by BRINLEE VUOLA
Staff Writer
Many people, like me, were thrilled to hear months ago that the distribution for the COVID vaccine has finally taken place, and people all around the country are able to get their healthy shots. There are a few different shots you can get: Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson. However, following the abrupt halt of the Johnson & Johnson distribution due to rare blood-clotting cases came bouts of fear in terms of the vaccination, from what I have personally seen. Even with the issues surrounding that case, I still took it upon myself to get vaccinated.
Since I’m over 16 years old, I was eligible to make a vaccination appointment. I made my appointment at the AG Center in Tulare and had a 30 minute interval where I could arrive and get my dose of the Pfizer vaccine. It was a quick drive-thru event where I stayed in my car at all times. Now, one thing about me is that I am deathly terrified of needles and getting shots; the anticipation leading up to the shot was draining. But I learned quickly that my anticipation felt WAY worse than the shot. The people at the AG Center were very kind and understanding, making the process very quick. While pain tolerance varies for some people, the needle is barely in your arm for 2 seconds, so the only thing I felt was a tiny pinch. I was surprised when the nurse told me the shot was done — I barely felt it! After I received the shot, I was told to wait 15 minutes under shade with a few nurses on standby. If any quick allergic reactions shot out, they had to take care of it. Luckily, I was not allergic to anything in the shots, so after relaxing for 15 minutes, they thanked me and I was on my way.
A lot of people have different experiences with the side effects of the vaccine as well. Lots of people have similar experiences where their second dose of Pfizer kicked them down worse than the first dose. I have yet to get my second dose; I am scheduled for an appointment at the beginning of May. But the side effects of the first dose barely lasted 12 hours for me. 3 hours after returning home from my appointment, I felt the soreness in my arm that pretty much everyone experiences. It took about another hour for the soreness to really affect how my arm moved around; there were some things that I just could not do with my arm. In terms of pain, there were certain movements that made me flinch, but it mostly felt like an inconvenience to me. That night, I avoided sleeping on the sore side to avoid more pain, but by the time I woke up that morning, the soreness was practically gone and I could continue my normal daily activities. I had not experienced a prolonged soreness, a fever, or nausea. Of course, everyone will have different experiences, but this is my experience with the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine. I can say proudly that I’m excited to finally get the second dose, because I’ve already experienced it once and my fear of needles cannot rid me of my excitement!