Hospital admin who had bad reaction to vaccine still encouraging others to take jab

Working in administration in the emergency department of a Dublin hospital, Michelle McNamara from Mullingar has decided not to take the second shot of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, as she had a rare but severe reaction to the first dose.

“Originally I was a bit hesitant about getting the vaccine but I decided to go for it in the end because it’s better than getting Covid,” Michelle told the Westmeath Examiner. “I was one of 340 staff vaccinated on the same day and it was very well organised – they kept me for 15 minutes and I had no reaction,” she said.

“I got vaccinated around 5pm and I was working till 8 because I do 12-hour shifts. It wasn’t until I was driving home to Mullingar, about 20 minutes into my journey when I got really, really hot, and then I got really, really cold – so cold my jaws were chattering.”

Once the initial hot and cold flushes passed, Michelle (42) thought she had “got off lightly”. That was a Friday night, but by Saturday morning, she woke up feeling like she had been “sedated”.

“My body felt like a tonne weight, I couldn’t get up, I was very lethargic. And I was like that for about two weeks – I had loss of appetite, breathlessness, I attempted to go to work on the Monday morning but I had to pull in at Enfield because I was suffering very bad dizzy spells. I was still very weak and my right arm wouldn’t stop trembling.”

No underlying condition

On the Thursday of the same week, Michelle again attempted to go to work, but once there, her arm still wouldn’t stop shaking and her colleagues encouraged her to go home.

“I rang my GP and she told me she had had a similar reaction and other patients had rung in about the same reaction, but not to the same extent as me. She sent me for a Covid test, which turned out to be negative as I had expected – it was just the reaction to the vaccine.

“In total I was off work in total for about four weeks and I’m still feeling tired, and still a bit breathless at times. The only good thing to come out of it was that I actually lost weight because of my loss of appetite,” Michelle said.

“I’ve no underlying conditions, I’m fit and healthy, so I didn’t expect such a bad reaction,” she said. “I initially wanted the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine as I had heard the doctors and nurses discussing it in work and thought that was a good option because you don’t get a reaction to that one until the second jab, and at least you’re fully vaccinated by that stage.

“But the AstraZeneca was the only choice of vaccine our hospital had open to it. So I went with it because I’ve seen so many patients with long Covid symptoms in to the emergency department and that would scare the bejeezus out of you – the symptoms are quite frightening and to see young people left with certain conditions after Covid... getting the vaccine is the better option.”

But for now, Michelle has decided not to take the second dose of the vaccine.

“I’d actually be too nervous to get it. I have spoken to some of the doctors that I work with and they think I should have a good enough protection with the first dose, I’m about 65% covered, so it should prevent me from getting very sick with Covid.”

Encouraging others

Yet despite Michelle’s severe reaction, she is encouraging others to take the vaccine.

“Look, I’ve seen some truly scary incidents with people coming into the ED as a result of contracting Covid-19, so I would say to people – do go and get vaccinated because I’m the worst case scenario out of everyone I’ve spoken to.

“The effects of Covid are potentially much worse than any side effects associated with the vaccine, so I would still advise to still get vaccinated. In the long run, it’s safer to get vaccinated.”