Vaccine or no vaccine? Opinions please

[gonewiththegin]

I am mid thirties, female with no existing health conditions. By no means an anti vaxer but I feel very uneasy about getting the jab.

I am aware it’s for the benefit of others more than myself, after all I’ve spent the best part of a year wfh and in complete isolation from anyone not in my household. I feel I’ve done my bit, I protected the vulnerable when there was as no vaccine. Now there is one and they’ve all had their first jag.

I think they government is aware the younger generations with no health conditions will likely have the same opinion as myself hence the talk of vaccine passports for gigs etc. IMO this is blackmail and a lot to people who were not planning on having the jag now will do so purely so they can go on holiday.

Is there something I am missing? Should I just get the jag and be done with it, it should I reject on the basis that I am fit and healthy.

Why would you reject it?

The jab doesn't just protect from the risk of death, it stops you having an unpleasant illness that can make you quite poorly. The person I know who has been illest with it is just turned 30, very slim and healthy.

You may not be fit and healthy if you get covid. You probably won't die of it but it could fuck your life quite spectacularly. There is a much lower chance of the vaccine doing that.

Blackmail?? FFS.

(Illest with covid, not ill with the jab)

Because I am not at risk of any serious side affects if I were to catch covid. I haven’t until now- socially distancing, limiting contact and wearing I mask are reducing the risk.

Also, I've seen a few people say jag. Is that a typo or do some people call it a jag not jab?

How do you know if you aren't at risk of serious side effects? It might be unlikely but its not a given

You are at risk. Everyone is at risk. You may not be in the group that is highest risk, but you are at risk.

Again, why would you reject it?

@RebeccaCloud9 I still don’t know anyone personally who has been affected by Covid, hence the post to get some wider opinion. FWIW my partner is the opposite, they will get the jag purely so they can go to gigs and travel abroad. Jag wasn’t a typo- maybe a Scottish phrase.

I am a few years younger than you and won’t be getting it. I can live without holidays and any other events where ‘vaccine passports’ are introduced.

I also have M.E. so don’t need lectures about ‘long covid’ , which is essentially post viral M.E.

When people say why would you reject it, do they really not know? Can they really not imagine why someone would?

I’m younger than you, no medical conditions, wfh etc. and jumped at the chance to have the vaccine. I trust scientists, regulators and HCPs to do their jobs to give me a safe and effective vaccine so had no worries, and if it prevents me from being one of the tiny number of people my age being seriously ill great and if it helps prevent me from passing it on to someone more vulnerable than me great. Sometimes we have to act in each other’s best interests to protect each other, I’m more than happy to do my bit to make sure other peoples kids can go to school and peoples parents and grandparents are exposed to less risk of a serious illness.

I wouldn’t take a jag for every possible illness out there for any or all illnesses that could potentially cause me harm, the list would be endless. Surely you weigh up the potential risk to yourself and asses on that basis.

My sister got it last April, early thirties training for a team sport twice a week with a match on a third day.
She is still not back to herself. Has undergone various tests and they think it's triggered an autoimmune disease but all they have ruled out so far is lupus.
I'm in Ireland so have no skin in the game as regards what people do in the UK but for your own sake get vaccinated.
It is heartbreaking having to text my little sister to see if she is awake for a call in the middle of the day.

but your risk will go up as you start to go out more, and there is always a risk of Covid - the long term side effects of that seem fairly random, and occasionally really nasty in a number of people, even those who don't have serious symptoms at the time. Even the disease itself, while not necessarily producing long term effects, can mean a bad couple of weeks in bed. You could also more easily transmit it to people for whom the vaccine might not have worked.

in contrast, any potential risks of the vaccine are very small, and the side effects for many people are reasonable, or minimal. You hear much more about the ones who are really bad.

The more people who have the vaccine, the more likely society is going to be able to open up more and stay opened up, as the overall virus rates will reduce, and the number of mutations will be smaller, reducing the risk of a vaccine-escape variant. The risk to the NHS will be less at that point, too, as even people for whom the vaccine didn't work, will be less likely to catch it - and a functioning NHS is good for us all. So it will increase your chances of being able to live a fuller life with more things open and available, as the government will be happier to keep things open when the rates are generally low.

@RebeccaCloud9

Also, I've seen a few people say jag. Is that a typo or do some people call it a jag not jab?

It's Scottish. It's irritating if you're not Scottish. Just ignore it.

I personally have observed a 4 day turnaround with covid symptoms after having the first jab. That personally is good enough for me.

What anyone else does is their business.

It is not that you are at no risk, is it? You cannot know that. It is that you statistically have less risk than an obese 70 year old, say. I had a statistically low risk of dying or having serious complications from measles as a child. The question my mum asked was whether it would be better to be ill at all or run the statistically low risk of death or serious complications or to have a safe vaccine with a statistically lower risk of complications.

So that is really the question you need to ask yourself.

I’ve had COVID and the vaccine, if my children were eligible for the vaccine I would book them in. I think of it like the flu vaccine. I felt rough with COVID and the first vaccine dose left me feeling awful but I would still do it all again. It’s a personal decision so it’s really only your decision. I had my vaccine as soon as I could.

@lurker101belive me I have done all I can the last year to protect the vulnerable. Unlike most who break the rules and think they’re a saint because they’ve had the jag. Ot after one dose think the restrictions no longer apply to them.

@Blossomplease6 exactly, I’m not the first of the last person to say I am likely to reject it. If I were at risk then yes it would be in my best interest to get it but I am not and am just as likely to get seriously ill for numerous other illnesses that I am not being scare mongered in to being vaccinated against.

I caught covid when being careful and when there were only 3 people in my town with it according to the interactive map. No one I knew had it currently. I haven't known many people to get it at all. But I still caught it.

I'd had the jab 2 weeks earlier, so I had some protection but wasn't at full protection but I was so so much less poorly than my husband. My husband took 2 weeks to get over it and still gets exhausted now. I was better in a few days. I would not have enjoyed looking after our kids if we had both been as ill as he was.

Both 37 with no underlying conditions.

Ah, interesting about the word jag! Thanks 😊

Same age as you. Zero health issues, ever. WFH, isolated, stuck to rules the entire time- often going further, only dent in the armour is the Autumn when kids went back to school.
Ran towards the jab when offered it (nhs although never with “sick” people). Now had both jabs.
It brings:
Reassurance for my family, children, and me, that however sick I might have got pre jab, it will now be less serious.
I have done “everything” I can to prevent serious illness.
A contribution towards the greater good/ society that we are all doing the right thing & continuing to protect the vulnerable.
A chance to avoid long covid.
A chance that if we work together getting vaccinated we can get back to normal.
A chance for travel, gigs, concerts etc, and for me to be safety participating in them.

Why wouldn’t you get it? I cannot understand it.

I had the vaccine as I am in the older age group, I think had I been in my 30s I probably wouldn't have, though obviously I wouldn't have been offered it yet anyway

@Barbadosgirl I had the MMR as a child and ended up very unwell in hospital with measles. Vaccines aren’t miracles

@gonewiththegin I don’t doubt that you have followed the rules, but that’s my reasons for having the vaccine. There will also be a number of vulnerable people who are unable to get vaccinated for valid medical reasons, so the greater the number of the rest of the population that are vaccinated the better