# Getting my vaccine



## Peyton Price 17 (May 16, 2021)

So I just got the Pfizer vaccine last night. I’m 13 so it’s the only one I could get. Now my arm is pretty sore from it. No side effects 12 hours later. I’m right handed and got it in my right arm, so now I can’t run my lathe. But feeling good and better than what everyone said about it.


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## Eddyde (May 16, 2021)

Congratulations, brave young man.
I got the Pfizer vaccine as well. Had a sore arm for a couple of days after but it wasn't too bad. I also had some cold sweats the day after the second shot and the arm wasn't as sore. I had Covid early last year and can certainly say, the shot was nothing compared to the virus.


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## BGHansen (May 16, 2021)

My 82-year old mom got 2 Pfizer shots and had no reactions.  I had 2 Moderna's.  Absolutely no reaction other than a tender to a hard press on my deltoid with the first one.  Second one gave me a 100.6 fever, caused me to go from 1 1/2 total sick days after 39-years of working to 2 1/2.  In my youth, I'd have popped a couple of Motrin and headed in, but I'm on the rapid downslide toward retirement and wasn't "feeling it".  My sore deltoid took about 3 days to recover completely.  Good luck to a quick recovery!

Bruce


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## vtcnc (May 16, 2021)

Anecdotally, just about everyone I know has had the immune response expected after getting the vaccine. In the case of the J&J, it has been about 50/50 on whether the immune response was noticed. For both Pfizer and Moderna, it has been sore arm on the first shot, and flu like symptoms after the second. Fever, muscle aches, headache, fatigue. I received the Moderna, and was feeling it after the second shot, but managed to drag my butt through the day at work.


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## DavidR8 (May 16, 2021)

I got the Pfizer on Friday and felt pretty lousy afterwards. Today two days on just a bit of tenderness at the injection site.
Come on #2!


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## mksj (May 16, 2021)

Kudos to getting vaccinated, I had both Moderna vaccine shots about 3 & 4 months ago, symptoms similar to what others have indicated. More of a sore arm with the first dose, chills and dog tired the day after receiving the second dose. I always request to be vaccinated in my non-dominant arm. I have had other vaccinations that have made me a lot sicker, I do not follow why people feel they should get vaccinated and be symptom free. Sure beats getting Covid and rolling the dice on how you will get through it, and infecting countless other that you come in contact with. The younger individuals seem to do a bit better from a symptoms point of view, but have I know of a number of 30 and 40 Y/O that were knocked out for weeks/months. Get beyond that age group and may be permanently knocked out R.I.P.

It is advised not to take NSAIDs (Motrin, etc.) or aspirin for the fever, chills or aches because it may blunt some of the immune response; Tylenol (Acetaminophen) is OK.


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## mmcmdl (May 16, 2021)

vtcnc said:


> For both Pfizer and Moderna, it has been sore arm on the first shot, and flu like symptoms after the second.


This is what I experienced . Was out a day from work .


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## DavidR8 (May 16, 2021)

This is the handout I was given. 
Note the awesome graphics, particularly the last side effect


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## francist (May 16, 2021)

I got first dose of the Pfizer on Monday. Standard reaction much like a flu shot, but I was surprised that for about an hour right after getting the shot I almost felt a little bit of a buzz going on. Never had that before (other than from the more predictable substances). Kinda strange.


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## DavidR8 (May 16, 2021)

francist said:


> I got first dose of the Pfizer on Monday. Standard reaction much like a flu shot, but I was surprised that for about an hour right after getting the shot I almost felt a little bit of a buzz going on. Never had that before (other than from the more predictable substances). Kinda strange.


That was a euphoria high from finally seeing a light at the end of this seemingly interminable tunnel


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## francist (May 16, 2021)

Yup, there is that!


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## silence dogood (May 16, 2021)

A couple Fridays ago, our county health department set up a drive-in type shot.  One line was Pfizer and the other Johnson & Johnson. Opted for the JJ since you only need one.  Took less than half hour. Had a sore arm, that was it. We thought that we'd be there at least a couple of hours. Hardly anyone showed up.   The wife made a couple copies of the record.  I keep one in my wallet, so if anyone asks.


