Vaccine anxiety and not sure what to do.

[Littlelapwing]

I’ve been offered the Pfizer vaccine and in a total quandary. I haven’t trusted the Pfizer vaccine from the start, I don’t like the technology/basis for it and I don’t trust the company.
I don’t have a problem with the Oxford vaccine.....but that’s sadly not an option.

Has anyone else been in this position? Can you recommend any reassuring reading about the Pfizer vaccine in particular please? I’m not anti-vaccine at all but this particular one worries me.

I’m young, healthy, and 99% sure I’ve already had Covid. Can’t decide if that’s relevant.

I will also add (before any possible pile on, you never know) that anxiety over decisions like this is completely legitimate. I’m looking for other views/reassurance/helpful reading please.

Thanks.

[quote trulydelicious]@Haffiana

Having irrational anxiety is not the same as asking questions OR being an anti-vaxxer. It is a medical condition and not treatable by facts

The OP has candidly said she suffers from anxiety.

Using this to play mind games in order to discredit any rational concerns she may have in relation to the vaccines is disgusting and I would be really worried if these are the attitides/responses she has to face IRL[/quote]
No-one is playing 'mind games'. OP is anxious and has said herself that her worry is irrational.

You are twisting this to fit your agenda.

The reason people like myself have lost patience with people apparently asking innocent and legitimate questions about COVID vaccines is that internet discussion groups are full of anti-vax trolls masquerading as people asking such "innocent and legitimate questions".

They have become very clever at drawing people down rabbit holes - which makes it very hard to distinguish between people with a few genuine questions - and people with an agenda to push.

Meanwhile bodies are stacking up.

Bottom line - we're living in a very dangerous time - there are no perfect options.

Even if a COVID vaccine KILLED 1 in 10,000 people who received it. There is not one that does this - but imagine there was. It would still make sense for a 40 year old to take the vaccine - because about 1 in 1000 40 year olds who get COVID die from it.

COVID has already killed about 1 in 850 people living in the UK - and it's still raging.

About 2.5 million have and their first vaccine shot in the UK - and I haven't heard of anyone dying from that yet.

I'm just going to roll up my sleeve and take the calculated risk.

I don’t trust American healthcare, they have a different set of ethics to us (I think). I think that’s part of my problem tbh.

Are you happier about it, OP, now that it has been clarified that the Pfizer vaccine isn't American in origin?

Op, I have had it. I am similar age to you. I was anxious and worried and didn't want to express concerns in work (NHS). I think because it was new vaccine and not many people had had it. I even spoke to a few doctors when waiting, who were anxious and they said they didn't know why.

I had the Pfizer and was absolutely fine. Had an aching mark and few muscle aches but after 24 hours I felt back to normal and I'm so glad I had it.

I feel the same op. I'm very pro vaccination and my rational mind knows that I need to do this but I have a history of anxiety and I'm focusing on this at the moment. It doesn't help that there's an "expectation" that we all have it too so I feel pressured.

I don’t trust American healthcare, they have a different set of ethics to us (I think). I think that’s part of my problem tbh

Healthcare in USA is very different, but ethical standards in clinical research are framed around identical principles (based on Declaration of Helsinki and laid out in a document called ICH GCP. GCP is Good Clinical Practice and relates to standards in research). This is the same for research in the UK and USA (and many other countries).

The document is here: www.ema.europa.eu/en/ich-e6-r2-good-clinical-practice

I am anxious too OP, but I know my anxiety is regarding if there will be any side effects from the drug in the future. Could yours be this too?

My kids have all vaccines offered but I know they have been around years, so am relaxed about those ones.

I am trying to google but don't know where to find the answers to this.

Well if you're adamant that you don't want the Pfizer vaccine, refuse it and wait till they've run out of the Pfizer quota and then you're likely to get the Oxford one. It frees it up for someone else to use.