A man getting the vaccine
(Picture: PA)People are sharing their positive vaccination experiences in an effort to reassure those nervous about getting jabbed.
In a thread which has gone viral on Twitter – and not in the illness sense of the word – people are reassuring others about side effects and the general experience to counter rare horror stories which are often shared online.
People who have gotten vaccinated please share your experience so we can retweet. Aggressively.
— Rocktor (@Mavumavu91) August 10, 2021
The narrative of unconfirmed disproportionate horror stories is flooding the socials and it’s causing a lot of hesitancy.
In contrast to these horror stories, if anything most people reported feeling a bit tired after the shot, or getting a sore arm:
Got Astra Zeneca in late April and Pfizer in June…I had zero side effects from either
— Patrick Gallagher (@PatrickGman) August 11, 2021
1st shot I was down a day. Week later got this bump around the shot area. Lasted 1 or 2 weeks. 2nd shot Holy Hell was down a week. Fully down 2 days & my arm blew up like the photo with the bandage. All that said - I’ll be first in line for our 3rd shot. pic.twitter.com/1Z5xxaOYEd
— Houndmom 🐾on the side of science-fully vaccinated (@houndmom) August 11, 2021
Moderna, thankfully no side effects. 22M UK. Jab administered within 5 mins of getting there, with 10 minute observation after. Plus, even if you do suffer side effects, it's better than COVID, and better than the guilt you'd feel from passing it onto a loved one.
— Daniel Rodgers (@Danjamrod) August 10, 2021
Got pfizer. Felt extra sleepy/tired for a day, both times. Nothing else. Sore arm too, but that's not covid vaccine exclusive.
— Archimedes Amazonas (@zonas_arch) August 11, 2021
A little tired after both shots. Some soreness in my arm that lingered a little for maybe a month when I would change shirts. Otherwise all I felt was great relief. I’m crying in photo 2. #nolacorona #sleevesup https://t.co/ZQU13t2swG pic.twitter.com/1wudQkijRt
— Lisa M. Chmiola, MS, CFRE, TEDx speaker (she/her) (@houdatlisa) August 11, 2021
Others compared the experience to that of getting Covid and – spoiler alert– Covid was worse:
Moderna. I had covid March ‘20. Let’s compare:
— Justin Starr (@UrbanAstroNYC) August 10, 2021
• 1st 💉- Felt like *shit* for 24 hours, then it was over.
• 2nd 💉- Felt not great for 24 hours, then it was over.
• COVID - felt like SHIT for 3 days, breathing difficulties for 2 WEEKS, brain fog.
I know which I prefer! ☺️
Some were upset that conspiracy theories about the vaccine like becoming magnetic turned out to be false:
Honestly, I give the vaccine one star.
— Constantly Shook (@LeboLare) August 10, 2021
It’s been 32 days and I’m still waiting for a third arm to grow or for me to start craving brains or something. Instead all I have is good health.
Dammit. I didn’t get any super powers. =[
— Stephie (@PeepBunnies) August 10, 2021
And even those who got side-effects said it was completely worth it:
Out of the 9 million teens who have had the Pfizer vaccine, roughly 9,240 have reported side effects -- 91% of which were minor, according to the CDC. https://t.co/bvEnYmU0eU pic.twitter.com/9XzUmxwVMT
— WebMD (@WebMD) August 7, 2021
According to the latest available government data, 86.6 million doses of vaccine have been administered in the UK so far. 59.3 per cent of the population is fully vaccinated which equates to 75 per cent of people over the age of 18.
Despite this, there are still some people who are cautious about getting jabbed, with misinformation spread by anti-vaxxers playing some part in giving people jitters.
However, vaccine hesitancy among young people has fallen, new figures have suggested. For 16 and 17-year-olds, who are now able to get a Covid-19 jab after the decision was announced last week to extend the rollout to that age group, hesitancy has decreased from 14% to 11%.
Among those aged 18 to 21, hesitancy around jabs went down to 5% from 9%, and dropped slightly for 22 to 25-year-olds from 10% to 9%.
Overall, more than nine in 10 adults (96%) reported positive sentiment towards coronavirus vaccines while 4% reported hesitancy – figures unchanged from the previous findings which covered May 26 to June 20.
Threads like these go some way to helping people realise that getting a jab is not so bad and serious side effects are vanishingly rare.
We can even reveal that an indy100 writer was given a banana and chocolates when she received her first jab.
Who could say no to that?
