Mostly Apolitical Thread for Discussing/Venting our Rational/Irrational COVID-19 Fears and Experiences in 2020

I have a bit of that (mostly like an involuntary shock reaction to injury) and got my shot a few days ago no problems, but in the lead up, really, really did not appreciate the constant news coverage showing needles literally going into arms. Like that is not helpful!!

My needle phobia is 100% irrational and deeply ingrained but it has thankfully never prevented me from getting shots as needed.

Four days in, roughy start but feeling good except my arm still feels like it took a punch.

COVID arm is a thing! My partner's shot swole up to the size of a deck of cards and she had a bad general allergic reaction. It passed entirely in about a week and a half but it's understandably scary in the moment. Benadryl helps.

i know i keep repeating my experiences here (and elsewhere on board) but i hope it's helpful for anyone just checking in to be reassured of the realities of this stuff rather than fall prey to dumbass misinformation

Yeah my arm is still pretty puffy around the injection site, though thankfully no redness or a rash.

it was like i grew a muscle from my first shot lol

I know "just don't think about needles" is easier said than done. But every time I get a shot or get blood drawn, I just look off into the distance in the opposite direction, and focus on something else for a while. I barely notice shots.

But if I were to stare at the needle and watch it happening and ask for a countdown and tense up and stress over it, I probably would be pretty anxious.

it's ok to go up and say "I need you to do all your cleverest kid tricks with me even though I am an adult"

one of my besties literally faints after every shot. when his wife got the epidural shot he practically went into a coma.

i'ma keep strong-arming him tho

yes, he fainted after a shot he DIDN'T EVEN GET

There's covid arm, the immediately swelling (like a bee sting, which afaict is not unique to this vaccine), and then there is covid arm, the splotchy rash, which arrives about 8 days later in some people, including my wife.

I just look off into the distance in the opposite direction, and focus on something else for a while. I barely notice shots.

This is my move. In fact, at my first shot, I didn't feel a thing and when I looked back she was already putting the band-aid on my arm.

Back at work, a colleague informs me she's not getting the vaccine because if she does get the 'rona she'd rather get over it naturally.

I cannot stand seeing needles go into flesh. Never could. Especially if it's a big veiny vein.
I'm fine with having jabs though, just look straight ahead. Had loads of blood taken the other day and barely felt it at all.

I'm jealous of all of you who got COVID arm.

xxpost So trying to pull oxygen into your rapidly-disintegrating lungs without the aid of a ventilator, then.

I didn't want to get into it tbh.

Back at work, a colleague informs me she's not getting the vaccine because if she does get the 'rona she'd rather get over it naturally.

Yeah, don't know why more people don't try this. If I got Covid I would simply not die.

I think because she's young ... ish ... she thinks she'll be fine. She was quizzing another colleague if they knew anyone who had Covid and was disappointed to hear that two of the people he knew with long term problems were in their 20s.

yeah i've never understood people who decided to get sick, rather than decide to just like....... not get sick. it's not complicated, people!!

It's a pity, I like her but this is nuts.

I suspect her of being a hippy tbh.

something something Big Pharma something something your immune system needs to get sick to get strong something something essential oils something something

Like vinyl, the virus just sounds warmer and has more tonal nuances than the vaccine.

if you join VRUS you get one virus per month for 14.95

"Aw, shingles again this month?"

Rather die naturally than live unnaturally. Stupid fucking hippies.

I might understand the mentality of "I'll just take my chances with the virus" if it were truly like the flu. But I've read of too many cases of otherwise young/healthy people who have been unexpectedly afflicted, or people who have had symptoms that last for months or cause long-term damage, that it really doesn't seem worth the risk!

It's weird: people who are suspicious about what the vaccine might do to them don't seem to be at all concerned with what the virus itself might do!

