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The question is why COVID vaccine is so harsh, and why is it different than a typical flu vaccine? People say the side effect is good it is your immune response

The question is why COVID vaccine is so harsh, and why is it different than a typical flu vaccine? People say the side effect is good it is your immune response, then why not having side effect is good as well? The more I read the more confused I am. I am getting my second jab tomorrow. Vaccine is still far better than the virus itself.

macspoofing 6y ago
>The question is why COVID vaccine is so harsh, and why is it different than a typical flu vaccine? Is it though? You can certainly get a severe reaction from the flu vaccine.
- tim333 6y ago
  They do seem to be - anecdotally like half people have a day off work. I guess it must be something to do with the nature of the virus as the vaccines seem much the same that way.
  - rutthenut 6y ago
    Anecdotally, I don't think half of those in the UK have had a day or more of ill-effects afterwards. We do hear of those that get ill effects though, amplified by social media channels and press. You don't hear about the majority that don't feel ill.
detritus 6y ago
Spitballing outta my rear here – but could it be that we have a lot more exposure to flu-like viruses, whereas Corona viruses are comparatively novel, at least as far as the immune system's concerned, so there'a a lot more a struggle for the body to acclimatise?
- sbalea 6y ago
  Coronaviruses are not really novel, about 15% of common colds are caused by 4 different strains that are endemic in humans.
  - detritus 6y ago
    Ah, thanks, I didn't know! *Googles
Vinnl 6y ago
It's just what I heard on the Dutch news, but IIRC there are things you can do to make side effects less bad (I guess e.g. experiment with lower dosages), but doing those things will delay the vaccine. Which of course wasn't desirable, so they opted for a higher certainty of having a working vaccines sooner over having fewer side effects. In the future, side effects could be less severe.
valarauko 6y ago
> The question is why COVID vaccine is so harsh, and why is it different than a typical flu vaccine? I had a pretty bad day after the second dose of Moderna - high fever, etc. Symptoms mostly dissipated after 24 hours of the shot. I have my suspicions about why the COVID vaccines have tended to have more severe reactivity as compared to the flu vaccine - they were designed to trigger a very strong immune response & subsequent antibody titer, probably a lot more than might be required for protection in hindsight. The current crop of emergency use authorized vaccines have virtually 100% protection against severe COVID - which is great. My guess is that halving the antibody titer would have yielded something like 95% protection, and probably given you less reactivity as well. The manufacturers have erred on the side of caution, probably rightly so. By comparison the flu shot for last year's flu season had an effectiveness in the range of 50%. Of course, the thing that dings flu shot effectiveness is variant strains, while all the current COVID vaccines were designed from the original Wuhan strain (?), and likely have varying effectiveness against variant strains.

macspoofing 6y ago

>The question is why COVID vaccine is so harsh, and why is it different than a typical flu vaccine? Is it though? You can certainly get a severe reaction from the flu vaccine.

tim333 6y ago
They do seem to be - anecdotally like half people have a day off work. I guess it must be something to do with the nature of the virus as the vaccines seem much the same that way.
- rutthenut 6y ago
  Anecdotally, I don't think half of those in the UK have had a day or more of ill-effects afterwards. We do hear of those that get ill effects though, amplified by social media channels and press. You don't hear about the majority that don't feel ill.

detritus 6y ago

Spitballing outta my rear here – but could it be that we have a lot more exposure to flu-like viruses, whereas Corona viruses are comparatively novel, at least as far as the immune system's concerned, so there'a a lot more a struggle for the body to acclimatise?

sbalea 6y ago
Coronaviruses are not really novel, about 15% of common colds are caused by 4 different strains that are endemic in humans.
- detritus 6y ago
  Ah, thanks, I didn't know! *Googles

Vinnl 6y ago

It's just what I heard on the Dutch news, but IIRC there are things you can do to make side effects less bad (I guess e.g. experiment with lower dosages), but doing those things will delay the vaccine. Which of course wasn't desirable, so they opted for a higher certainty of having a working vaccines sooner over having fewer side effects. In the future, side effects could be less severe.

valarauko 6y ago

> The question is why COVID vaccine is so harsh, and why is it different than a typical flu vaccine? I had a pretty bad day after the second dose of Moderna - high fever, etc. Symptoms mostly dissipated after 24 hours of the shot. I have my suspicions about why the COVID vaccines have tended to have more severe reactivity as compared to the flu vaccine - they were designed to trigger a very strong immune response & subsequent antibody titer, probably a lot more than might be required for protection in hindsight. The current crop of emergency use authorized vaccines have virtually 100% protection against severe COVID - which is great. My guess is that halving the antibody titer would have yielded something like 95% protection, and probably given you less reactivity as well. The manufacturers have erred on the side of caution, probably rightly so. By comparison the flu shot for last year's flu season had an effectiveness in the range of 50%. Of course, the thing that dings flu shot effectiveness is variant strains, while all the current COVID vaccines were designed from the original Wuhan strain (?), and likely have varying effectiveness against variant strains.