Why are we moaning about a shot in the arm which could cure our world?

What is wrong with Britain? Even the Covid vaccine is anything but a shot in the arm to some people who’ve had it!

As if it was some major talking point, Piers Morgan revealed his mum has flu-like symptoms after her first coronavirus vaccinations and that began a debate yet again how safe it all is!

Sorry mummy is a bit crocked Piers but surely it’s better than mummy becoming an ex-mummy because of covid isn’t it!

Surely, if it saves your life it’s worth a few aches and pains…

Piers said: “They said it was very efficient, very quick, very painless, all very happy. My mum then got quite a bad reaction to her jab. I say bad, like a fluey reaction, and she’s in bed. A lot of people are getting a little bit, or a little bit more reaction.”

Dr Hilary Jones then reassured him that what she was experiencing is perfectly normal.

He said: “Most people might get a slight reaction at the injection site so some redness, some heat, some warmth a bit of tenderness probably last a few hours. Certainly gone overnight. That’s not uncommon at all, and that’s common with any vaccination.

“The second thing people are reporting is a bit of fatigue, headache, muscle pains, that might last a bit longer. Some people getting chills and a very slight temperature.

“Up to 50 per cent people are getting fatigue for a few hours, maybe 24 hours.”

But surely these negatives are actually positives – it the jab is working.

Our own writer Dorrie Bridge had this to say: Am I justified in saying we don’t want to talk about Corvid – it’s there every time we look round.  Also anything on the subject written by me is written from my point of view but not based on ‘fake news’  (we do so miss you, Donald).

However, today I am moved to write as the inimitable Piers Morgan has said that his mother had bad side effects after her jab.  Bad enough, I believe, to make her take to her bed.  Although Piers is often deemed to exaggerate I trust he would not do so about this aspect.

Secondly, I, personally, suffered strong flu symptoms after my jab.   A friend told me on the phone that she had also felt the same symptoms for at least two weeks.   Millions do not – but how many people do and yet, when feeling better, say they were ‘Fine’.  In other words don’t bother  to go into the details.

We are constantly reminded that the scientists and medical gurus are playing it by ear.  The virus,the vaccines, the variants.  When we get the vaccination, each vaccine is prepared by differing methodology.  We get the one that happens to be around our area that week.  We may each have decided which we’d prefer, done our own ‘research’ but when push comes to shove we accept what we’re given.  For the safety of the many, not the few. Where have I heard that?

When the entire populace, in the main, have had the two doses of the vaccine, it is then, we are told, that we may be able to mix more freely, albeit masked and distanced according to the safety measures still needed.

As the experts have to learn as they go, having no reliable precedent, we assume they are collecting data, compiling the rules as they gather evidence.

The vast majority would not get significant side effects.  According, however, to human nature, if asked how they had felt many would simply say, Fine, not going into details as they are now back to normal.  In most cases even the GPs would not know. Yet it might be important for those in the field to know the reactions of different age groups to the various vaccines.

Data can be sought and recorded in many ways but one way is for each patient at the time of the vaccination be given a simple set of questions in a form to be filled out after a week.   The questions are obvious and would lead to much clearer knowledge rather than a random, hearsay approach.  It would require admin input but is probably very necessary data for the future.

Piers Morgan’s remark and my own gathering of the experiences of people I know led to this thought.   

I promise my next project will give us all a rest from Covid.

Dorrie Jane Bridge