What is it really like to get the AstraZeneca Covid jab?
MORE than 31 million people in the UK have received their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.
This breaks down to about 71,000 people in North East Lincolnshire and roughly 87,000 in North Lincolnshire, as of April 1.
It means the region is on track to meeting the Government’s deadline to vaccinate all over 18s by the end of July. The vaccine is currently available to people aged 50 and over and those at high risk from coronavirus or who care for somebody who is at high risk.
Explaining what it’s like to be on the receiving end of a vaccine, former Grimsby Telegraph reporter, Corey Bedford, has spoken about his experience when he got the Oxford AstraZeneca jab in Grimsby.
Getting booked in
I am 26 and people my age are expected to wait until May or June at the earliest for their first jab, but I was pushed up the queue because I have been hospitalised with asthma in the past.
So they booked me in first thing on Sunday morning - when most GP practices are closed - and also booked me in for my second appointment exactly 12 weeks later.
The appointment
The appointment itself went by quicker than I could possibly have imagined.
I knew that they were very efficient, but I pulled up a couple of minutes before my appointment, put my mask on, and walked in.
Straight off the bat I was asked to sanitise my hands, and there was somebody waiting for me and asked for me by name - exactly when I was due for my appointment.
I sat down outside the vaccination rooms for no more than two minutes, before being called into the room directly ahead of me. From there, the staff sat me down, I took off my jacket and rolled my sleeve up, and the nurse informed me I was getting the Oxford AstraZeneca jab.
Being a journalist, I was aware of the claims and concerns over blood clots that were being mentioned at the time, but I had done my own research in preparation for the jab and found there was not any substantial evidence which would have put me off from receiving that one. Having asthma, I have received so many flu jabs that I’m used to injections now. I still look away, because I dislike needles, but all I actually felt was a little bit of pressure from the needle going in. I admitted to the doctor and nurse that it was less painful than a flu jab, with them both telling me many people say the same thing.
I then sat down with the doctor for a few minutes as he ran through the leaflet you get with the vaccine, before being told when my next appointment is, giving me a vaccination card, and sending me on my way.
I did not even have time to ask for a quick vaccine picture - as I felt I would have been disrupting the efficient set-up they had.
If you do drive to the vaccination hub, be prepared to wait for 15 minutes after your jab, just to make sure any immediate reactions from the jab don’t happen to you while driving. It’s rare that anything will happen, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.
The week after
In the seven days following my vaccine, it’s safe to say I got my fair share of side effects.
For the first 12 hours or so I was completely fine, but as I was getting ready for bed it all seemed to hit me at once.
If you don’t have a chronic illness and a decent immune system, I don’t think meant to be too bad. I think my asthma played a big part for the sideeffects I felt, and it was definitely unpleasant for about 36 hours after the vaccine.
The main side-effect was the fatigue and aching, which carried on for several days in some form. Even about four to five days later I still felt a bit under the weather, with my immune system processing the vaccine.
My arm ached for several days after the jab, too - similar to some jabs I have received in the past before travelling.
However, I also suffered from one awful short-term side effect - shivering.
You’re informed that you might feel hot or cold following the jab, and seeing as I don’t often get cold, I expected to be overheating.
It kind of came out of nowhere, I was lying in bed and suddenly felt freezing and was shaking massively. I’ve never felt anything like it before. If that happens to you, all I can advise is that you get warm as best you can. I wrapped up in a dressing gown, made a cup of tea, and warmed a microwaveable wheat bag in the microwave as I tried to get myself to warm back up again. After about 20 to 30 minutes, the shivering stopped, and the only side effects I had beyond that were fatigue and a sore arm.
Final thoughts
Did the side effects make me regret getting the vaccine? Absolutely not.
I’ve spoken with a number of my friends who have had Covid-19 and each one replied “take what you experienced and times it by 100, then you might be close”, and I can honestly believe it.
In this line of work you speak to a lot of people, and I covered a lot of coronavirus patient stories when I worked at a different newspaper last year. The stories I’ve heard, and the lives that have been torn apart by Covid-19, completely justify getting vaccinated. It’s not confirmed as to whether it will stop you spreading the virus, but it definitely mitigates the impact of it on your immune system. Healthy adults have died because of the impact the virus had on their immune system, and many have been left with ‘long Covid’, which can take months of rehabilitation and rest to get over. Getting the vaccine was always a certainty, for me.
The sooner we are vaccinated, the sooner we are safe from Covid-19. It might be unpleasant for some, but a few days of side effects is better than getting the virus itself.