Close to cancelling my vaccination. Please reassure me.

[justanothername2]

Name change for this. I know I’m being overly anxious but I need a hand hold.

My friend is insistent on always sending me doomy messages about the Covid vaccine.

They’re always screen shots of something she’s seen on Facebook. Someone has died, someone has been taken to hospital, someone has had liver failure.
The latest one today is that a 34 year old woman has dropped dead after her vaccine.

Mine is booked for tomorrow and I’m really, really worried.

I already suffer from severe anxiety. I know rationally I shouldn’t pay attention to some random Facebook posts.
I know millions of people have had theirs and have been absolutely fine.

Right now, I’m not rational. I’m panicking and I can’t think clearly.

I’m so close to cancelling my appointment 😭😭

I’ve lived in fear for months now and I’m so looking forward to being vaccinated, but this is just another fear to add to the list 😖

Please go and get your vaccine OP. I'm a vaccine centre steward and I've seen literally hundreds of people get their vaccines and absolutely no-one has had a bad reaction, from the young to the old, the anxious to the unwell. Every vaccine given gets us one step closer to getting out of this pandemic and every vaccine received is one more person who is almost guaranteed not to get very sick, need hospitalisation and die

If you do get Covid you will be even more anxious I would think.......Block the so called friend who is not a friend and is lying to you, and keep your appointment.

Ditch the friend OP. She’s playing in your anxiety to push her own moronic dangerously misinformed agenda.

The best thing you can do is unfriend her and block her on all social media, block her number on your phone and just do not engage. She is not a friend she is a nutter just trying to spread doom and gloom.

Get your vaccine, you will feel much less anxious knowing you are protected.

I have deleted several people from all forms of social media since this all started as I just could not be bothered with them. I like to have things in common with my friends and share values and beliefs. This pandemic has taught me that a lot of people that I had as friends on social media etc are just not the kind of people I want in my life.

It's in Utah. 4 people have died in the days after having their second vaccination.

That's statistically likely, not caused by the vaccine.

That's as reported by various government departments.

There have been other similar patterns all over the world. We haven't had similar as our journalists, whilst deplorable in many ways, wouldn't get away with it, too much easily available data and the Podium Chats would put paid to it!

Though I wouldn't be surprised if the Utah reporting didn't make someone brave enough to try the same shitty scaremongering here.

Just read what Prof Whitty said abiut the vaccine possibly killing unvaccinated people but the thought of never leaving the country again is enough to make me take the vaccine.

I will be honest and say I had side effects but absolutely nothing unmanageable - along the lines of a bad cold but without any coughing or sneezing. I was fine within 48 hours. (this was Astra Zeneca) Well worth it in my opinion. My husband and parents also had the AZ with no side effects whatsoever, so I was very much the exception in my family.

I'm 36 with a host of health/autoimmune issues
For context the drug I inject weekly gives me side effects so badly that I put off doing it
The AZ vaccine was probably 1/1000th of that and I would happily do it every week!
I took it easy for a day and that was it. My parent had his and said he wasn't even sure they actually did it as he felt nothing and no side effects at all (he usually gets a sore arm from the flu jab)
Mine was a month ago and I'm still alive and my body HATES me usually

@WitchesBritchesPumpkinPants

I'm not telling anyone what to do. I respect other people's choices, and I fully accept that I could be wrong. It would be refreshing if more people had that approach to others. I'm glad you're reassured, but I'm not, and in a free society - for now - I can still respectfully decline, and hold my opinion.

Of course some people are dying shortly after getting it. Millions and millions of people are being vaccinated. Obviously some of them are going to die shortly after being vaccinated, just as some people are going to die shortly after not being vaccinated.

@Devlesko

I felt the same OP, so didn't go. So glad I didn't now. It's a very personal decision, do it for you, not others. If you don't want it, don't have it, it isn't compulsory nor something to be seen as a duty to protect others.

I thought we were supposed to look at it as a duty to protect others?

20 million people have had the jab in the UK alone. 20 million. People just aren’t dropping dead or having Ill effects, it isn’t happening.

Your friend sounds pretty deluded, and pretty cruel to be sending you anti vaccine shite when you are clearly worried.

@MolyHolyGuacamole

I don't understand why fake stories on SM about the vaccine will make you not want to have it, but the very real stories of the millions of death doesn't?

@MolyHolyGuacamole

I have severe anxiety. Unfortunately that means I don’t rationalise.
I also don’t focus on positive things, I focus very much on the negative.