I've been stuck so many times in my life that I don't even think about it, never really understood this fear tbh but I guess that's what makes it an irrational fear.

any remaining queasiness I had about shots completely went away the first time I got a shoulder tattoo

I'd be more chill regarding the people who want to take their chances w/ the virus if it wasn't contagious, is the thing

Wouldn't have an issue if those folk sunk by themselves, but it's dragging down the collateral folk that now have to help that gets me. Dumb attitudes never extend to taking 100% of the consequences.

I'd be more chill regarding the people who want to take their chances w/ the virus if it wasn't contagious, is the thing

Never underestimate the mental gymnastics someone will perform to avoid doing the right thing.

I've been surprised by the number of friends/people I know who've never been conspiracy theorists before but are all anti-lockdown, anti-mask & anti-vaccine, and quite vehemently so too

Wonder if it's to do with the number of blue tick accounts on social media who amplify all that nonsense

xxp -- a friend is deathly afraid of needles and her solution was a lot of weed, ymmv

PROTIP if anyone has never heard this: tensing your muscle makes it hurt so the best thing to do is communicate with the shotgiver that you are going to tense up the muscle getting the shot for as long as you can, then release and let it go slack and let them know to go for it. you likely won't even feel it.

I have had terrible needle anxiety all my life, and have passed out many times just seeing hypos - in a grocery once where they were giving flu shots, walking home one night in Pioneer Square when I happened on someone shooting up. It's awful and I have no control over the reaction. It takes every ounce of willpower I have and hours of self-talk for me to voluntarily get a shot and having blood drawn is worse. It had improved some, mostly because I got fascinated with Dr. Pimplepopper videos and she injects anesthetic and takes her time suturing things back together.

Wanting, like seriously happily anticipating, the covid vaccines was a completely new experience and the first time ever I've voluntarily walked into a room where hypos were everywhere and needles were going into arms and I did okay.

I really feel for anyone who experiences needlephobia, it's terrible to have that awful level of anxiety. It doesn't matter that it doesn't hurt. Desensitization (in whatever way works), CBT, promises of a major treat afterwards, anti anxiety meds - maybe all of the above. Maybe just someone to crack jokes and provide distraction and transportation, a vaccine doula. I don't know but I am incredibly proud of every needlephobe out there who gets vaccinated.

Rather die naturally than live unnaturally. Stupid fucking hippies.

― Authoritarian Steaks (Tom D.), Friday, April 30, 2021 11:47 AM (one hour ago)

especially infuriating when you mentally catalogue all the ways they obvs don't follow through on this

Got my second shot this week, no symptoms except a sore arm (again), went away in two days. Yay I'm a statistic!!!

i have hippie neighbours who won’t get the vaxxed, and they are also terrified of leaving the house because they’re afraid of caring and/or spreading the ‘rona - at least you can’t accuse them of inconsistency

way to go IO!!

I've been surprised by the number of friends/people I know who've never been conspiracy theorists before but are all anti-lockdown, anti-mask & anti-vaccine, and quite vehemently so too

Wonder if it's to do with the number of blue tick accounts on social media who amplify all that nonsense

My working theory is that forced quarantine has made people forget how to interact with other people and they're now spouting shit they normally would have been socialized to keep to themselves.

lol sorry my second to last post got autocorrected into (further) incomprehensibility

Had a friend over last night, and he said his mom has been pretty anti-vax on social media despite having been vaccinated herself. His best theory is that she does not want to alienate her circle of lunatic anti-vax friends, though for all anyone knows that have all been secretly vaccinated, too.

well that's depressing

Kinda feeling like humanity is in need of a hard reboot. Lotta glitches lately.

I wonder how unique that story is. I have an aunt and uncle who are Trumpy people, apparently, but they were practically first in line to get vaccinated. I don't know where they fall on the conspiracy theory spectrum though.

I cannot stand seeing needles go into flesh. Never could.

My brother developed Type I diabetes in 1965 when he was 12 and I was 10. He began getting daily insulin injections, sometimes multiple injections, at first from my dad, but as a teenager he started self-administering his injections. Eventually everyone in the family learned to give him injections, including me. It tends to take the edge off one's fear of needles.