The vaccine floored me

 

James Gallagher is presenter of Inside Health on BBC Radio 4 and the BBC’s health and science correspondent.

I was over the moon to get vaccinated. I've covered the coronavirus pandemic, including the race to develop a vaccine, since only a handful of people were infected in Wuhan.

So when it was my turn to roll up my sleeve at the GP surgery, it really felt like a moment.

But I'm going to be open and honest with you: the vaccine floored me.

Let's be clear, even with hindsight I'd do it all again. I'd rather have side effects than Covid, or another year of restrictions, or a higher chance of accidentally passing the virus onto a loved one.

I had my first dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine at 0930 in the morning. That evening I spiralled rapidly downhill and could barely scrape myself out of bed for the next three days.

The worst was the migraine and vomiting, but I also had aches, chills and exhaustion.

It's fair to say I was moaning "Why me?" from my sick bed. But as I recovered, I wondered why do some of us get worse side effects than others, and do they mean I've built a super-strong immune response? So I spent an episode of Inside Health on BBC Radio 4 finding out…………..

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