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## john.oliver35 (May 16, 2021)

Sore arm only after the first Pfizer shot.  After the second I had the same kind of strange fogginess that Francist reports, but it only lasted a couple hours.  Easy process for me.  We are almost 100% vaccinated at work now and the masks are coming off!


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## vtcnc (May 16, 2021)

john.oliver35 said:


> Sore arm only after the first Pfizer shot.  After the second I had the same kind of strange fogginess that Francist reports, but it only lasted a couple hours.  Easy process for me.  We are almost 100% vaccinated at work now and the masks are coming off!


Vermont lifted the indoors mask mandate for vaccinated people. I had the distinct pleasure of announcing this on Friday during our first company BBQ. Only a few people remain unvaccinated and are scheduled over the next couple of weeks.


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## Suzuki4evr (May 16, 2021)

Peyton Price 17 said:


> So I just got the Pfizer vaccine last night. I’m 13 so it’s the only one I could get. Now my arm is pretty sore from it. No side effects 12 hours later. I’m right handed and got it in my right arm, so now I can’t run my lathe. But feeling good and better than what everyone said about it.


I am totally off topic, but I must say I am impressed to see a young man like you on this site and doing what we all like. I checked and see that you joined at 12 years of age. IMPRESSIVE.


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## kvt (May 16, 2021)

Have had both of my shots, and the two week after so am considered fully vaccinated, a little sore arm but not to bad.


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## pdentrem (May 16, 2021)

Had the Astra Zen over a month ago. Sore arm as per any vaccine, and the next day was chills and no energy. Got the shot Friday and was back to normal Monday evening. Likely the second shot will be Pfizer or Moderna in a couple months.
Pierre


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## Peyton Price 17 (May 16, 2021)

Still feeling good. Did some black smithing so now my arm is sore again. What was I thinking? Oh well, I feel better now than before.


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## brino (May 16, 2021)

@Peyton Price 17 

May there be many, many, many more years of sore arms from blacksmithing!

-brino


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## Peyton Price 17 (May 17, 2021)

fine today. getting my second shot on June 5th.


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## macardoso (May 17, 2021)

Funny story...

Wife and I got our Pfizer shots at the Cleveland National Guard mass vaccination site a while back. First shot went normal with arm and lymph node soreness. Maybe more sore than average. Wife didn't get it nearly as much.

Went in for my second shot and the NG nurse asked me if I had any symptoms and I reported some soreness. She mentioned I might be quite sore again following the second shot.

The use auto-retracting safety syringes to deliver the vaccine. She starts to give me the vaccine and I feel something wet on my arm. After questioning her, she comments that the syringe failed, retracted early, and dumped whatever vaccine didn't go into my arm.. Something about manufacturing tolerances and how extremely rare it is. Said she has heard of it happening but never once seen it (they do 8000 vaccines a day there). So she calls the line nurse over and they discuss for a while and they decide to give me another dose since they got most, but not all, of the first one in me. Starts the second injection (in my other arm) and what do you know, it happens again.

This time they call the NG doctor over. Big hawaiian dude, looked like a linebacker. He comments on me having "elephant skin", shrugs and says "stick him again". After running off to find a normal needle, they give me a 3rd shot and make me wait 90 minutes for monitoring. After the doc leaves, the original nurse walks back and looks me square in the face and says "you're going to hurt tomorrow". Made me chuckle. Meanwhile the poor guy behind me has been sweating it out for the last 30 minutes seeing me get multiple shots.

Next day admittedly sucked. Bad flu symptoms, aches, pains, fever, sweats, that kind of stuff. Day after I was back to 95%. Arms were fine within a few days to go rock climbing.

And that's the story of how I got 4 doses of the vaccine.


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## Peyton Price 17 (May 17, 2021)

one day I got 4 shots. 1 in each arm and leg! I was 5 or 6 and it was awful. I got a lollipop though. this one was worse than the tetanus booster.


