Gare, I'm 49 and I was able to get the vaccine recently because my daughter is severely disabled and at very high risk (but because she's 15 she can't get it yet; vaccinating her family is the next best thing to vaccinating her). My son also got it with me. After the first shot I felt nothing and he had a very mild fever. After the second shot my arm was sore and I was a little tired; my son spiked a 101 temperature and was very tired for about 24 hours, but then those symptoms went away. And I reminded him that those symptoms mean the vaccine is working; his body was creating the antibodies to fight of a possible future COVID virus exposure. And I also explained that the COVID vaccine is not the kind of vaccine that uses dead virus cells, so there is no way it can give him COVID (And Gare there is no way the vaccine can give it to you either). The mRNA based approach triggers the body's antibody creation mechanism without needing dead virus cells.
My wife is a registered nurse; she got the vaccine a few weeks before me and my son, and she had a similar reaction to my son (low fever after first shot, a bad night of sleep and fever/sweats after the second one).
Other experiences in my family:
- my sister-in-law was in the clinical trials. She had no issues.
- my brother and his wife are doctors in Los Angeles. Where they were stacking bodies in the hallways of his hospital. They got the vaccine as soon as California made it available.
- my dad's in Pennsylvania, and despite being 78 it's taken him forever to get an appointment for the vaccine (because PA's rollout is not being managed very well, apparently). He got his first shot and felt nothing.
- my mother-in-law didn't even feel the needle during the first shot, and she wasn't watching the person administer it. She left saying "I think they might have pretended to give it to me" (she's a little crazy). She had no side effects.
I share all those experiences because it seems like you had a pretty strong reaction to the vaccine, Gare, but I wanted you to know that it seems that you're the exception. I'm sorry it hit you hard - but I believe it's good that you got the vaccine.
As for how "fast" they were able to develop the vaccine, as Treasure Hunter has pointed out, the scientists and pharma companies were working on this mRNA approach for years - maybe a decade or more - before the COVID-19 pandemic began. I explained it to my son in a way he could relate: Big Macs. The reason McD's can crank out a warm Big Mac so quickly is that they had all the components ready to go, just waiting on him to order the sandwich. And even if he asks for "extra special sauce" they can still deliver quickly because they had those components ready (just like the pharma companies could make COVID-19 vaccines because they had the components of a COVID vaccine ready, they just needed to add the specific COVID-19 component i.e. extra special sauce). And if a school bus shows up and all the kids order Big Macs, it will take them some time to crank out all the orders, but they can do it - because they were generally prepared for a surge in demand. And if 10 school busses show up, they might have to ask McD corporate to make more buns or move some from another store (which explains why everyone can't get the vaccine yet, but will be able to eventuallY), but they can still feed 10 school busses. It's not a perfect analogy, but my son understood it.
And my opinion on safety: just because we "don't know" the long-term effects does not mean that there will actually be long term effects. There are risks in everything we do; I'm not sure if eating bacon will clog my arteries (though there's medical evidence that it will), yet I still eat bacon because I like bacon. There's medical evidence that using the vaccine helps me avoid catching COVID-19 - or if I'm unlucky and happen to catch it the vaccine will greatly reduce my risk of being hospitalized - and there is NOT any medical reason to believe that the vaccine will cause long-term negative effects. (But there is a real possibility that catching COVID-19 will leave some people with long-term negative effects). I weighed all of that information and concluded that taking the vaccine was something I would do as soon as I could.
And if, in 10 years, a negative consequence is discovered related to the vaccine then I will still feel that I made the best decision at the time with the information available. (And now I've put this in writing on Treasurenet, so that I can remind myself of that in the future).
Good luck to all of you and I hope you stay healthy, whatever you decide to do.
- Brian