Mike Auerbach
Editor In Chief
About a week before Christmas 1996 I got the flu. A few days later my wife got the flu.
We were both so sick that my in-laws had to come over and pick up my son who was about two years old at the time. He spent Christmas with my in-laws. We spent Christmas sick with the flu that lasted for days.
Up to that point in my life I had never gotten the flu vaccine. Since then, I have never missed the yearly flu vaccine. I will never go through that again. The aches, the chills, the feeling that you were run over by a bus – never again. And, knock on wood, whether through getting the yearly flu vaccine or just dumb luck, I haven’t gotten the flu since.
About a year ago I was at the FDA in Bethesda, Maryland. We were there interviewing some people for a video documentary on cell and gene therapies we were doing (which has since been put on hold) and at that time there was a palpable concern in the air over COVID-19. The official we interviewed looked relieved to be talking about something other than COVID at the time. We kind of joked at giving each other elbow bumps instead of handshakes – but now we know just how quickly everything turned deadly.
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In less than a year the pharmaceutical industry produced, and the FDA approved for emergency use, two vaccines for COVID-19. Both with incredible efficacy percentages and safety profiles.
Throughout the year I made up my mind that if the FDA approved a vaccine for use, I would take it.
Luckily, or unluckily, my pre-existing conditions allowed me to get scheduled for the vaccine. I was given the Moderna vaccine – two shots, four weeks apart.
Side effects from the first shot were minimal. Injection site pain and a slight headache.
The second shot, brought me back to when I had the flu all those years ago. Aches, pains, chills, headache. But this was not unexpected.
These side effects were reported and well-documented. And, even though everyone is different, the fact that I was having these symptoms meant my body was responding exactly as it should.
About 20 hours later I was fine – side effects were gone.
Getting the COVID-19 vaccine was an easy choice for me – and dealing with a day’s worth of side effects was a no-brainer – considering the alternatives.
The pharmaceutical industry routinely gets blasted for high prices, and in some cases shady people (PharmaBro anyone?) but if this year has proven anything at all – we need a robust industry. Our lives literally depend on it.