I've been invited for my vaccine but not sure what I want to do

[annabellacomestotea]

Hello everyone

I've been invited for my vaccine much sooner than I expected. I am a 31 year old woman, I do not work in a public facing capacity and have no health concerns (normal BMI, only health concern of note being diagnosed with PCOS and generalised anxiety disorder, which would have no impact on me being offered the vaccine.)

Although I am of course grateful to have been offered the vaccine, I was hoping to be offered it later as I have had concerns about it.

I am not sure if my concerns are legitimate or the result of absorbing so much mixed messaging online, from friends and family and even news outlets. In real life, some of my friends and family support the vaccine and others are 'wait and see', whilst others are vehemently against.

I have had everything else from yellow fever to rabies vaccinations, but I have concerns about this vaccine, especially as it has been linked (whether factually or not I'm unsure) to infertility. As a 31 year old woman with no pre-existing health conditions, I don't like the idea of taking a vaccine for something unlikely to impact me greatly. I also have never taken the flu jab for the same reason.

Anyone of a similar age group, would you take the vaccine? Do you have any concerns? Are these concerns unfounded, or should I be asking more questions? And if I reject the vaccine now, am I able to take it later on, and how would this work?

Thank you.

Op, I'm 31 no underlying health issues. Healthy, not over weight and exercise 3 times a week. I had covid - I now have long covid which has affected my heart. Have the vaccine.

My colleague is in her 20’s and healthy and got long Covid. Having months off work barely able to walk and not knowing if you will ever regain full health is something to be avoided at all costs.
I feel it is our moral duty to have the vaccine when it is offered to us for the good of everyone.

‘. I do understand the risks of long covid, but from what I've read, it is unlikely in a young/healthy individual.’

Where have you read this? I know one person in her twenties and one in mid forties with long covid as well as a few older people.
I mean, I am sure most people don’t get it but it doesn’t seem to be unusual.

I have seen a lot to suggest even children are being hit by long covid so I think it’s pretty naive to think that’s not a risk. Certainly for me as a healthy 30 odd year old that was one of my reasons for having my vaccine as soon as offered. I know I safe(ish) from severe immediate covid but the idea of long covid scares me.

I'm 29 and definitely won't be having the vaccine.

I have no idea why people speculate about 'long term risks' of vaccines. I really don't know what they are going on about. Have there actually been any proven long term risks of vaccines? I am aware of the swine flu vaccine that was found to cause narcolepsy but my understanding is that it did it straight away. We'd know by now if anything like that was going to happen with the COVID vaccines.

I am not sure what risks you are afraid of or think there may be apart from fertility which seems very unlikely but no-one can provide a definite rule out at this stage.

If you weigh it up on a purely selfish basis there probably isn't a lot of individual benefit to you as a young fit person in having the vaccine as the infection is likely to be mild for you.

The benefit to you will be indirect and you should weigh that up.
Do you want lockdown to continue?
Do you want to be able to go out without restrictions and see your friends?
Do you want the NHS to be available to help you with any illness that might befall you or just be tied up handling COVID cases?
If you want any of those things you should do your part and get vaccinated

There are only 2 ways to control Covid lockdowns or vaccination. If you don't do your part in getting herd immunity up and cases down by having the vaccine then you will prolong lockdown.

It's a prisoners dilemma really. The best strategy for any individual is to let others take the perceived risk of vaccination whilst they reap the benefits of herd immunity and reduced transmission.

But if everyone does that then the vaccine strategy fails and lockdown harms continue. In which case maybe you lose your job and/ or taxes go up and services are cut
NHS fertility treatment will be one of the first things to go if there are cuts to public services.

It's not so simple as just an weigh up of your personal risk. You live in a society and your actions affect other people and that will knock onto you in the end.

@Thegereldine3000

I'm 29 and definitely won't be having the vaccine.

Why not, @Thegereldine3000?

Hi everyone

Thank you again for the responses. I appreciate people being kind in how they are responding.

No, my father is definitely not a medical professional. Just pure and simply, his opinion matters to me because I know he cares about me, but he is 100% working class, no scientific or medical background.

Thank you to those of you who shared some information re long covid. I thought most people who were young with long covid had pre-existing health issues such as asthma or were unhealthy/overweight in some other sense. I hadn't been hearing or reading much about young, fit and healthy people suffering in such a way, so thank you for sharing your experiences and I am sorry that you had to go through that.

Those were really my two concerns, that my fertility could be impacted, or that the vaccine could have long lasting consequence on my health, when my understanding was that long covid would be an unlikely reality for me, however I appreciate people sharing information that soothes these anxieties somewhat.

