Does My Reaction To The Vaccine Make Me Look Younger?

A rhetorical question

Sarah Miller
3 min readApr 18, 2021
Paul-Albert Desnard

I am not going to suggest that I or even “science” knows everything about how different people’s bodies react to the vaccine but I assume everyone has heard that younger people, with presumably stronger immune systems, generally have a worse reaction. Stronger immune system, more response from the body fighting the perceived threat. I don’t know that anyone knows this is exactly what is going on with vaccines but it makes sense that it might be at least partially true.

I am 51, not super old, not super young. I am healthy, not like Women’s Health “opt for fish instead of pasta” healthy, but I mean, I eat actual food and I work out and I have relationships with people even if they are far from perfect and I’m not drinking myself to death though I wouldn’t say my beverage of choice is green tea. I felt nothing on dose #1 of Pfizer. Didn’t feel the shot, didn’t feel the after effects. With dose #2 of Pfizer, I figured, oh, maybe there will be 12 hours of headache or chill or nausea but then I will be fine.

Wrong. I got my vaccine last Monday at two p.m.. I started to feel weird at around 10 that night and I awoke feeling amped up but odd. Then I felt like utter dogshit for 24 hours, then semi-dogshit for another 36 hours. The worst part of it all: I can’t really sleep…

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Sarah Miller

Sarah Miller is a writer living in Northern California.