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## macardoso (May 17, 2021)

Peyton Price 17 said:


> one day I got 4 shots. 1 in each arm and leg! I was 5 or 6 and it was awful. I got a lollipop though. this one was worse than the tetanus booster.


The Tetanus shot remains my worst shot ever.

I think you're supposed to keep that one up to date every 10 years. In college I went out whitewater kayaking was hiking out of a river and stepped on a hay baling staple buried in the wet leaves on the ground. Went clean through my shoe, dry suit, entire foot, and back out the top of my dry suit and shoe. Rusty as could be and in the middle of farm country West Virginia (farms + rusty stuff = bad news). Ripped it out and cleaned best I could, still had 3 hours to paddle to the end plus a mile and a half hike. Went to a clinic and was asked for my tetanus booster date. It was 12 years earlier so I needed the "full" tetanus shot. Laid me out for 3 days with a horrible fever. We were all camping and I couldn't move from my tent at all. Could barely get to the bathroom. Ended up fine and I will never let my booster go out of date again. Vaccines are a miracle of modern medicine, we are all so lucky to live in a place and time where we have the privilege to get them.


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## EricB (May 18, 2021)

My Dr. told me the tetanus shot is only good for 5 years if you work with rusty metal. Ten years if you don't.

Eric


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## addertooth (May 18, 2021)

I will throw in a bit of "medical stuff" on my feelings about Moderna and Pfizer shots.   They were developed using CRISPR technology, the same techniques used for Gene Therapy.  These vaccines use Messenger RNA (mRNA) technology to place RNA genetic material into your body.  They introduce into T-Cells an RNA sequence which facilitates an enhanced production of Antibodies.  These shots use a mechanism NEVER seen before in a vaccine.  This is part of the reason why their stated effectiveness is much higher than other vaccines which you have taken in the past.  Keep in mind, the technique used by this vaccine is NEW and Novel.  There is no long-term study for this type of vaccine.

The Johnson and Johnson (Jansen) vaccine is like all the vaccines which you have taken throughout your life.  You already know how well (long term), how your body tolerates and accepts it.  It is slightly LESS effective than the mRNA vaccines, but uses a proven technology.  It's effectiveness is on par with the Polio vaccine that most people took as a child.  Even at this lower level of effectiveness, Polio was eradicated in the USA.

I ended up getting the latter vaccine, as the unknown factors of the mRNA vaccines were concerning.  As of today, there is no liability for the makers, for outcomes with any of the vaccines.  This led me to choose the vaccine which had the lowest probability of something new and novel happening to my body.


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## Peyton Price 17 (May 18, 2021)

addertooth said:


> I will throw in a bit of "medical stuff" on my feelings about Moderna and Pfizer shots.   They were developed using CRISPR technology, the same techniques used for Gene Therapy.  They introduce into T-Cells an RNA sequence which facilitates an enhanced production of Antibodies.  These shots use a mechanism NEVER seen before in a vaccine.  This is part of the reason why their stated effectiveness is much higher than other vaccines which you have taken in the past.  Keep in mind, the technique used by this vaccine is NEW and Novel.  There is no long-term study for this type of vaccine.


my mom used to work at Pfizer doing clinical trials and now she has 23 years of experience in clinical trials and she completely trusts it. now she is working on gene therapy, so I trust it, sure beats getting it.


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## addertooth (May 18, 2021)

Peyton Price 17 said:


> my mom used to work at Pfizer doing clinical trials and now she has 23 years of experience in clinical trials and she completely trusts it. now she is working on gene therapy, so I trust it, sure beats getting it.



Every day we are bombarded with commercials from lawyers which say "did you take medicine X?  If you did, you may be owed compensation".  The only real way to determine if a medicine is SAFE and effective, is time.  Often medicines will pass the FDA tests, only to learn they cause cancer and other very undesirable conditions long-term.    Don't get me wrong, I have a high respect for people who create new medicines, but, they don't have a crystal ball.  Often bad outcomes are not learned until YEARS after a medicine has been accepted and approved.


