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The question is why COVID vaccine is so harsh, and why is it different than a typical flu vaccine? People say the side effect is good it is your immune response, then why not having side effect is good as well? The more I read the more confused I am.

I am getting my second jab tomorrow. Vaccine is still far better than the virus itself.

>The question is why COVID vaccine is so harsh, and why is it different than a typical flu vaccine?

Is it though? You can certainly get a severe reaction from the flu vaccine.

They do seem to be - anecdotally like half people have a day off work. I guess it must be something to do with the nature of the virus as the vaccines seem much the same that way.

Anecdotally, I don't think half of those in the UK have had a day or more of ill-effects afterwards.

We do hear of those that get ill effects though, amplified by social media channels and press. You don't hear about the majority that don't feel ill.

Spitballing outta my rear here – but could it be that we have a lot more exposure to flu-like viruses, whereas Corona viruses are comparatively novel, at least as far as the immune system's concerned, so there'a a lot more a struggle for the body to acclimatise?

Coronaviruses are not really novel, about 15% of common colds are caused by 4 different strains that are endemic in humans.

Ah, thanks, I didn't know!

*Googles

It's just what I heard on the Dutch news, but IIRC there are things you can do to make side effects less bad (I guess e.g. experiment with lower dosages), but doing those things will delay the vaccine. Which of course wasn't desirable, so they opted for a higher certainty of having a working vaccines sooner over having fewer side effects. In the future, side effects could be less severe.

> The question is why COVID vaccine is so harsh, and why is it different than a typical flu vaccine?

I had a pretty bad day after the second dose of Moderna - high fever, etc. Symptoms mostly dissipated after 24 hours of the shot.

I have my suspicions about why the COVID vaccines have tended to have more severe reactivity as compared to the flu vaccine - they were designed to trigger a very strong immune response & subsequent antibody titer, probably a lot more than might be required for protection in hindsight. The current crop of emergency use authorized vaccines have virtually 100% protection against severe COVID - which is great. My guess is that halving the antibody titer would have yielded something like 95% protection, and probably given you less reactivity as well. The manufacturers have erred on the side of caution, probably rightly so. By comparison the flu shot for last year's flu season had an effectiveness in the range of 50%. Of course, the thing that dings flu shot effectiveness is variant strains, while all the current COVID vaccines were designed from the original Wuhan strain (?), and likely have varying effectiveness against variant strains.

I wonder if the reaction from the vaccination is proportional to the reaction from the actual virus - e.g. would you have been hospitalised with the actual virus?

My understanding is that the heavy reaction after inoculation of a vaccine means that your immune system is working, as expected. So I'd say rather opposite, as a fast, strong immune reaction would fight COVID better. But I am working from decades old biology knowledge here.

This BBC reporter has written of his experience of taking the AstraZeneca vaccine:

"The worst was the migraine and vomiting, but I also had aches, chills and exhaustion."

The reporter recovered but wonders why some people get more severe side-effects than others. Could it have something to do with age? Paradoxically, the older you are, the less likely you are to experience side-effects.

Vaccine side effects: My experience of them and what they mean:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-56375307

Also, Inside Health: Covid vaccine side-effects (podcast)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000t48v

Older people tend to have weaker immune responses than younger people. Nothing to wonder about, asking his doctor, in case of the journalist, would have answered that question. Or Google. But then he wouldn't have been able to write yet another AZ side effects article.

After my first I had a severe fever/night sweats for two nights (paracetamol helped a lot/meant I could sleep). The second dose gave me no symptoms whatsoever (as suggested by both vaccinators that this would likely be the case).

This seems to be the case for younger/healthier people.

> I'll be the first to line up in three week's time to get my second shot

I believe the second dose of the AZ vaccine is at 2 months. If your second is at 3 weeks, you got a Pfizer shot, not AZ.

You are told before vaccination what you will get and it's on your card. I doubt OP got the vaccine wrong.

I might be wrong about when my next shot is (haven't been contacted by the government yet), but I definitely got AZ.

One of the many reasons Germany is lagging so much behind. We insist in administering the second shot after three weeks, even if we could wait (and should, maybe) up to two months. And we have a tendency to keep the second shot in stock already before applying the first one. But what can you do when you fly blond, with instruments and a compass.

> But what can you do when you fly blond, with instruments and a compass.

I know it was a mis-type for blind, but I found that quite amusing - thanks :)

You might want to consider delaying it until 12 weeks.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014067362...

You feel ill possibly because you had a strong immune response. This is a good thing.

so not feeling ill is probably bad?

As usual it depends on your case. You can have a big immune response, but still within the range your body can take, and you won’t be feeling ill.

I think kids will often have very visible effects after vaccination, while adults in their prime are usually more solid and won’t notice much of what’s going on internally.

No. Feeling ill is mostly due to the innate immune response which declines with age (so seniors have fewer side effects). The adaptive immunity triggered does not seem to be correlated with the innate response or feeling ill.

I had my first AZ jab 10 days ago. Next day slightly sore arm - that's all.