I am now officially at the 2 week, post 2nd Pfizer jab chapter of my life.

[Siwsan]

Talk about being 'Born Again'.

So far, in my immediate circle, only my brother is in the same place. If he stops by, this weekend, this will be us:

(my antibodies keeping in tip top shape)

Of course, I'll still be taking every single precaution I've been following for the past 12 + months, but with slightly less anxiety. And if they recommend a booster, I'll be rushing to get it.

[malaise]

1. It really is liberating

[Walleye]

2. I'm fully vaccinated too trying to figure out how to get back to real life

It’s a good feeling and a relief, though

[LisaM]

3. Yay!

I get my first Moderna shot on Saturday. I am very pleased, though I was hoping for Pfizer

[Celerity]

36. Moderna is ahead of Pfizer on the variant tweaked vaccines, and it is a high probability that

you are going to need it as a booster shot. We're in the brand new study here at Karolinska universitetssjukhuset for the mRNA-1273.351 variant tweaked vax. Just got the first jab 2 days ago. So far so good. They gave us 50 mcg of mRNA-1273 and 50 mcg of mRNA-1273.351 administered through 0.5 mL intramuscular injections. 26 days another one, same admixture. Pfizer does not yet have a variant tweak vax trial set up, but likely will di so down the road.

I am sure you will be fine!!

Moderna is a great vax and soon will be even better. We had almost zero side effects other than very slightly sore arms that were gone by morning. Wifey did get a very slight bruising, which I do not think I had (she is white, I am multiracial mixed black). Oh, my period came early, lolol, but that started at the hospital before the shot itself, so no can blame Moderna! lolol

The main vaccine (in terms of one potentially being used in the US, obviously I would not recco any Russian rush jobs) to avoid is the current AstraZeneca. It is weak against the variants, and an utter fail against the South African B.1.351 (only around 10% effective) mutated strain in particular.


AstraZeneca Vaccine Fails To Protect Against The South African Variant, Says Study

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/williamhaseltine/2021/03/17/astrazeneca-vaccine-fails-to-protect-against-the-south-african-variant/amp/

Two doses of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine were found to have only a 10.4% efficacy against mild-to-moderate infections caused by the B.1.351 South Africa variant, according to a phase 1b-2 clinical trial published on Tuesday in the New England Journal of Medicine. This is a cause for grave concern as the South African variants share similar mutations to the other variants leaving those vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine potentially exposed to multiple variants. This new finding should force a rapid acceleration of second-generation vaccines and encourage further research into the possibility of a pancoronavirus vaccine.

The trial evaluated the safety and the efficacy of the AstraZeneca vaccine in HIV-negative adults aged between 18 to 64 years old with a median age of 30 years old. The trial was conducted between June 24 and November 9, 2020 in South Africa using a multisite, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled approach. Out of the trial’s 750 vaccine recipients, 19 (2.5%) developed mild to moderate COVID-19 more than 14 days after the second dose, compared with 23 of 717 placebo recipients (3.2%). Of the 42 total cases of Covid-19, 39 (93%) were caused by the B.1.351 South Africa variant. These results demonstrated that the AstraZeneca vaccine was only 10.4% effective against the B.1.351 South Africa variant.

snip

[LisaM]

41. Thank you!

Useful and thorough information.

[left-of-center2012]

4. Happy for you

I had my second shot of the Moderna vaccine 5 days ago.
Like you I will continue to wear a mask and social distance.

By the way, after my first shot I had a sore arm for a day and after the second shot I had zero side effects.

[Trueblue Texan]

5. Told ya!

It IS liberating! Even if you do nothing differently and continue to take all precautions, as you should, you feel a weight off your shoulders like never before. We have been carrying this burden too long! It feels so good to be rid of it!

[USALiberal]

6. So, no more posts? Nt

H

[Siwsan]

7. You can't get rid of me THAT easily!!

After all, my flower beds are springing to life and I feel compelled to share their beauty!

[jaxexpat]

8. 17 days post second shot, Pfizer.

Taking the spouse out to breakfast this AM. First sit down restaurant meal in 12+ mos. We shall strut our masks.

[ShazzieB]

9. My 2nd Pfizer shot is scheduled for April 12.

I am counting the days!

[panader0]

10. My 2nd Moderna on this Saturday.

On April 17th or 18th I will start playing music again with friends, though still socially distant.
It's been the worst part of the isolation for me. Over a year....

[Nay]

11. Ooooh, me, too! This coming Sunday I will have completed the two weeks after the 2nd jab.

I can go to the grocery during the day, not at 7 a.m. or 11 p.m.!

