Maybe don't complain about your vaccine side effects

Some people are skipping their second shots, and posting could partly be to blame.

The author, whose arm was not so sore that she could not take this vaxxie.

As a teacher, my boyfriend received the Covid vaccine first of all my peers, long before vaxxies had taken over my Instagram feed. I lovingly suggested that his symptoms afterward—mostly just fatigue—were due to something like a placebo effect, since he had heard whispered lore of them just before his shot. 

Cut to a few months later, and the discourse on vaccine side effects has reached a full shout. There are TikTok trends dedicated to dramatizing what happens after the dreaded second shot, and every day I see an Instagram story of someone laying on their couch with something like “that second shot hits hard” captioning their dreary face. People in my life started cancelling plans or taking off work in advance of their second dose, and others last-minute switched to a different vaccine having heard about bad side effects from another. 

There are consequences to these complaints. In a recent article, The New York Times reported that almost eight percent of people who got the first shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines did not return for the second. Many reasons were cited, but one was fear of side effects. 

For the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, only 10 to 15 percent of volunteers experienced notable side effects, but one look at social media would suggest that they are inevitable. Most of this is just because the people who experience them have something to report while those who don’t ... don’t. Realizing this, some have taken to Twitter to correct the narrative. 

Emily Galvin-Almanza @GalvinAlmanza

Just read that a % of people are skipping 2nd vaccine bc they fear side effects. Reading Twitter one would think everyone gets side effects. So for a little balance, hubs & I have ~zero effects from 2nd Pfizer. He's a little tired. I scrubbed the tub and made muffins today.

choire sicha 🧀 @Choire

Second shot vaccine side effects: 12 hours of mild sleepiness; craving for peanut butter; exuberantly energetic and delighted after 24 hours. Show up and get shot.

choire sicha 🧀 @Choire

Pfizer shot 2 + Mortal Kombat, iconic duo 🤤

Ashley Reese @offbeatorbit

I honestly regret tweeting about mine. They were very mild and I made that clear, but I think that even hyping it up like "so how long after the second shot will i start to feel like shit?" was unhelpful!

Felix Aurora @soxgoodyanksbad

@offbeatorbit I didn't have like "notable" side effects. I thought about posting that... but felt like it might be perceived as me being a dick.

My less generous take: Talking about side effects is now a trend like any other online. Maybe some people—not you, never you—even played them up a bit for the sake of the story. It’s understandable! We’ve been so isolated this past year that being part of the vaxxed club provides a much-missed sense of belonging, and there’s no easier way to confirm it than by posting about your side effects, no matter how mild. 

While a better, more encouraging display of vaccination would be to show yourself hanging out indoors with some fellow vaccinated friends or otherwise participating in vax-safe activities, I also get how PTSD from a year of lockdown, not to mention public shaming, will still make that taboo for some time. 

Instead, I’d recommend that those who had little to no side effects jump aboard the recent push to broadcast it. I had my first Pfizer shot a few weeks ago and experienced nothing but a bit of a sore arm around the injection site. On Friday, I’m getting my second dose, and even if I experience something stronger than a headache, you won’t hear a peep from me. —Kate Lindsay