Covid-19 in the community

When me and my best friend got it, our first one, everybody had just come back from being off with Covid, so they obviously couldn’t get it. So, we were one of the first loads that could get it. So, everybody was sort of asking us what it was like, did it hurt and what was I feeling afterwards. And obviously I said it, to be honest with you, this is just how it was with me, with me it was fine. But I mean you could ask somebody else, and they could say they were poorly with it. But it really depends on you really and how you take it. So, I said I can’t really answer that question, but for me I’d rather have the vaccine twenty times a year, than have Covid again.

Because of the vaccinated, we’re hoping for the best that corona we can maybe control and we’re expecting that corona will be like a flu like symptoms. Like I had a flu jab every winter, then maybe I’ll have a corona vaccine every year at the same time just like the flu. If it’s like the flu, then we can carry out our normal duty, normal job, life can go on.

What were your concerns?
 
First of all, thinking straight away is you know, the, they made a vaccine really quickly. And then you don’t know what the actual truth behind it is. Is it gonna work? Is it something good for you? Is it not good for you? But like I said, as the family members that’re working in the hospital they said, no, it’s fine. Don’t think about anything. Don’t worry about what people are saying. It goes, obviously scientists have made this and it, we work in the hospital and we’re telling you, you need to take it.

There’s a mistrust from, from the past. And, and there was a Tuskegee study which was done some years ago into syphilis. There’ve been, people don’t, don’t trust politicians in terms of they say one thing and then do another. The, the fear factor of the, the rumours of, I won’t even mention them. I don’t wanna mention all the, the rumours that came out and, and was circulated on WhatsApp. The technology that, that came out and, and people sort of tuned into that and so on without going and doing their proper research. Because I say, only go to the tried and tested scientific websites. Those are the ones you need to visit. Don’t go to some person whose gonna say, “Oh, try these herbal remedies and, and this homeopathic thing and so on and that will cure you of what have you.” One needs to be mindful of where you’re going and researching for your information. And, and some of the reluctant people have eventually come around.

I think my brother said that I, I wasn’t very keen on having the vaccine at the beginning. My brother said, “No, go and have it. Don’t listen to the news. Don’t listen to other people.” There were people saying they were putting like animal things, not halal and not haram and had been checked by the Iman and everything. And my brother said, “It depends on each individual condition how the vaccines, all medications are like every medication whether you take Paracetamol, any medication they all have side effects afterwards.”

My mum prays, you know. Is Christian, you know. And then what she say to me, you know, that this vaccine is, that according to my mum, is not good, you know. It will, they are trying to basically to make one new world order, you know. She say people have to follow this you know. They bring their illness, you know. Now they’re going to have one army, have one government, have one thing. People have, they will have to do. If you don’t get, they will come and stand one day say if you don’t have a vaccine, you won’t get a passport to go to this place you won’t do this you won’t do that. So, she’s against it, you know, she’s against it. And then she said “this vaccine can do bad things to your body, you know. It can, you know, it can make you not have babies”, you know. “It cannot have you, have you many things”. So, it’s not even good for your body, you know. And then I said to her: “But me, I work in the NHS, and they they’ve told me nothing wrong with it, I can have it and not have any problems.”

After I debated it a long time, watched everything went on the internet, read as much as I can about it and stuff. I thought you know what, my sister had the vaccine and then she was alright. She had a few, didn’t feel very well the first, feel fine the first one the second one she didn’t feel as good but that passed, and I thought you know, I’ll just take the vaccine.

I was backing up this campaign and one of my social media posts was, for example, showing a picture of me back in April 2020 with an oxygen mask on my face and I put the inscription, this was six days after I was tested positive with Covid-19 and another picture from January 2021 completely healthy and smiling and I said, this is six days after I got my vaccine. So, I was I was trying to promote this message that this is the way out of this pandemic by adhering to these measures, by taking the vaccine and this is not just for our own benefit, but we have the kind of social responsibility for others. And it was it was so good to hear a lot of positive feedback from people, from people that I know or even don’t know telling me that, “I’ve took the vaccine because of you. I took things more seriously because I’ve heard your story.”

