Can someone talk me into the vaccine?

[Cassie6]

Embarrassed to even be writing this. I work for the bloody NHS for gods sake. My children have had all their vaccinations. I'm really not anti vax in the slightest and I'm surprised that I feel this way but I'm really scared to get the vaccine.

I'm scared because there's no knowledge of if anything could happen long term after having it, 15+ years down the line? Like there have been no long term studies? Can someone with a bit more knowledge explain to me if this is actually a thing?

I've seen it explained on here to people countless times that it hasn't been rushed there's just not been the waiting time there usually is with vaccine development and I understand that but I still feel uneasy about the long term effects.

In my mind my children and I are at such a low risk of being seriously ill that there's not much point having it when it could go wrong. However working in the NHS this is not the attitude and I'm so miserable living in lockdown after lockdown I know I need to do my bit.

So can someone convince me. Can someone explain logically what I'm getting wrong and unnecessarily anxious about?

Following - I'm pretty much exactly the same and not sure why I'm feeling like this.

I feel the same so can’t help sorry

The vaccine appears to be our only chance of getting our freedom back.

Think I'd rather take my chances with the vaccine than with Covid.

We've had all our other jabs so no good reason to distrust this one.

I would say the long term effects covid are much more of a concern for me than the long term effects of a vaccine.

I think I trust thousands of scientists around the world more than my gut. Also from what I gathered long term effects are not normally studied to give a vaccine approval.. It just so happens that it takes a long time to get through all the red tape etc normally... Also normally it's not a global effort with everyone sharing data.

Its difficult to have a discussion with people about it because if you speak to people on the antivax end of the spectrum you come away terrified but the other end if the spectrum just tell you not to worry, crack on and do the vaccine. We need a sort of middle ground discussion.

It's perfectly understandable to feel this way, everything about the pandemic has been an emo rollercoaster, I think we need to bear in mind that we're not just getting vaccinated for ourselves but for the whole of society to protect everyone.

I’m following here too. Also nhs working but have had covid and was fine. So another reason in my mind that I don’t want the vaccine. I know people will say it’s to protect others.

Think I'd rather take my chances with the vaccine than with Covid.

See I don’t necessarily feel this way. I’m pretty confident I’d recover from covid perfectly well as that’s what all evidence suggests. There’s no evidence about long term vaccine effects.

We never know if there's going to be any long term problems when a new vaccine is introduced. We still have them. We still allow our newborn babies to have them. Why would you feel differently about this one?

I felt the same. I work for the NHS. As I will be giving vaccinations I decided I would as I will be in contact with a lot of people. Discussed it with a pharmacist friend and GP friend who have no concerns and in the end decided the people involved in the vaccine were a lot brighter than me and to just do it!
Probably doesn't help at all. Doing my vaccination training did help me understand it better.
I want life back...seems this is the only route out, I guess that tipped it too.

I'm young and healthy, frontline NHS. I know young and healthy people who have died or who are suffering with long covid. I got the vaccine as I wanted to take the option to protect myself against those substantial risks but its an individual choice and balance of potential risks and benefits.

@feelingverylazytoday my kids have never had a new vaccine. They’ve all been around for a long time I think?

It’s not a new vaccine. It’s an adaptation of an existing vaccine.It’s been tested on tens of thousands of people and the only issue seems to be for people who have had anaphylactic reactions in the past. So it’s not totally new and unpredictable. Also i was a bit suspicious of how quickly it was made ready. I read that the delays with most vaccines are due to funding, sadly because most people who need vaccines are in the developing world. People have been throwing money at this to get it done ASAP. It’s been sped up too because instead of testing one approach and then getting data, they’ve trialled different approaches in parallel.

I had the Pfizer (I’m NHS staff). It’s really not a bad injection, better than my last flu jab! I had a very heavy arm for 36 hours, managed with paracetamol. Otherwise I felt fine. I’m high risk so jumped at the chance to get mine! I had mine in the hope that it would reduce my risk of getting it or if I do that my reaction will be reduced, and that I might be less likely to pass it on to my colleagues and patients.

Effects that show up years later are just not a thing for vaccines. There are small risks of serious adverse effects for vaccines, but these show up quickly, and the likelihood of them happening is lower than the likelihood of having serious effects from the disease.

Clearly this risk/benefit equation is different for the young/low risk than the older/high risk groups, but even if I was 18 with no health issues I’d jump at the chance of the vaccine.

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who feels like this. Everyone I know seems to be very gung-ho about having it and can't wait and I'm like " hang on a minute, I'm not so sure about this". I felt a bit more confident when I was reading an article about the women from Oxford who developed the Astra Zeneca vaccine as that explained it as being a ready prepared base that's been tested over years and then they extract the dna code of the COVID virus and plug it into the base. Seemed to make more sense to me and sounded safer.........

@feelingverylazytoday I can only speak for myself but I feel comfortable with the vaccines my kids have had because I know people have been having them for years and years and the vaccines are fine. I had all my vaccines as a child and I had no ill effects and my kids are up to date on their vaccines. This one just feels new and unknown and that makes me uneasy, despite trusting science in every other area of my life!

Do you or your kids have the flu vaccine? that's new every year.

Why do you feel yhat you would be fine if you got covid (probably true but a tiny, unpredictable chance you wouldnt), but feel the opposite about the vaccine and think that you would suffer severe, lifechanging long term damage (probably false, but a tiny, unpredictable chance that you would)?

Can you articulate why one risk is acceptable to you but the other isnt?

Like there have been no long term studies? Can someone with a bit more knowledge explain to me if this is actually a thing?

I dont have more medical knowledge. You work for the NHS, have you people you can ask, there?

I read somewhere that once two years have past[no idea if this is accurate or not] then any long term problems will have shown up.

I think I am right in saying, that with "average" research on long term effects of vaccines, research may stop between 8-10 years after the vaccine has been in general use. By that time, they know all or nearly all of what they need to know.

Do you or your kids have the flu vaccine? that's new every year

Actually it isnt. It is tweaked.
Major difference between that and brand new vaccines.

I think part of the problem is seeing this as new vaccine for a new disease. It isn't. They've been working on this vaccine for around 15 years, since the SARS virus first showed its face. They've just sped up the final stages of testing because of the crisis.

I also read that long term problems from any vaccine are not and have never been an issue. If you're going to have a problem with it it will be in the very early stages of having it. That's why they can roll it out without long term studies, because experience shows they're not needed.

@Isadora2007

I know people will say it’s to protect others

But it's not.It has not yet been proved that the vaccine will prevent transmission. You will only be taking it to protect yourself

Delayed side effects are not a "thing" with vaccines. If a side effect is going to occur it will be evident within a few weeks if not pretty immediately.

A vaccine is principally biological matter that is broken down by the body. If your body is going to react to it in an adverse way it will do so straight away, not years later. The studies have shown that there is no evidence of adverse side effects and those in the earliest trials received their vaccine 10/11 months ago now.

I'm confident that these vaccines are as safe as any other.

@feelingverylazytoday

We still allow our newborn babies to have them

Vaccines given to babies are not new or based on new technology

I'm scared because there's no knowledge of if anything could happen long term after having it, 15+ years down the line? Like there have been no long term studies? Can someone with a bit more knowledge explain to me if this is actually a thing?

It’s not brand new science though. RNA/spike vaccines have been part of studies for decades.