We may take a couple of short camping trips this spring!

I can visit my two best girlfriends, because we all have completed our vaxxes!

I got a haircut yesterday!

I feel liberated as well.

[pazzyanne]

12. Looking forward to my second Pfizer shot on April 8th!

I am so tired of doing a 14 day countdown whenever I poke my nose out of my house. April 22nd I plan to celebrate!

[MiHale]

13. For general information...

It is being suggested at different places online that you get your vaccine card laminated or take a photo of it...all for safe keeping.

I heard that some office supply stores are laminating for free when you bring your card in can’t remember which ones.

It is recommended that if you take a photo NOT TO TAKE A SELFIE there’s too much personal info on the card.

I does feel good doesn’t it? Venturing downstate next week to care for my son’s dog for a couple days. First trip down in over a year and a half.

[Siwsan]

23. I've taken a photo of mine and I do want to laminate it.

I'm also going to scan it and put that on the thumb drive I keep in my fire safe, with all of my other important document scans.

[Evolve Dammit]

14. We're practically giddy. Received second yesterday. In an arena with fellow patriots. nt

[CaptainTruth]

15. Party like a rock star.

[AllyCat]

16. It is awesome, isn't it???

I feel so much safer. Still wear my masks, but able to sit in my friend’s living room and have coffee with no mask because we are both vaccinated.

Congratulations!!!

[sheilahi]

17. question

WTG Siwsan. Still waiting to get an appointment for my first one. Taking a long time here in Oregon. Just a question. Just read that the Pfizer vaccine is effective for 6 months. Does this mean we need to go through this whole thing every six months? Jus' askin'. Thanks, and again wtg.

[blueinredohio]

18. I get my second shot tomorrow but

even after my two weeks are up ill still wear my mask and stay away from big crowds for awhile.

[central scrutinizer]

19. I'll be joining you tomorrow

Feels great!

[SheltieLover]

20. Congrats!

I'll be there this Friday!

[lookyhereyou]

21. post 2 weeks post 2nd moderna post

it feels really great to feel we aren't going to die any day now

because ... some idiot didn't like the LOOK of some numbers

[vsrazdem]

22. Good for you. However, I know of a person who got their second shot on 3/16 and

had to be tested prior to getting some medical procedure done on 3/30, and they tested positive for covid. He had no symptoms whatsoever, but still tested positive, so had to quarantine. This was quite shocking to me.

[Siwsan]

25. Which is why I won't cut back on ANY of my precautions

I started keeping my mask on, after I leave the store and while I'm driving, so I won't absentmindedly touch my face. Even after using hand sanitizer, as soon as I sit in the driver's seat.

[Texin]

24. I got my 2nd Moderna jab on 3/19.

I felt okay the following Saturday, but woke up Sunday morning around 2ish and staggered to the bathroom. Made it back to bed and got up Sunday morning around 9 feeling pretty much like hell. Total exhaustion with low grade headache and low grade fever. Felt pretty much like crap all day. Around 5ish in the afternoon, the fever and lethargy broke and I felt okay ever since.

I noticed Tuesday (very early a.m., around 2ish or so) that I had congestion in my lower left lung that I attributed to seasonal allergies. Felt okay all week, no other symptoms.

Whelp, to cut to the chase, this past Monday (3/29) I started coughing with some congestion that I kept clearing up (and for those who have a high squeamish factor) swallowed. I used my asthma "rescue" inhaler which seemed to ease the situation. Didn't have any more symptoms until around 5:30 that afternoon. Started coughing and trying to clear my lungs. Went into the bathroom and coughed into a tissue expecting to see yellowish mucous and got a complete shock: I had coughed up bright red blood with the mucous. My husband took me to the ER, got put on oxygen (my oxygen level had fallen to 91), started feeling better, but I was shaking, probably from anxiety. Finally got to see a doctor around 9:00 that evening, who ordered a chest x-ray and a CAT scan to rule out an embolism, aortic dissection, etc. I turns out I had pneumonitis and was prescribed antibiotics and was discharged. Before discharge, the doctor said my lungs were "clear" according to the stethoscope.

I can't explain this. I've been wondering if it's possible that my boosted immune response to the Covid-19 virus somehow "identified" this congestion that probably existed in my lower left lung as the virus itself and went to work "attacking" it. I never felt bad (in fact, ran all my errands that Monday morning and went on a walk around the block when I got back). Felt fine the entire day and had no idea that I'd spend the evening in the ER waiting room and the ER proper into the wee hours of Tuesday a.m., followed by an emergency trip to the 24-hour pharmacy.