When I took it I made sure I put it in social media. Just so you know to raise more awareness, so people maybe are more engaged to take it. I don’t know? But a lot of people in my community said, “Why did you take this? Based on what?” I wouldn’t take this,” dah, dah, dah, dah. So, there is a lot of resistance.

I know that eventually they’re going to inject inside me but I, if I have personal choice, I don’t want the vaccine.
 
Why do you say that, that you know eventually they’ll make you do it?
 
I need to go back home to Pakistan and travel and the way I look at it, they’re going to make it difficult for people to travel like, you know, they want you to be jabbed and all that so, sooner or later, they will get me, but I will take my time.

I’ve had my first jab. I think I’m due to have my second jab tomorrow. And I’ve been very sceptical this time last year about having the Covid jab. I didn’t like the idea, it felt quite evasive to me. But having had Covid as bad as I did and for as long as I did, I decided to have to, had to have the jab. So, I had the first jab in March.

Before Covid I was like my son was asking me whether “mum, if the vaccine comes, would we take it?” and I said, “No, I wouldn't take it.” He goes, “Why? You should take it.” And I said, “No, but, if I’m healthy, why should I take it?” And the whole thing change upside down since I got this type of symptoms from Covid.
 
So, you mean you weren’t sure you were going to take it until you got Covid?
 
I wasn’t going to take it, that I was sure for. I wouldn't have taken if, if I didn't have Covid. I was sure that if I’m okay, why should I take it, at that time? But when I got Covid, I experienced the worst thing. So, I took it.
 

Sally: Well, what I’m so relieved about is, in the past I’ve been really worried about infecting my mum and getting with her being really ill because obviously she’s in her late 70s and in that vulnerable. But the fact that she’d been double vaccinated and then caught it off me and had a mild version, makes you feel a lot better, actually that those sort of vaccines to that point did work. To the extent that it’s you know, you don’t have to stop your mum seeing your kids because you’re worried about them, you know, we have a bit more confidence in, in that, so long may that continue.

I should’ve read the booklet that they’d given me at the time, and I didn’t, I thought I could see it. I had every symptom, except one, I can’t remember what the one was, as in, there was one that I didn’t have, but yeah. I’m sensitive, whether this is anything to do with it, I’m really sensitive to any sort of medication.

I won’t have the second one, which is due soon, until I know what’s going on with my arm. So, it’s from the site of where I had the injection so it went from being painful to like I can’t put my bra on. And I can’t hang clothes on the line, putting coats, you know, putting clothes on it’s really, in the gym I can’t do shoulder presses, whereas I was able to do shoulder presses. I can’t do it on that arm. So, it’s really kind of, can’t like carry my handbag is usually on my left arm and I can’t put it on my shoulder. I have to put it like, you know, like the like the posh ladies, over your arm as opposed to on my shoulder [laughs]. And that, so that has been a big downfall for me.

After all you know, this would’ve been at the beginning of March, I finally had a referral to the cardiac clinic, prescribed me ivabradine, and I had my first vaccine. I went straight from the cardiac clinic to have my first vaccine. First vaccine felt like going through the whole thing, my entire year. And then suddenly I thought ‘oh, hang on.’ It was like the sun had come out like the cloud had gone from my brain. And I suddenly felt like myself again…

Stayed on the ivabradine but I still felt you know something, there was a very concrete gear change, when I had, when I got the vaccine, first vaccine. Then it took about 6 weeks, then the vaccine bounce stopped, but by the time the second one came around again, and I had the second one in June, the same thing happened. And I was able to come off the ivabradine. And my heart rate is now normal, my blood pressure and I am able to do you know, kind of 5/6000 steps in a day, maybe even more.

There’s been a lot of information out there about the vaccine and how those with long Covid do feel some of their symptoms alleviate and get better after the vaccination and I felt that as well. The first one in particular, I did feel that I was bumped up the queue because of my long Covid diagnosis so I’ve got the vaccine far quicker than I should have done which I’m pleased about because I was suffering, so I did feel less exhaustion. The second time, the second vaccination, I was completely wiped out. I was quite surprised by how much it really knocked me out but again I was told that’s not unusual for those who don’t have side effects from the first vaccination sometimes they have more the second and vice versa. But I also think with Covid and with the vaccination, I think you can go down a rabbit hole in terms of researching and finding out what things happen, what happen and what don’t happen.