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## macardoso (May 18, 2021)

addertooth said:


> I will throw in a bit of "medical stuff" on my feelings about Moderna and Pfizer shots.   They were developed using CRISPR technology, the same techniques used for Gene Therapy.  These vaccines use Messenger RNA (mRNA) technology to place RNA genetic material into your body.  They introduce into T-Cells an RNA sequence which facilitates an enhanced production of Antibodies.  These shots use a mechanism NEVER seen before in a vaccine.  This is part of the reason why their stated effectiveness is much higher than other vaccines which you have taken in the past.  Keep in mind, the technique used by this vaccine is NEW and Novel.  There is no long-term study for this type of vaccine.
> 
> The Johnson and Johnson (Jansen) vaccine is like all the vaccines which you have taken throughout your life.  You already know how well (long term), how your body tolerates and accepts it.  It is slightly LESS effective than the mRNA vaccines, but uses a proven technology.  It's effectiveness is on par with the Polio vaccine that most people took as a child.  Even at this lower level of effectiveness, Polio was eradicated in the USA.
> 
> I ended up getting the latter vaccine, as the unknown factors of the mRNA vaccines was concerning.  As of today, there is no liability for the makers, for outcomes with any of the vaccines.  This led me to choose the vaccine which had the lowest probability of something new and novel happening to my body.


I'm a bit of a nerd and got the Pfizer specifically because I wanted the cool new stuff   

Seriously though, modern medicine is amazing.


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## vtcnc (May 18, 2021)

addertooth said:


> Every day we are bombarded with commercials from lawyers which say "did you take medicine X?  If you did, you may be owed compensation".  The only real way to determine if a medicine is SAFE and effective, is time.  Often medicines will pass the FDA tests, only to learn they cause cancer and other very undesirable conditions long-term.    Don't get me wrong, I have a high respect for people who create new medicines, but, they don't have a crystal ball.  Often bad outcomes are not learned until YEARS after a medicine has been accepted and approved.


Everything comes with risk or is found on some continuum - as far as we currently know. The good news is that the numbers are in the favor of the sweeping vast majority of people who are getting the vaccine. It is sad and unfortunate for those who are on the losing end of this. It is difficult to fathom the ethical and morale nature of these social problems, but the solution by its very nature cannot be a 100% or 0% solve. It has to be something in between and that equals some acceptable risk.


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## mksj (May 18, 2021)

Maybe need to put this all in perspective, I have been conducting clinical trials for 35+ years and still do medical consulting in the pharmaceutical industry, one of my clients is Moderna. I primarily did Cancer and HIV clinical trials and later on multiple other therapeutic areas, from first in human all the way through what is known as bridging studies where we compare the a drug in different ethnic groups, and also served as medical safety officer, etc. All drugs carry a risk, but one is always balancing the benefit to risk ratio. The newer mRNA vaccines have been in clinical trials for other indications for several years, in in a manor of speaking are much cleaner and quicker technology to provide a more focused approach to treatments as opposed to the shot gun approach that has been used for decades. We are also much better these days at determining potential mutagenic, carcinogenic and teratogenic  effects of drugs in different assay and animal testing, there are also post surveillance studies to look at ongoing risk and the association with drugs. The cancer issue say with smoking  asbestos or with alcohol has been long known has been long known yet people still smoke and drink. The chance of them developing head and neck cancer over 20-30 years is magnitudes higher, let alone all the chemicals we use in our day to day life. Almost all cancer drugs are known cause DNA damage and secondary cancers, so we treat one only to have another develop down the line. In CA just about everything you buy or eat carries a cancer risk label, stupid.

