A Chorleywood resident who lived in the village for over 50 years received his Pfizer COVID-19 vaccination and told us all about his experience.
Colin, 80, is a retired engineer who used to work in computer security. He received his first jab on December 16 and the second one on January 6, at the Gade Surgery in Rickmansworth.
He mentioned the injections were both totally painless and he had no side effects afterwards.
Colin said: “I suffered no reaction and nor did anybody else who was waiting there. When the 15 minutes was up, I left and went home. I was slightly concerned about getting too close to others around the surgery entrance on my way out.”
Talking about the day of his second jab, he said: “There was a chatty young lady looking after the waiting room and during my 15-minute wait I asked her whether she had ever seen anybody suffering adverse effects after the injection. She said no, but I suppose that might possibly have been a tactical rather than true answer.
“My advice to anybody thinking of getting the vaccine would be, it’s a no-brainer. It’s good for you. It’s good for the NHS. It’s good for saving people’s jobs. It’s good for the economy. Do it.
“I’m very relieved to have had the injections, but aware that there are several unknowns about the vaccination. In particular it doesn’t seem to be known yet whether a vaccinated person exposed to infection can spread the virus, even if they don’t get ill themselves.
“There is also uncertainty about how effective the vaccine will be against new mutations of the virus that have sprung up since it was developed. For reasons like these I don’t feel it has set me free to do what I like.”
Colin told us, the first thing he would like to do, when the pandemic is over is to socialise with the family.
He said: ”The best we’ve managed for about three, four months has been a socially distanced chat on the doorstep and the odd Zoom session.
“After that my priorities are socialising with friends, a few days away self-catering, or better, in a hotel, and eating a really nice meal in a restaurant.”
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