Humans, in general, are very poor at risk assessment. It is important to take a look at the risks of getting COVID - including the long-term symptoms that people are experiencing - relative to the issues that people are experiencing from the vaccines. If you do so from a factual standpoint, you'll find that FAR fewer people are experiencing effects from the vaccine, and almost NO ONE is dying from any of these effects.
The clear-cut path is to get any vaccine that you can get, but if you are concerned, you should discuss getting a vaccine that you perceive as having less risk associated.
Being healthy and exercising is great for you, but has no effect on whether you will or will not get COVID.
Also, keep in mind that the reporting system for side effects is a self-report system, and nothing in the reports verifies that the event reported is definitively related to the vaccine.
Regarding that heart thing -- I took my 14-year old to get his second Covid vaccination today, so naturally the nurse and I were talking about those (very rare) cases of myocarditis and pericarditis have been seen mostly in people between 12 and 39 years old after their second shot. She said the problem is treated with antibiotics and once treated, you're well (no lingering damage, like can happen to the heart from getting Covid itself). The other (and most surprising) thing she said is that people more often get this kind of inflammation of the heart muscle from a virus -- often, for example, from strep.
I asked how you would know if you got it, and she said often with the Covid shot there's a couple of days right after when someone might feel punk or have a few symptoms, but myocarditis doesn't come on until at least a couple of days have elapsed, sometimes three or four.
I think the numbers so far have been 300 out of 12 million or something like that have had this complication after a Covid shot, which is so infinitessimal that more people have been struck by lightning (or for that matter have died of Covid itself) than have gotten myocarditis or pericarditis after having the shot. Also, they only see a correlation right now, they don't even have proof of causation.
Try not to read every piece of news and get scared. I know it's not easy! But trust that medical science has done pretty well to get us this far.
It is looking like young people are getting this heart inflammation from the mRNA vaccines, meaning the Pfizer and Moderna (or more accurately, the BioNTech and the Moderna). The blood clots, on the other hand, are from the AstraZeneca and maybe the J&J vaccine, and these predominantly affected women. However, as noted above by the two very good answers there, given the very large number of people who have been vaccinated, and the very small number who have suffered these problems, it isn't likely you'll get any of these problems. You don't say your age or your gender, so hard to say whether you have any risk at all of these two problems. But the thing you don't hear when people talk about complications are, covid has all the same complications and they may be permanent, though we don't know that yet. The latest one is damage to brain cells, and if that's true, that would be a permanent condition of having had covid. I wouldn't downplay the risks of any medication, because they all have some pretty awful ones. There are no safe ones, meaning, some people are going to wish they hadn't taken them. The most common med we all know about is aspirin, and aspirin has killed way more people than cancer has, so there you go. No drug is completely safe. But neither are the diseases these meds treat. In comparison to pills you probably take when the doc tells you to, the vaccines are almost without any risk at all. The worst most people get are a sore arm and fatigue for a couple of days and then they're fine and pretty well protected against covid. If it were me, as for your other question, I'd get the Pfizer, and especially so if you're not a teenager as they're the ones at risk of the heart inflammation. The reason is, if you have a choice between a vaccine that has shown to be 90% effective or more at preventing getting covid and at being able to pass it on to someone else, and another that was less than 70% effective in European trials and a little above 70% in American trials (probably because the UK had a worse variant at the time), to me it just makes sense to go with the one that's more effective, given you have a choice. If you didn't have a choice, I'd say get whatever one was available. There's a bit of human responsibility at play here, because if we don't reach herd immunity from the vaccine variants are going to keep arising and they're going to keep getting worse for us, such as the Indian one that is now becoming the predominant strain in the UK. Get the jab. Peace.
Before the AstraZeneca vaccine, I was a resilient robust 78 year old with excellent health. No colds coughs or flu in winter.Only medication is a low dose of thyroxin.
After Astra Zeneca vaccine 6pm 26/3/2021 I went to bed when I came home. I woke up in extreme pain at 4am, totally inflamed from head to toe. Hospitalised three times as different damage from spike proteins emerged. The paperwork with the vaccine said it made our bodies produce the spike proteins via its genetically engineered vaccine.
Here are the issues since then, and we are now in July 18th 2021.
Heart inflamed and enlarged
Severe headaches with no previous history of them
Brain clot in cerebellum affecting my balance
Thyroid overactive for the first time in my life!!Normally slightly underachieve
Kidney problems in spite of me not being a candidate in any way, lifestyle nor in blood tests, blood pressure 120/70 or under, weight 70 kilos for past 50 years, drink only rain water - no soft drinks, no commercial fruit juices, only fresh home grown fruits and vegetables, organic meat, grass fed, organic dairy and eggs. Whole of life as a country bred and raised Australian.
Gastric when not in past history
weight loss of 6 kilos and not putting it back on since
Partial paralysis of face, throat, tongue, inside mouth, lips with inflamed skin splitting, difficulty eating and swallowing,
partial paralysis of bladder making incontinence an embarrassing issue needing nappy pants that hold two litres!!
Swollen, inflamed gritty red eyeballs difficult to see through very puffy eyes
swollen left leg
loss of taste
inflamed skin that splits on face and legs
constant cough developing into pneumonia
yet no fever.
The formerly healthy lady of 55 in the hospital bed opposite me had the Pfizer, went into a coma after the Psizer vaccine, and woke up paralysed in her whole body. She has been paraplegic since and going she will get over it, poor thing.
We were forbidden to talk about it in hospital.
Workplace Health and Safety Australia have sent letters to employers saying not to report side effects from employees receiving their mandatory vaccines.
We can not find statistics. Personal experience and witnessing friends suffering from heart damage and painful inflammation in whole body plus blood clots prompt is to say to our friends, wait until there is proper research, and safe vaccines developed that have none of these nasty symptoms.
Virologists say it takes years to develop effective vaccines. Even the inventor of the technology used in the vaccines warns that hthey should not have been released until tested and researched properly. Fauci ignored his advice and pleadings and went ahead recklessly.
Now we who have had the vaccines are the guinea pigs who are reporting the side effects, if we are still alive, and not paralysed.
Disillusioned Aussie
As far as I know these vaccines do not particularly cause side effects in people who have high Blood pressure or heart disease. I am 87, have high BP but just felt some tiredness after the 1st and 2nd dose. Reactions do occur in a small minority unfortunately and this can not be predictted
I can understand your confusion about the types of vaccines.
What I can tell you in all honesty is that Covid is real, serious and dangerous. I have lost my father and a sibling (younger than me) to this virus. My sibling was stronger than me, active, and full of life. They survived flu on many occasions.
Whatever you factor into your decision making, please do not assume that Covid is just like flu. Some people are mildly affected but some are seriously ill and some die. I have also had flu - some bad bouts of it too that made me feel dreadful - but I am pretty sure I would not survive Covid.
Thank you all for your answers, it helped me a lot in understanding and dealing with the anxiety of taking it, yesterday, I had my second dose. Thanks!