Can We All Just Admit that Covid-19 is Really Really Weird?

Laotian Covid Bat

I’ve been getting shots pretty much since I was born, half a century ago. Add some years in 3rd world countries and my vaccine passport has multiple editions. Measles/Mumps, Tetanus, Polio, Hepatitis, Rubella, Chickenpox. Rabies shots once, and a Tuberculosis vaccine because my grandfather lost a lung to it. So I know my needles.

But the Covid vaccines are just plain bizarre. We started with J&J, supposedly the ‘normal’ one. On day three my right ankle, only the right, developed a pain like nothing I’d ever felt before. It wasn’t debilitating, but sharp, like a razor along a bone. It only lasted a few hours. The shot itself sent a hot throbbing punch all the way down my arm. Then we got the Moderna booster. Holy shit. My fingers hurt. The lymph nodes in my armpit swelled; there was itching and a rash. No pain right after the shot, but two days later I woke up in the middle of the night thinking someone had hammered the arm with a club.

The delicious Civet Cat

I’m used to getting a ‘fluey’ feeling after shots, a little fatigue around the eyes, the sense of a fever. With the Johnson and Johnson, I felt as sick as if I actually had the flu. Many of my work colleagues received…