Very strange.

[Siwsan]

29. Yikes! The worse I suffered was a weird headache, about 3 days post 2nd jab

I don't know if it was connected, or not, but it was not a 'typical' headache, for me. More a dull, persistent pain that NOTHING helped ease. Two days later it just stopped.

I had a cold when I was exposed, twice, to Covid, last March. I never got any sicker and the cold just passed in typical time. I've read that if you have a cold, which is a type of coronavirus, when you are exposed to Covid-19 might offer a bit of protection since your antibodies are already fighting off a virus.

[Texin]

32. Funny thing is, I haven't felt ill at any time within the past 13 to 15 months.

I have never - to my knowledge - been exposed to the virus from anyone that either had it or developed it later. It's possible that there was some exposure or that I had a cold from which I never felt ill. But the fact that the seeming response I had following the second injection was related to the asthma I have. I use a control inhaler and that contains my asthma symptoms well. I don't typically need to use the rescue inhaler at all (maybe 2 -3 times in a year). I probably have some level of asthma congestion persistent in the lobar areas my lungs most of the time, and I think this vaccine "identified" that congestion as the virus and began to attack it with gusto. It probably means that if I had been infected with this virus, that's where it would have attacked my body and it probably would have killed me.

[Siwsan]

33. I wasn't anticipating any after effects since I've never had one, before, from vaccinatins

And I got a LOT of them when I was in the Navy.

Even the TB skin tests I've had pretty much had zero reaction. I used to get scolded for not having a corpsman check my arm, after getting one, but I told them that I had honestly forgotten I'd even gotten the test since I never even developed a welt.

Even those old time flu shots that sometimes made people feel ill had no effect on me. They gave us one just before Thanksgiving, one year, and a whole lot of people missed out on their dinners because of the after effects. Me? Nada. But then I've never knowingly had flu.

[Texin]

38. I typically have no reaction from vaccinations.

I too had little to no reaction from the TB skin tests. I finally got a reaction when I was about 16, but it was small and left no scarring. I've had several bouts of influenza, one or two really, really bad infections. But I've never had a reaction at all from the flu shots except for the typical sore arm.

I don't know for a fact that this bout of pneumonia was related to the vaccine, but I did develop that congestion the early Tuesday morning immediately following the vaccine on Friday afternoon. I had not had anything before that. By this past Monday I wound up in the ER. It's baffling.

[roamer65]

26. 4 weeks here.

Glad to hear you are doing well.

👍👍

[WinstonSmith4740]

27. I'm one week in.

Got the 2nd Moderna Friday, so one week to go. Sore deltoid for a couple days, but that was it. I was told at my local pharmacy that I can get the shingles shot as soon as I'm passed the 2 week mark.

I'm 72, and have always been blessed with a strong immune system. The last time I took any kind of shot was in 1972 when I was going to Europe. But this thing is different, and I'm not 40 anymore. I'm thankful every day for a President who listens to science and knows that achieving herd immunity through population die off is simply not an option. And let's face it...that was Trump's plan from day one, because for some reason that idiot thought that it would only affect "blue states".

[Jim G.]

28. Tomorrow It Will Be 3 Weeks Since My Second Dose

I'm going to Easter brunch at my sister's house with her daughter & son-in-law. We have all been vaccinated now so it's going to feel weird & normal at the same time.

[Ms. Toad]

30. This is gonna be us on Sunday, with my parents,

For the first time I more than a year.

[colorado_ufo]

31. That is how I felt!

Congratulations!

[Historic NY]

34. Got my 2nd on Tuesday....

its like a weight has been lifted. Couple of weeks from now off to Wmsbrg. Va. with already vaccinated family.

[ancianita]

35. Happy news. Good for you!

Your happy report has helped alleviate my concern about my upcoming 2nd shot.

[CTyankee]

37. I've been fully vaccinated (Pfizer) for about a month now and I'm NOT changing my safety plans:

wearing mask, distancing from others being top of mind. I don't go out unless I must but am scheduled for an MRI for a tiny cyst which is probably nothing but put off before. My home assistance keeps my home clean -- she wears a mask and gloves and we are never in the same room together. Life is certainly different. However, I am writing a book and I don't feel that deprived.

[Happy Hoosier]

39. Congrats! Got my second jab this AM!

Already planning a dinner in a couple weeks with friends who have theirs as well! Looking forward to some genuine socializing!

[live love laugh]

40. Second Pfizer's next week... but today they said it only last 6 mos.

Bummer.

But I’ll gladly take a round of shots again in October.