal experience the side effects are a little worse than flu shot.

I know around 20 people who have gotten the vaccine and this is consistent with what they experienced too. Most of them reported some flulike symptoms that were somewhat worse than the flu shot.

It’s been expected from the phase 3 trials, probably because your immune system reacts much more quickly and overshoots: https://hub.jhu.edu/2020/12/18/vaccine-side-effects-what-to-...