A Lung Doctor Shared How He Felt After Getting the COVID-19 Vaccine

Dr. Mike Hansen is a pulmonary medicine specialist who has been making YouTube videos dispelling medical misinformation throughout the duration of the pandemic. Now that Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine is starting to be rolled out among the most at-risk demographics of the population, front-line healthcare worker Hansen has received his first vaccination. His newest video provides clarification on exactly how the process feels, and what people can expect.

“It basically felt like another flu shot,” he says. “I had a little bit of soreness in my arm, and that’s it. It’s actually better than it was about 12 hours ago, when it was at its worst, and when it was at its worst it wasn’t even that bad… Overall, things went very well, and I’ll be getting my second dose exactly three weeks after I got my first dose.”

Hansen feels it is important to provide reassurance at a time when some people still feel uncertain about a vaccine, and the effects it might have on their bodies. He specifies that while it is possible some people might get symptoms, where their immune systems are responding to the vaccine, that is far more likely to occur with the second dose than the first, and mainly just in younger people.

He also cites the specific instance of a healthcare worker in Alaska who made news after she had an allergic reaction to the vaccine, and stresses that she is doing fine now. “When I think about someone having an allergic reaction, as an intensive care doctor, the first thing that I’m concerned about is, is this an anaphylactic reaction, do we have swelling of the airways,” he says. “That’s not even the case of what happened with her.”

In Hansen’s view, there is only one group of people in the United States who he believes should maybe not get the vaccination, and that is people who have had an allergic reaction to any component of the Pfizer vaccine.

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