"The vaccine side-effects took full control of my whole body... I'll always be traumatised by what happened to me"

How one 31-year-old suffered swollen feet, psoriasis, red flaky patches on scalp and a nine-week long heavy period post vaccination

By Carla Wheatley

VACCINE propaganda is the latest and longest chapter in the Covid-19 dystopian novel we now live in. Texts, emails, front page splashes, television and radio advertisements, all with one clear narrative: ‘Get the vaccine’. Or better said: ‘Get boosted or get ousted’.

Our high streets are saturated with ‘Get Boosted NOW’ billboards. It is peculiarly reminiscent of WW1’s army enlistment posters, which once read: ‘Britons need YOU’ and: ‘If the cap fits you, join the army today.’ 

But this time, instead of protecting our country from the impending threat of physical attack, we are ‘protecting’ our country from the imminent threat of a virus – with an extremely low fatality rate.

At least back then the cap had to ‘fit’ before it was unwillingly forced on to our heads.

But what about those it doesn’t fit? For Olivia, living in South-East London, life has not been the same since she received the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine in September 2021.

Once the life and soul of any event, she has had to replace late-night partying with early nights at home, as she suffers from what has been diagnosed as ‘debilitating’ and ‘depressing’ vaccine-induced, long Covid.

When asked why she got the vaccine, the 31-year-old, once working professional, said: “I felt like there was a lot of media pressure and peer pressure and I wanted to travel freely and live the life that I was used to.”

But this is not the life she has used to. In fact, it is the complete opposite.

I felt rushed into getting the vaccine. And they made me feel silly

Having had a severe bout of the Delta variant just two months prior, Olivia describes feeling ‘rushed’ and ‘made to feel silly’ when she went to get her vaccine at the New Cross Pharmacy in London. After re-iterating the short time frame since she had the virus on numerous occasions, her concerns were met with reassurances that ‘there was nothing to worry about’ and she might feel bad for a ‘maximum of 48 hours.’ Little did she realise this would still be affecting her almost five months later.

Three days after receiving the vaccine she started to feel unwell.

Describing her experience, she said: “I felt like I had been tranquillised and my drink had been spiked because my eyes just kept closing. It took about two weeks for the vaccine side-effects to take full control of my whole body and I will always be traumatised by what happened to me. I couldn’t put my shoes on because my feet were so swollen and I started developing psoriasis all over my body, which finally drove me to A&E. Big, red flaky patches all over my scalp and skin told me something was really wrong.”

As well as the symptoms mentioned, the list goes on. Olivia describes changes in her menstrual cycle – including a nine-week long and very heavy period, headaches, puffiness, shaking extremities, fever, sore throat, hair loss, brain fog, inflammation and parosmia, which as most know by now, is a distortion of your taste and smell. Immense anxiety and waves of depression followed.

Olivia said: “There are weeks when you think this won’t get any better and you start to get anxious about completing daily, mundane tasks from taking the bins out, to doing a food shop.”

After multiple visits to her GP and an unsuccessful trip to A&E. She said: “I didn’t feel like I was getting any support. It felt like they were trying to find any excuse but the vaccine. I felt really let down and very angry and frustrated.”

Doctor stressed the importance of an antibody test prior to vaccination

This is when she decided to seek the help of a private doctor at Sloane Street Surgery who gave her a first diagnosis: vaccine-induced long Covid and strep throat. They provided medicine and a course of penicillin.

Olivia relayed her conversations with the doctor, who had enforced how important it is to do an antibody test before getting vaccinated. If patients have recently contracted the virus, this doctor usually suggests a six-month minimum wait before getting a jab.

Surely this doctor is not the only medical professional equipped with this knowledge. If this is the case, why are we still receiving messages that 28 days is a sufficient time to wait to get vaccinated, after contracting the virus? In fact, documents released recently by the Centres for Disease Control in the US state that Covid vaccine does nothing to improve the immunity of those who have natural immunity from previous infection.

Four and a half months and one very expensive trip to Mexico later, most of Olivia’s symptoms persist. She said: “I had to just get just get away from it all. I felt like I was missing out on all my life including dating, seeing my friends, and living life as a normal 31-year-old.”

Having been medically signed off work for six months, Olivia is trying to adjust to a new normal; no drinking, restricted diets, lots of sleeping and limited exertion. And, as the sun and sea seem to be a small relief, she has become more desperate to travel, only to be faced with the next hurdle – vaccine passports.

After months of struggling with the NHS system, she has been granted a medical exemption from further vaccines, however, as seen from the scandal surrounding men’s world No1 tennis player Novak Djokovic, medical exemptions are not accepted worldwide. These blockades are driving more people to resort to other methods, including paying doctors to provide a fake vaccination status.

For Olivia, who recognises the importance of vaccinations in usual circumstances, this is all about the lack of availability of information and support. Feeling ‘let down by the NHS and Government’, she ends our conversation saying: “There needs to be much more coverage in the general media about long Covid – whether vaccine related or not – and much more support for long Covid patients, because it’s completely debilitating on both your mental and your physical health.

“People are just being silenced and brushed under the carpet, they’re just not being listened to or given a platform, which just fuels the frustration.”