Everything you eat, breath and touch has a risk. If you want to wait 20-30 years for a drug to prove that it doesn't cause cancer, you need to also look at the number of lives saved and the improvement in quality of life. Historically drugs used the sledge hammer approach and had much more side effects, clinical development is evolving to a more surgical and specific approach. The issue is that a living organism is a complex biological system, and there a numerous collateral pathways. When fighting infections the organisms mutate at a high rate and selective pressure quickly causes resistance to develop. We learned from covid that we do not have years to develop treatments but more like months. That we have an effective treatment with a 95+% with minimal side effects in 9 months, has never been achieved in medical history. The alternative would have been millions more dead. Pick which every vaccine you choose, but get vaccinated. This is just the beginning, it has long been expected that these types of infectious would and will continue to occur. Had Ebola outbreak in 2014-16 not been quickly contained the world would have been ravaged, a vaccine became available in 2019 using recombinant technology.

FYI, you can't sue companies for most vaccines, it is not only specific to covid.








						42 U.S. Code § 300aa–22 -  Standards of responsibility
					






					www.law.cornell.edu


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## Peyton Price 17 (Jun 8, 2021)

I got my second dose 2 days ago sore arm, bad headache, everything was hurting for 2 days.  now I feel fine so I'm good.


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## pdentrem (Jun 8, 2021)

They are accelerating the second doses now as the India version has arrived! Need the second dose to gain better protection for that version.


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## addertooth (Jun 8, 2021)

New strains are always assured to come from the same vector.   They come from countries where nutrition is more challenged, and there are a surplus of people who represent greats hosts, with weakened immunity.   With a weaker host, a strain which would normally not be viable, will have a chance to live, and adapt better to the human genome.   It is almost always the same kinds of hotspots that we see new strains arise from.

There is no actual fix for this mechanism.


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## Scra99tch (Jun 8, 2021)

addertooth said:


> Every day we are bombarded with commercials from lawyers which say "did you take medicine X?  If you did, you may be owed compensation".  The only real way to determine if a medicine is SAFE and effective, is time.  Often medicines will pass the FDA tests, only to learn they cause cancer and other very undesirable conditions long-term.    Don't get me wrong, I have a high respect for people who create new medicines, but, they don't have a crystal ball.  Often bad outcomes are not learned until YEARS after a medicine has been accepted and approved.


Keep in mind that if you were to get a form of cancer from this or from any other of the 3500 some odd chemicals we come into contact each year   This pharmaceutical tech is probably going to be used for treating said cancer.  Its risky and I at least applaud you for doing the dead virus vaccine route.  

And truth be told there have been some very detrimental outcomes to new medications.


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## Eddyde (Jun 8, 2021)

Also keep in mind: A vaccine isn't a "medicine" per se, it doesn't work the same way and it is only given as dose or two, not taken regularly for years, like most other   pharmaceutical treatments. Thus the longterm risks are extremely low. Of course there is always. a risk but mainly due to allergic reactions. Have you ever heard any of those lawyer ads for a vaccine lawsuit?


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## 1930 (Jun 8, 2021)

Someone will have to strap me down against my will to give me any of these vaccines.


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## Superburban (Jun 8, 2021)

Eddyde said:


> Also keep in mind: A vaccine isn't a "medicine" per se, it doesn't work the same way and it is only given as dose or two, not taken regularly for years, like most other   pharmaceutical treatments. Thus the longterm risks are extremely low. Of course there is always. a risk but mainly due to allergic reactions. Have you ever heard any of those lawyer ads for a vaccine lawsuit?


No, because our laws prevent it. There have been several attempts from the experimental stuff the Army gave the soldiers in Desert Storm, but all were shot down by the courts.









						42 U.S. Code § 300aa–22 -  Standards of responsibility
					






					www.law.cornell.edu
				





> (1)
> No vaccine manufacturer shall be liable in a civil action for damages arising from a vaccine-related injury or death associated with the administration of a vaccine after October 1, 1988, if the injury or death resulted from side effects that were unavoidable even though the vaccine was properly prepared and was accompanied by proper directions and warnings.


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## Eddyde (Jun 10, 2021)

Superburban said:


> No, because our laws prevent it. There have been several attempts from the experimental stuff the Army gave the soldiers in Desert Storm, but all were shot down by the courts.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


My point was about vaccines administered to the public at large, Overwhelming medical evidence shows that negative side effects are rare and minor.
As far as the military, Yes there were some terrible abuses for sure (My father in law was given LSD in the Edgewood Arsenal drug experiments). But the drugs given the soldiers in Desert Storm were anti chemical and bio weapon, hard to equate with anti infectious disease vaccines.