A large part of what has triggered this anxiety for me is that it feels like we are in age of misinformation. For example, many people believe meat to be healthy and eat it regularly, it is part of our food pyramid. However WHO classes processed meats (which most people eat) as a Group 1 carcinogen. We are still sold these items, we are still allowed to live in polluted cities, we are still allowed to sell palm oil (even though it is deforesting rainforests and killing orangutans.) Someone has 'okayed' all of these things, even knowing they are damaging. As a result I am cautious that just because someone says something is 'okay' it doesn't mean it is so.

So, I always want to be careful that I don't blindly follow any advice or opinion, particularly when there is plenty of hysteria, as there seems to be around many things, of which covid is only one. I suffer with anxiety, but I want to try to not be reactionary or fall into either camp, the 'if you don't have it you're responsible for KILLING people!' and 'if you do have it YOU WILL DIE!' - both camps are hysterical and it just causes panic and becomes impossible to understand the truth in the middle.

So I truly am just trying to gain some more information, or a broader perspective.

I have no scientific or medical background myself, and of my friends/family, it is a mixed bag of people who support the vaccine and those who won't have it at all, people who want to wait a bit longer, people who are confused like me, etc, I don't think I've felt so split on something before, and I don't know if I'll feel conclusively one way or the other no matter how much research I do (I guess all the information and over-thinking has done its job of muddying the waters of my brain), but I do appreciate those who are open to the discussion.

So

So, you have no evidence whatsoever for your concerns, and this thread has changed nothing for you

Did you read this link?

But there is no "plausible biological mechanism" by which the vaccine could affect your fertility, says Prof Lucy Chappell, a professor in obstetrics at King's College London and spokesperson for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-56012529

Yes, thank you @HelloThereMeHearties I really appreciate you posting this link. It was a huge fear of mine, and I think I'll still have a fear in the back of my mind, just the creeping and irrational nature of fear. It helps to read things like this, thank you.

Glad you read it Your fear is irrational, at least you realise that.

You need to remind yourself that none of your friends or family has any evidence whatsoever for the fears and misinformation that they are spreading.

Are you going to listen to them, or an actual professional body of obstetricians?!

@HelloThereMeHearties

Glad you read it Your fear is irrational, at least you realise that.

You need to remind yourself that none of your friends or family has any evidence whatsoever for the fears and misinformation that they are spreading.

Are you going to listen to them, or an actual professional body of obstetricians?!

Thanks @HelloThereMeHearties, your responses have been some fresh air in this thread.

As I mentioned, I do have generalised anxiety disorder, and I think with so much heightened emotion from people, and so much constantly changing information, it is a breeding ground for people like me, and many others to be scared.

I do hope people can be kinder to each other and understand that people who might be weary or scared are not selfish or stupid, we may just be anxious, overwhelmed and confused.

You had vaccines to rabies and yellow fever and I don't imagine you questioned them so much. Nor any other medicine you had in your life so is it rational to be so sceptical about this?

If you 'wait and see' then how long would that be for and what would you be waiting to see?

I don't think some of your other analogies hold water. No-one is positively promoting palm oil or processed meat as good things for ones health. They are convenient things that people have grown to like and money can be made from selling them that is all. No-one in any government particularly 'OK'd' them. AZ vaccine is being made at cost price. Big Pharma are not making money out of that one at least. They are doing it for good motives to stop people dying and help us get back our lives.

@CovoidOfAllHumanity

You had vaccines to rabies and yellow fever and I don't imagine you questioned them so much. Nor any other medicine you had in your life so is it rational to be so sceptical about this?

If you 'wait and see' then how long would that be for and what would you be waiting to see?

I don't think some of your other analogies hold water. No-one is positively promoting palm oil or processed meat as good things for ones health. They are convenient things that people have grown to like and money can be made from selling them that is all. No-one in any government particularly 'OK'd' them. AZ vaccine is being made at cost price. Big Pharma are not making money out of that one at least. They are doing it for good motives to stop people dying and help us get back our lives.

Thanks @CovoidOfAllHumanity for your post. I've never questioned any other vaccines , not once. I was afraid as this one seemed 'rushed', I know people have debunked this, but I was concerned to take a vaccine for something that seemed to just suddenly be there 'out of the blue.' I appreciate your comments re my analogies also and realise they aren't quite the same, although I would argue many in the medical field do not give correct information re nutrition/nutritional evidence is downplayed...that said that's for a different thread! XD

I don't think we are per se in an age of misinformation just an age of lots of information both good and bad.