I was where you are last Monday. Jab was booked for Tuesday and I was seriously considering cancelling due to many mental health issues that I won't bore you with.
I was scared and didn't want to do it, but knew I had to, and knew my family would be disappointed and maybe angry if I didn't.
As soon as I got to the surgery I had no time to turn around, it was so quick and efficient. And once it was in, it was in, so I just had to deal with the lack of control (one of my issues)
Yes, I felt crappy for a couple of days but I am SO glad I had it done, and have no regrets at all! Roll on May and my second jab!

I had covid19 and wasn’t that ill. I was bed bound when I had the flu. I’m scared of the side effects of the Covid19 vaccines. Many people have been really ill for days if not weeks. Some of these were healthy people in their 20s and 30s. You can see the side effects on the Yellow Card website. I’ve had horrific ads effects from certain vaccines and I’m allergic to some medicines.

I am highly UNlikely to be hospitalised if I caught Covid19. However, I am highly likely to have horrific side effects from one of these new vaccines.

If you’re vulnerable and likely to be hospitalised if you caught Covid19 then it might be a good idea to have the vaccine. This vaccine, in theory, will reduce the effects of the virus. They still don’t know for sure if it prevents transmission and you catching the virus again. You have to weigh up the pros and cons and choose what is right for you! You know your body and it’s no one else’s choice

I have severe anxiety too and I absolutely do rationalise. It is just the bloody anxiety gremlin sitting on your shoulder, like it does mine.
If you look at worse case scenarios: you have a 1percent chance (you don't really, but let's catastrophise like we do) of dying of covid, and even with the scare stories, a substantially less than 1 percent chance of dying from the vaccine, plus it reduces that other statistic, plus you can go on holiday again sooner. No brainer.

I had my vaccine 3 weeks ago. Slightly sore arm.

Are you getting any help with your anxiety @justanothername2?

Do you also have health anxiety?
The chances of getting very ill or dying from covid are many, many, many times higher than any side effects from the vaccine. If you decide not to have a vaccine you will have no end to the worry about your health. Having the vaccine will go some way to alleviate that.

I know 2 people with long covid -
One has got diabetes and holes in her lungs because of Covid

One has got heart and breathing problems (38, mother of 4, Was fit healthy and no medical problems at all)

Neither will be able to return to theres jobs

I personally know 4 people who have died with Covid...

@enjoyingscience

20 million people have had the jab in the UK alone. 20 million. People just aren’t dropping dead or having Ill effects, it isn’t happening.

Your friend sounds pretty deluded, and pretty cruel to be sending you anti vaccine shite when you are clearly worried.

Look at the reports on the Yellow Card (UK) and VAERS (US) websites. Many people have symptoms ranging from Covid19 symptoms, cardiac issues, thrombocytopenia, sore arm, death, anaphylaxis etc.

You can’t say people aren’t ill or dying after the vaccine. People react in different ways. Some people don’t have symptoms right away, some have symptoms a couple of days/weeks later. Some people don’t have symptoms at all.

OP just in case it helps, aside from the not wanting to risk being very ill with COVID, I also think it is my duty to minimise the risk of me ever passing it on. Not everybody can have a vaccine and I would hate to think that I'd be contributing to their anxiety every day.

Please have a vaccine to help the people that can't have one yet, or perhaps not ever.

I've just had my second this morning. I didn't have any reaction from the first one and I haven't (yet) even got a sore arm from this one.
Vaccine reactions are truly rare

@cutebear

Yellow card reports are incidents that occur close to an injection and are not necessarily caused by the injection. I understand this completely as my ten year old son experienced thrombocytopenia a week after a flu jab. We will never know if the jab caused it or whether, as is more likely, it was the mild viral infection he had had two weeks prior. It was reported as a yellow card incident.

As well as looking at the reports you should look at the analysis of the reports. Side effect reports using yellow card are running at around 3-4 in 1000 doses, much less than side effects from covid even in the young and healthy where 20 percent odd report lingering issues.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-vaccine-adverse-reactions/coronavirus-vaccine-summary-of-yellow-card-reporting

Sometimes it’s a choice between two negatives. 1.Getting Covid OR 2. Getting vaccinated. The 1st will take weeks to get over. The 2nd faster than a blink of your eye.

I felt exactly the same. I’m pro vax but the day before my Covid jab I freaked out and started thinking about all the conspiracy theories.

It took all the emotional strength I had to go and have it, but I did and I didn’t drop dead.

In reality the chances of anything happening to you from the vaccine are far slimmer than the chances of Covid damaging you. We KNOW covid can cause long term damage but there is no evidence that the vaccines do. People harp on about “long term effects of the vaccines” but in the vaccine world “long term” is considered 1-3 months so if anything severe was to happen it would have been picked up in the trials by now.

Get the jab. You’ll regret it if you don’t.

Ps buy yourself a little present for your decision.