I want to start another one anyway. I think it would be great to hear and compare stories about the vaccination experience everyone had so far. This is going to go on for at least a few more months, maybe deep into next year even.
I am especially interested to hear about he physical reaction to the shot and compare what happens after the first and second shots for each of the vaccines.
I got AZ into my body for the first time last Friday. Here is my experience.
Registration.
I did register as soon as it was possible for me on https://1922.gov.tw/ (Chinese site). Seeing that there was the option to choose between Moderna and AZ, I decided to remove the check for AZ. A few days later, learning about the likely waiting period for Moderna, I went back online and changed it back to checks for both vaccines.
Appointment
Last Monday I went back on https://1922.gov.tw/ (Chinese) and made an appointment for last Friday 8:30~9:30 Xiushan Elementary School in Zhonghe. Initially, there was a glitch preventing me from choosing the district, but that went away a bit later.
Vaccination
I dragged my butt to the school at 8:40. Because of heavy typhoon rain in the forecast they had move the vaccination venue inside the gym (air conditioned) instead of outdoors. The whole process was efficient and took half an hour from entering to exiting the gym. There were only two persons in line in front of me at each stop. There was plenty of staff to help, and the medical people (Far Eastern Hospital) were all friendly. Lot of spacing too. I give the whole experience an A.
The first few hours after vaccination
After sitting in the gym for 20 minutes or so after the shot without any unpleasant reactions, I went home, then went grocery shopping, then went to play with my two-year old nephew until the evening. Didn’t feel anything up to around 8pm.
Shit hits the fan
Started to feel a bit tired at around 8pm and decided to go to bed early. Started to feel the body temps rise shortly after that. I guess about 38 degrees. Then I started to feel cold despite sleeping in a room without air-con on. Probably around 28 degrees room temps. My brother who got AZ in France had told me about exactly that reaction. In the afternoon I joked that he got one of the few bad vaccine doses (aka AZholes). Well, me too. I now wonder if people with similar genetic setup have similar reactions to the vaccine. Then the headache started too. The whole head, not a specific area. Not too bad, though. I have worse migraines at times. Felt like that until the morning hours.
The day after
After getting up, the temperatures had gone back down, the feel of cold had changed to massive sweating during the night. The headaches would accompany me for the whole day, though. Overall felt shitty and drained. Did try to sleep during the day. Took me a long time to fall asleep each time despite feeling tired.
Day three
The day I am writing this. Still feel a bit shitty. But not much worse than usual. Still some headache, but very manageable. Btw. at no point I felt the need to take pain killers or other medication. People suggest drinking a lot of water, and that’s what I did.
Conclusion
I have mixed feelings about the experience. After thinking for 10 hours after the shot that this would be a breeze, the first night was really unpleasant. I am glad I choose a Friday to have a free weekend to be able to sleep as much as possible. Overall it was tolerable but not a nice experience. Glad the next shot is not before October.
I know some people have shared their experience elsewhere already, will look around and see if I can copy some of those posts here too.
For all who have yet to get vaccinated, good luck!
Got my first vaccination a couple of days ago- Moderna. Booked it a week ago. Showed up at 8:15, finished by 9:20. Phenomenal job by volunteers, directed by bureaucrats from the Ministry of Health. It was a largely older crowd, many people who were confused about the whole thing, many elderly who spoke Taiwanese or Aboriginal dialects- the volunteers and professionals were incredibly patient, answering the same questions over and over.
Slight weakness the first day, soreness in the vaccinated spot for two days, then fine.
I got the AZ shot on Friday. Nothing spectacular except I’ve had a hard time falling asleep over the last few nights, I thought I felt my heart racing, but when I checked it, it wasn’t too fast. Periodically a slight headache which quickly disappears.
Will just link mine to avoid repetition. (I thought I’d also posted about the first shot but can’t find it now - maybe it’s been deleted for some reason?)
That’s for my second dose. Will post about my third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, …, fiftieth doses in due course, assuming that boredom or COVID don’t take me out in the meantime.
I got my second AZ shot at NTUH today, exactly 10 weeks after the first one. It overall went quite well and they’ve definitely improved the process a lot since May, at least in terms of throughput and crowding.
It wasn’t much faster though, at least in my case - about 1.5 hours between entering the building and leaving it, with a lot of sitting around on chairs fairly close to others in between.
The vaccinations were being done in some big open gym or something (which I think was one of at least two buildings) off from the main NTUH buildings, with people divided into groups according to the SMS previously sent. The consent form was given out in the first queue, then had to go inside and queue briefly again to register, then queue again and get my temperature taken, then sit in the first waiting area for an irritatingly long time (maybe 30 min), before finally being called to the vaccination area, where a nurse moved around with a trolley injecting everyone (another wait of 30-40 min, as the nurse disappeared for ages just before me). Then hung around for 15 min or so before wondering off.
No real discussion with a doctor this time either - one just came down the line of people asking everyone if they had a fever etc. and whether they’d had a severe reaction to the first dose.
I also forgot my yellow vaccination card - oops, didn’t realise until I was on the MRT and no time to go back. It wasn’t an issue though - they just gave me a new one (although I had to specifically ask them to add the details of the first shot).
Sad to say, I was not magnetized- no keys being attracted, padlocks flying open. Did notice all the smartphones around me acting up, broadcasting strange instructions, so Bill Gates might want to fine-tune that a bit.
’s for that, I want NT$2 royalty apiece. 