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## Shotgun (Jun 10, 2021)

Negative side effects may be rare and minor from vaccines in general, but the VAERS database currently shows 4,763 death reports for COVID-19 vaccines.

I might not say out loud that giving this to the general population is borderline insane, but I might think it.


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## mksj (Jun 10, 2021)

Just to be clear you should report the complete statement from VAERS and not state misleading information:
"Over 285 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines were administered in the United States from December 14, 2020, through May 24, 2021. During this time, VAERS received 4,863 reports of death (0.0017%) among people who received a COVID-19 vaccine. CDC and FDA physicians review each case report of death as soon as notified and CDC requests medical records to further assess reports. *A review of available clinical information, including death certificates, autopsy, and medical records has not established a causal link to COVID-19 vaccines. *However, recent reports indicate a plausible causal relationship between the J&J/Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine and a rare and serious adverse event—blood clots with low platelets—which has caused deaths. Get the latest safety information on the J&J/Janssen vaccine. CDC and FDA will continue to investigate reports of adverse events, including deaths, reported to VAERS."








						COVID-19 Vaccination
					

COVID-19 vaccines protect against COVID-19. Get safety info and more.




					www.cdc.gov
				




I have run over 200+ clinical trials in a multitude pf medical indications and these vaccines are by far the safest and most efficacious therapeutic agents I have seen. Recent data reported today from Moderna showed 100% efficacy in an adolescent trial of around 2500 individuals with minmal side effects. Given that there has been 600,000 COVID related deaths in the US so far with an estimated 114.6 million total infections, 97.1 million symptomatic cases and 5.6 million hospitalizations, the odds are not favorable for not getting vaccinated in particular with the newer more virulent COVID stains. 








						Cases, Data, and Surveillance
					

Cases, data, and surveillance to track and analyze COVID-19.




					www.cdc.gov
				




Also worth reviewing is J&J vaccine safety information, which appears to have a higher frequency of serious side effects, albeit a low incidence.








						Safety Monitoring of the Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) COVID-19 Vaccine
					

Nearly 8 million doses of the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine had been...




					www.cdc.gov


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## Eddyde (Jun 10, 2021)

After surviving Covid 19 early last year and having lost three friends to it, I think not getting vaccinated is borderline insanity.


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## Cadillac (Jun 10, 2021)

So what happens in six months when the vaccine wears off? Get back in line for your shot?


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## Shotgun (Jun 11, 2021)

I'm also a "COVID survivor".  It was no worse than what people are reporting for the vaccine.  But the question is, were your friends young (defined as under 50), healthy people?  Note, I specifically said "general population" in the last post. That means giving it to everyone, instead of targeting people who might be at serious risk.  Every single drug has so-called "side-effects".  I say so-called, because they are really just effects that we wish weren't there.  But, to get the effects we want, we have to put up with the ones we don't.  You pay a doctors job to carefully consider and weigh the cost/benefits of each medicine, and advise you on the best path for your particular case.  You don't give everyone statins, even though heart attacks are a leading cause of death.  In the same vein, a study showing that this drug is effective in adolescents is on par with my study demonstrating that my tiger repelling underarm deodorant is effective.  It's been years, and I haven't been eaten by a tiger yet.  Why in the world would you give children an EXPERIMENTAL drug for a disease that they most likely wouldn't know they ever had unless you tested and told them?

[edited by a moderator.  reason: inflammatory]


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## Eddyde (Jun 11, 2021)

Cadillac said:


> So what happens in six months when the vaccine wears off? Get back in line for your shot?


It isn't clear yet when or if booster shots will be needed, it depends on the possible mutations of the virus and the immune system of the individual. Anyway, I will get the booster shots if need be, to protect myself, my family and my fellow Americans.


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