I'm in Pfizer's COVID vaccine trial, ask me anything.

[Diomedes]

Well, interesting update for y'all.

1yo caught COVID at daycare. Couple of days later 3.5yo tested positive. And now five days after that, Abby and I are positive.

Everyone's fine. 1yo is already her old self. Worst she got was extra tired and maybe a little achy, one rough night of sleep. 3.5yo is extra tired and a bit achy. Abby and I (both have 3 Pfizer doses) are fine so far, but it's early so we'll see. Probably get a bit of a cold, maybe some flu-like symptoms. That's what I'm expecting in the next few days.

Moral of the story: The pandemic isn't over, get your 3rd doses if you haven't. We likely won't ever know for sure, but I'd bet this is Omicron. It's really early in this wave, so the data is limited, but *so far*, it looks like 2 Pfizer doses will do a really good job protecting against severe illness from Omicron, but not a great job preventing infection. Some protection, but not as much as any other variant. Estimates I've seen range from about 20% to about 70%, compared to 90%+ for everything else. That's for 2 doses. We don't have data on 3 doses yet, but given the information so far with 2, it sure looks like 3 will reduce infection somewhat, and do a really solid job against severe illness.

So get your shots, y'all. We're not done with this yet.

How's everyone else doing?

[lhamilton1807]

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Got a Pfizer booster Monday since it just opened up to my age group (i.e. over 18). Had hoped to mix my original Pfizer shots w a Moderna booster but that’s not how it worked out.

Booster shot was like the second shot - sore joints and foggy brain and fatigue for a day, then back to normal. On to family and food!

[JonM]

My wife and I got ours back in January. Here we are in November, I will say that even though she still got COVID recently, her recovery period was significantly faster and her risk of death dropped significantly. I have no doubt that if we were both unvaccinated, she'd be hospitalized right now or worse. So, I'd say it's effectiveness is still way above zero. I'm just thankful I got my booster. I was in direct contact with her and I didn't get so much as a sniffle.

[XEMON]

Wired, in Cali they asked me if I wanted it ... Said yes.
But I didn't ask for it nor mentioned it, the pharmacy brought it up ...

[Loophole]

Had a double whammy today of Flu shot and Booster for Moderna. All went well! Way less of a reaction so far and my arm isn't nearly as bad as the second dose of Moderna. I think my nurse this time was also a stud muffin. I told her to surprise me so I wouldn't subconsciously tense up. Taking maximum strength Tylenol and staying super hydrated. Plus exercise has helped a ton. Went on an hour long walk and did some good ol' work on the house.

[vijil]

I had my pfizer recently. Was gonna lose my job otherwise anyway. Word around here is that efficacy drops to near zero after about 200 days. I'm not sure whether the mrna shots train your system to recognise stuff and react faster in future, as trad vaccines would? Given that the mrna ones shortcut around your system and directly produce the immunity rather than influencing your own system to do that, I can see how it would wane quickly and need boosters. Would each booster last longer? I bloody well hope so.

But maybe I'm misunderstanding. It's a long thread.

My experience: it was as though I'd taken a bunch of sleeping pills. Slept for 12 hours afterwards.

[vijil]

We've been officially instructed not to by the NZ Health ministry. 6 week gap at least.

[boarder2k7]

FWIW all I had to do to get a booster was click the button on the CVS website, there was no confirmation of status past that. YMMV of course

[JonM]

There is currently a report by the LA Times circulating stating that the efficacy of the Moderna vaccine dropped from 89% to 58% by September, the Pfizer vaccine dropped from 87% to 45% effective, and the J&J vaccine dropped from 86% to just 13% effective. However, they don't reveal their sources. How accurate is this data? Anecdotally, the fact that my wife contracted COVID (albeit in a nerfed form compared to the unvaccinated) while I remained unaffected after receiving my booster seems to corroborate this report. Obviously, a two person sample size is woefully inadequate to make any kind of real determination, but it seems to ring true in my case at least.

This brings me to wonder if pharma companies are continuing to evaluate and improve upon their existing formulas. I'm also wondering how soon boosters will be made available to those outside of the elderly/high-risk groups approved for it currently.

[boarder2k7]

Got a Moderna booster on top of the Moderna original series two days ago. Much less reaction than with the second original shot. With the 2nd shot I couldn't lift my arm over my head and it hurt like a bugger for nearly a week. The booster was less sore than my flu shot was a few weeks ago.

[Jonnydread]

flyweightnate Yes it was muscle, I was being colorful.

[flyweightnate]

I hope they got muscle - there are trials to see whether hitting a vein increases myocarditis risk!

[XEMON]

No concerns of getting COVID boosters and flu vaccines at the same time?

I had the same thought but the pharmacy said it was fine ...
Got both of them at the same time, arm was saure for a few days and felt like not too great the same day (but nowhere close as the second shot...)

[Jonnydread]

Nope, I rarely have adverse reactions to vaccines and I tend to be foolhardy with my body. I got the two vaccines and played two full days of paintball immediately afterwards. The booster shot site was a wee bit sore, but not bad at all and I didn't have any symptoms. My body seems to be fairly resilient when it comes to medical reactions so I'm fortunate.

[The Inflicted]

I do volunteer work with HIV+ kids so I'm eligible for the booster, went last Friday and got my flu vaccine and my Pfizer booster. I still generally wear a mask indoors if I'm going to be around a lot of people just in case. Shoot dat science into my veins!

No concerns of getting COVID boosters and flu vaccines at the same time?

My pregnant wife wife got her third Pfizer shot last month and was basically bedridden all day the day after. Nothing actually worrying, but she had absolutely zero energy.

I had the J&J last March and got a Pfizer booster Friday. My arm was pretty sore on Saturday and I felt pretty tired but otherwise was fine. The day after my J&J shot last spring was much worse, probably because I didn't rest.