Dose 1 of the AstraZeneca vaccine: a step towards a Covid-free future?

The floors were swept, the corners of the room were vacuumed, the dishes were washed and the shelves dusted... which meant one of two things: either I was procrastinating or I was highly stressed! You see, the day was the 5th of June, 2021 and at 4pm later that afternoon I would be getting my first dose of the AstraZeneca (AZ) Covid-19 vaccine.

As part of my 'medicalese' teaching I would quite often discuss the latest news and evidence regarding Covid-19 and the vaccines available with my students, with the AZ vaccine being no exception. I had thus discovered that I was in the high risk group in terms of developing serious side effects, namely being young and female. Despite some initial trepidation, this information combined with the blatant fearmongering making its way around the WhatsApp and Facebook groups in my community did little to dissuade me from jumping at the chance to sign up for the AZ vaccine. I had science on my side!

One of the articles I was studying with my students was by the European Medicines Agency back in March 2021 way before Malaysia announced it was going to offer the AZ vaccine to the general public. From the analysis of the article I was immediately drawn to one figure: out of 20 million people vaccinated with AZ, only 25 people developed severe blood clotting disorders. Anyone who knows me is well aware that numbers and maths are not my forte, but even I was able to tell that a number so small was pretty much negligible! For the record, 25 out of 20 million is 0.000125%!

Now of course it is incredibly unfortunate that some people have suffered serious illness and some have even lost their lives to these side effects but what I don't think the media and fearmongers highlighted was that simply having Covid-19 inherently increases your risk of developing severe blood clots. The research is still new and figures are still emerging, but the overall risk of mortality and morbidity from Covid-19 is definitely higher than the risk of developing serious side effects to the vaccine.

When the government announced it would be opening bookings on a voluntary opt-in basis for the AZ vaccine I was there at the ready, both laptops open on the webpage and on my mobile browser... I wasn't about to miss the opportunity! After the initial heartache and disappointment of not being able to get a slot, the WhatsApp grapevine finally came in handy, alerting me that there were still slots available and I manged to secure an appointment for myself and my dad on the 5th of June.

So, it was done. They had my details, my profile on MySejahtera (the Malaysian Covid-19 tracing app) had changed to reflect my new vaccination status: Dose 1 Appointment Booked. I just had to wait and keep following the science, no matter what the detrimental part of my brain was screaming at me (here's a snippet, by the way: "AHHH! You're high risk! You're going to get a blood clot and die! What are you doing!?"). The day of the vaccination finally rolled round and after my stress cleaning morning I headed to the vaccination centre at PWTC.

What followed was half an hour of pure efficiency, teamwork, professionalism and friendliness that made me extremely proud to be Malaysian. The vaccination centre was full of people yet social distancing was maintained at all times and everyone was wearing their masks properly. After it was all done, I returned home and waited for the symptoms to start.

Now, I'm going to be terribly pedantic and urge people to avoid using the term 'side effects' when talking about symptoms experienced after getting the vaccine. In my case, I experienced a post-vaccination syndrome consisting of the following symptoms: myalgia (muscle aches), injection site tenderness, lethargy and reduced appetite. I had taken two days off work in anticipation of the symptoms and am very glad I did- there's no way I would've been able to teach anyone in that state! Once the symptoms subsided (I'm glad to report my appetite is back to its normal ravenous state) I was able to return to work and three weeks on am now feeling perfectly healthy.

At the time of writing, the AstraZeneca vaccine has now been added to the national immunisation programme and is no longer available on an opt-in basis. I can't wait to receive my second dose and am so excited that more and more people are following the science instead of listening to unsubstantiated gossip. Being kept apart from my partner due to Covid-19 (I last saw him in October 2019) with little idea of when we will see each other again was made a smidgen easier by taking the first step of being vaccinated. If it means that the world might return to some sort of normality, then let's go for it!

Bottom line: if you have no contraindications to receiving the vaccine, I strongly encourage you to get yourself registered and get down to a vaccination centre as soon as possible!

Together we can fight against this virus that has changed the world forever.

#followthescience #cucukmyAZ #becausescience