It was pomp and ceremony on Friday, March 12, 2021 when the Lagos State Government officially rolled out the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines, first for the frontline health workers and others in the frontline of the battle against the dreaded Coronavirus.
The venue was the Infectious Disease Hospital, IDH, Yaba where Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu was to take the vaccine publicly to tell Lagosians that the vaccine is safe.
As I got to the venue early before the governor’s arrival, I made effort to register to take the vaccine as a journalist. I consulted with some pressmen at the venue, many don’t want to take the vaccine, the fear was boldly written in many faces.
I called my wife to inform her of my decision to take the vaccine and right on the phone, she screamed “Don’t take it, don’t take it.” I laughed.
At exactly 3.00pm, Sanwo-Olu took the vaccine and his deputy, Dr. Kadri Hamzat too. Shortly before the governor’s arrival, state Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi took the vaccine first. With the governor’s taking of the vaccine, the fear of some were gone. With a couple of journalists, I took the first dose of vaccine. It was not painful, there was no reaction, I was joyous that I was among the first 100 people to take the vaccine in Lagos.
I worked late on Friday night and decided to go to bed around past 1.00am. I was already feeling pains that I had not felt before. Shortly I hit the bed, sleep vanished, I was praying, “Lord, give me sleep.” My prayer was answered and I slept. I was rudely jolted out of sleep few minutes later with serious shivering I never felt before. I took the bedsheet and wrapped myself in, but I was shaking like a leaf.
Asides the shivering, internal temperature sets in. My whole system was aflame, I woke up my wife and said “dear, touch my body, is it hot?” She said “no.” But I could feel a hell of flame within me. The temperature was accompany with sharp body pains. I could not sleep, pains, temperature, headache and chill set in.
Later in the night, the internal temperature found its way out, my body was hot outside. I held my wife and she screamed because of how hot my body was. I had a hellish night, sleep later came early in the morning, I slept till past 1.00pm on Saturday, but the headache and pains did’t disappear but the temperature was gone.
I called my other colleagues who took the vaccines to inquire if they felt the same way I was last night. The story was the same with slight variation. It was the side effect of AstraZeneca vaccine which we were not told.
Later, I got to know that the side effects of AstraZeneca vaccines are: pain or tenderness at the injection site, headache, tiredness, muscle or joint aches, fever, chills and nausea.
I wrote this article with body pains, tiredness and headache yet to disappear. So if you want to take AstraZeneca vaccine, take note of the side effect, which I learnt will disappear in few days time.
A ’hellish’ night with AstraZeneca vaccine: A reporter’s experience
