I was one of the first groups of people to get both doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine.
I’m an essential healthcare worker, and would be soon training to start administering the vaccine to the general public. That being said, I was so excited to have the opportunity to get vaccinated, but also a a bit apprehensive about what the aftermath would feel like. The Pfizer vaccine uses mRNA technology, which in summary means that it introduces part of the genetic material of the SARS-CoV-2 virus into your body through the form of messenger ribonucleic acid. These vaccines do not contain a “weakened version” of the virus, instead they contain only the genetic information of the spike on the virus itself. For more information about how the vaccine works, I suggest taking a look at ASAPScience’s Youtube video! They provide a very comprehensible guide to understanding the vaccine itself!
As a result of the nature of the vaccine, it is important to note that abnormal physical reactions are expected, and completely normal. Your body is developing the necessay antibodies to protect itself against the actual virus, so feeling a little sick actually means the vaccine is doing what it’s supposed to! With that being said, here was my experience with both vaccines:
Dose 1: The vaccination itself went as smooth as butter. I had received my shot on a Wednesday night around 7:00 PM, at the end of my shift. I had no problem driving home, and frankly felt no pain the rest of the night. The next day, my arm (at the site of the vaccination) was really, really sore. It wasn’t a sharp pain, just sever soreness.
As with anything, no pain means no gain. When we workout, we know we may feel the soreness in our muscles the day after. However, we know that exercise is nonetheless good for us! Our muscles wouldn’t be as defined or strong without the pain. Similarly, the arm soreness from the vaccine was also necessary for the sake of protecting myself from the virus itself.
By the third morning, the pain had decreased by tenfold and I wouldn’t even notice it, unless I’d touch the area.
Dose 2: The second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine is the most important of the two. This dose ensures the effectiveness of the vaccine, but it also has the higher rate of feeling sick between the two.
I had gotten the second dose exactly three weeks after the first dose, again in the afternoon. I had some minor arm soreness the day of, but no other symptoms.
I went to bed, and woke up the next morning to arm soreness and feeling extremely tired. I felt very feverish and all my muscles in my body were sore. I was also experiencing chills, which is also completely normal! Some of the other reported symptoms of the second dose have been fatigue, headaches, myalgia, and fever. Personally, it felt exactly like the flu, which is what I was prepared for.
I drank a lot of water, took some acetaminophen and took lots of naps that day… by around 9 PM that night I had woken up from my third nap of the day, and felt amazing. For me, it wasn’t a gradual sensation of feeling better, but rather all at once all of the pain and fever went away.
Although the vaccine can have some negative side-effects, it is still very important to get vaccinated as soon as you can! The CDC reports that the Pfizer vaccine is around 95% effective! Although mRNA technology is relatively new, it is by no means unknown. Scientists have been working with mRNA technology for decades, and they cannot infect people with the disease itself, due to the fact that it does not actually contain the live virus or a weakened version of it!