Beautiful Virgin Islands

Sunday, Oct 05, 2025

Vaccine side effects: My experience of them and what they mean

Vaccine side effects: My experience of them and what they mean

I was over the moon to get vaccinated. I've covered the coronavirus pandemic, including the race to develop a vaccine, since only a handful of people were infected in Wuhan.

So when it was my turn to roll up my sleeve at the GP surgery, it really felt like a moment.

But I'm going to be open and honest with you: the vaccine floored me.

Let's be clear, even with hindsight I'd do it all again. I'd rather have side effects than Covid, or another year of restrictions, or a higher chance of accidentally passing the virus onto a loved one.

I had my first dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine at 0930 in the morning. That evening I spiralled rapidly downhill and could barely scrape myself out of bed for the next three days.

The worst was the migraine and vomiting, but I also had aches, chills and exhaustion.

It's fair to say I was moaning "Why me?" from my sick bed. But as I recovered, I wondered why do some of us get worse side effects than others, and do they mean I've built a super-strong immune response? So I spent an episode of Inside Health on BBC Radio 4 finding out.

Where do side effects come from?


Covid vaccines "trick" the body into thinking it is fighting coronavirus and tap into our natural immune response to an infection.

First there is a reaction in the arm where you are injected - think swelling and soreness - as the immune system swings into gear.

This can progress to affect the rest of the body and cause flu-like symptoms including fever, chills and nausea.

"That's caused by the inflammatory response," Eleanor Riley, a professor of immunology and infectious disease at Edinburgh University, told me.

It works like a chemical fire alarm. It is a flood of chemicals released into the body warning that something is wrong.

Prof Riley said: "It mobilises the immune response and sends immune cells into the tissue around your arm to figure out what's going on."

However, it is these same chemicals that can make us feel temporarily unwell.

Why do some people get more side effects?


However, side effects vary massively from one person to another. Some will not notice a thing; others will feel groggy, but good enough to go to work; others will need to ride it out in bed.

"A really important component, and this might be relevant for you James [I am in my mid-30s], is age," Prof Andrew Pollard, who led trials of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, told me.

"The older you are, the less the side effects - the over-70s have almost no side effects."

Prof Andrew Pollard, from the Oxford Vaccine Group, being immunised

But even two people the same age can have wildly different reactions to a vaccine.

"There is enormous genetic diversity in our immune systems, that's what underlies the difference," Prof Riley told Inside Health.

This diversity means some people's immune systems run a little bit hotter and are more prone to reacting aggressively.

Prof Riley said: "The people who, like yourself, go into full blown flu-like symptoms have rather overreacted to the whole thing.

"And it may be you're one of those people that always feels terribly ill if you have a cold or flu. I don't want to accuse you of having man-flu, but you may be one of those people."

Another factor that slightly increases the chance of side effects is having had a previous coronavirus infection, which can lead to an incredibly strong immune response after vaccination.

Do side effects mean I have more protection?


Selfishly, I had hoped that having side effects meant I had an incredibly strong immune response and there has been some evidence from previous vaccines that this would be the case.

"There are examples, like pandemic flu in 2009, where stronger side effects meant a strong immune response," said Prof Pollard.

But that is not the case with the Covid vaccine, everyone is getting roughly the same protection.

"It's fascinating, even though the elderly had few side effects, they had exactly the same immune response."

The explanation comes from how the two halves of the immune system work together.

The first is called the innate response and includes that chemical fire alarm. The other half is the adaptive response which learns and then remembers how to fight an infection by designing B-cells that produce antibodies to seek out and destroy the virus, as well as T-cells which can attack any of the body's cells which have been infected.

Prof Riley said: "It's this early innate phase of the immune response that varies with age and varies amongst people and that's what determines the strength of your side effects.

"You only need a little bit of that innate response to wake up the adaptive response and get that full panoply of B-cells and T-cells that will protect you."

Will my second dose be bad too?


A natural worry after one bout of side effects is there could be another one on the horizon. However, I have assurances.

"Your second dose will be innocuous, the second dose is very mild in comparison to the first," said Prof Pollard, who ran the Oxford vaccines trials.

However, he did warn that some data suggested the second Pfizer dose might lead to slightly more side effects than the first.

Should we even be talking about side effects?


Concerns over vaccine side effects had dominated the news after a very small number of people had blood clots after they were vaccinated.

I warned before the rollout started of the dangers of falsely assuming health problems that happen by coincidence are caused by the vaccine. The European Medicines Agency has said there is "no indication that vaccination has caused these conditions".

But there are genuine side effects too, and Prof Pollard says it is important to be open and honest about what they are.

He said: "In trials you have the opportunity to say you might be like James Gallagher and feel rotten for a few days, then you know what to expect and it's an inconvenience. You take some paracetamol and it ends.

"If it just hits you and you don't expect it, then it can be pretty worrying."

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
×