Getting the coronavirus vaccine is worth any potential side effects

I had a few topics in mind to write about today but decided on writing about my experience getting the second Pfizer vaccine last week.

Since I believe it is important for people to get the vaccine, I wanted to share my experience. I wrote about how well the staterun SUNY Albany site was in another column.

So this time I thought I’d share how I felt after getting both shots now. After getting the first shot, I felt pretty normal besides having a sore arm for a few days.

Leading up to my second dose, I was curious if I would get any of the more severe side effects that some people end up getting.

At that point, I knew a handful of people that had already got both shots and all of them said they did not feel any side effects after either dose.

From doing my own research, I knew that some side effects after getting the second dose included headaches, fatigue, chills, fever, nausea and no appetite.

Knowing all of that, I felt fine all day on Wednesday after getting the shot that morning, however, later that afternoon I did start to feel tired.

On Thursday morning, I woke up with a mild headache. That headache got more intense as the day went on.

As the day progressed, I began feeling more and more side effects. To be honest, I actually felt every side effect I listed above.

My Thursday was spent in bed all day and night.

As bad as I felt on Thursday, I just kept telling myself that this one day of discomfort would still be worth it in the long run. I knew all those side effects were normal for some people to feel after getting the vaccine.

In my opinion, getting the vaccine was important and is a step in the right direction as a way to return to some normalcy.

I hope people feel the same way that I do about the vaccine and that reading about these side effects doesn’t scare anyone away from getting it.

As I said, I believe that getting the vaccine is worth any one day of feeling bad and the potential alternative of feeling much worse for a much longer period of time if I were to get coronavirus.

I know that no vaccine is 100 percent effective, but I would rather have a 5 or 6 percent chance of getting coronavirus compared to a potential 100 percent chance.