It's a good thing in many ways. People are able to question experts and hold things up to scrutiny in a way they never were in the past

But if you are not an expert it is easy to get things wrong and it's quite possible to use the same data in different ways to support different arguments. There are quite a lot of traps that one can fall into with numbers and stats

People are disinclined to trust experts these days and want to 'do their own research' but in complex matters it's not such an easy thing to do and it can just make you anxious for possibly no reason.

I am glad that I have Trip Advisor and always check the reviews before I go to a place but I don't base my opinion entirely on what TA says. I check the overall balance of positive to negative, the ones particularly relating to my situation and then I read the minority negative ones to to see if they are idiots or if what they say might hold any water (usually they are idiots)
I keep in mind that the more responses the more accurate and that bias might be in play eg fake reviews or payment for reviews.

I think I probably do the same kind of thing with politics, medicine, the environment etc. Check out what is the majority opinion, how many people are dissenting and what is the quantity and quality on each side of the argument, look out for bias and vested interests and then I make up my opinion.

No idea where op gets her news from but cases are not rising but falling week on week

I don't know where the fertility rumour started. Where there have been legitimate conversations about safety it is because there were bad experiences developing a vaccine for SARS 1 that actually caused disease enhancement if people caught it after vaccine. However, there have been enough people vaccinated with the current approved preparations who have subsequently caught SARS Cov2 for us to have evidence that the vaccine is not causing VADE.

@CovidLockdownmustend

No idea where op gets her news from but cases are not rising but falling week on week

Zoe Covid app has reported possible rise in cases in past 2 days. They always report ahead of ONS. You can look at Tim Spector's tweets to follow this.

@time4anothername

Ah...possible....
I will stick to actual cases ... the actual number of actual infections ate falling...

@TrufflyPig

would you actively discourage people from vitamin d supplement higher than the NICE recommended dosage of 400iu daily?

Yes I would, unless there is a clear medical indication for a higher dose in which case the patient would be under supervision and monitoring.

I would never recommend anyone take more than the approved daily amounts of any supplement without medical need.

Natural does not equal safe.

Ah, that explains your passionate argumentation.

I'm the opposite. I don't believe that government institutions have the last word on truth, and many times in my life I've latched on to new developments in health-care in which the official advice has lagged behind. In each case, the official advice ended up endorsing my own decision, even if years later.

I suspect that's what will happen here. There'll soon be an explosion of studies that will meet your criteria and NICE will backtrack -- I'd bet on it.

In the meantime, many vitamin d deficient people, most especially those of the BAME community, will die.
Here's an article on that specific topic:

www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m1820/rr

I suppose you'd also advise BAME people not to test their vitamin d levels, and if they're low, not to take supplements above the NICE recommendation?

HelloThereMeHearties

*Glad you read it flowers Your fear is irrational, at least you realise that.

You need to remind yourself that none of your friends or family has any evidence whatsoever for the fears and misinformation that they are spreading.

Are you going to listen to them, or an actual professional body of obstetricians?!*

Excellent excellent post and so glad the OP found the reassurance she was looking for in this!

If in doubt wait. Some of these responses are staggering saying there is no link to infertility. I am of course not saying there is a link but the truth is nobody knows. The long term effects for this vaccine are simply unknown.

Hi OP

I haven’t read all the messages, but I thought I would share with you that I was called for vaccination and hadn’t realised that my auto immune issues put me at higher risk. I suspect that it might be that you are at higher risk from COVID and should be vaccinated to protect yourself. Long COVID could also have a real impact on you and affect your health (knock on impact could be readiness for pregnancy).

Here’s your information about infertility:

A protein called syncytin-1 is an important component of the placenta in mammals. Syncytial-1 shares similar genetic instructions with part of the spike of the new coronavirus. If the vaccine causes the body to make antibodies against syncytin-1, anti-vaxxers have argued it might also cause the body to attack and reject the protein in the human placenta, making women infertile.
However, the coronavirus’s spike protein and syncytin-1 share small stretches of the same genetic code, but not enough to make them a match. It would be like two people having phone numbers that both contain the number 7. You couldn’t dial one number to reach the other person, even though their phone numbers shared a digit.
Data from the human studies of the Pfizer vaccine don’t bear out this theory. In the Pfizer trial, which included more than 37,000 people, women were given pregnancy tests before they were accepted to the study. They were excluded if they were already pregnant. During the trial, 23 women conceived, likely by accident. Twelve of these pregnancies happened in the vaccine group, and 11 in the placebo group. They continued to be followed as part of the study.