Vaccine Side Effects and Immune System Strength

[EmilyClark99]

Hello, me and and my sister have got the first dose of Pfizer vaccine yesterday, she suffers from several side effect and lying on the bed all day, in the other hand me doesn’t feel anything and as normal as the normal person can be, my mother has told me that’s mean I have week immune systems and my sister has a strong one. Is that’s right?
If someone dosent feel the side effect of the vaccine means she has a week immune system? And if someone suffer from vaccine side effect means she has a strong immune system?

[ppowb]

My guess is that a weak or absent reaction means you already have some immunity

[Paxiled]

Not sure I understand.  One doesn't "feel" immunity.  One notices immunity when everyone around you at the office gets sick but you, or something like that.  What one notices with a drug are side effects.  Not all of us get them, and not all of us who do get them get the same ones.  In essence, our immune systems fight drugs because we evolved to get our medicine from food.  At some point it may be we evolve to handle human-made substances, but for now, we haven't, and so there's always some adverse reaction as our bodies attempt to deal with the new stuff it's confronting.  Nobody expected any of the vaccines to be trouble free, and in fact we were all warned some of us were going to feel a bit like we had the flu for a day or two and a sore arm.  Some of us did, some of us didn't.  I think this is just about drugs and how bodies react to them.  Peace.

[Paxiled]

It actually could mean you have a stronger immune system.  A strong immune system is a balanced one that doesn't respond either too much or too little when it's needed.  It could also mean absolutely nothing at all about the immune system.  I mentioned on a prior post the vastly different responses my wife and I had to the vaccine.  We both got the Moderna, and both shots I got a sore arm, worse the first shot, and nothing else.  My wife is still sick from her 2d shot and also got sick from the first one, feeling just exhausted and drained and did nothing but sleep.  I just did what I always do.  I mentioned there that when we both get a cold or flu she tends to get much sicker for longer than I do.  When we worked away from home, she often missed work, and I never missed a day.  But I'm not healthier than she is.  We both have our problems, but mine are far more severe, although medication had a lot to do with that so maybe I shouldn't really put myself out there since that happened as an exemplar, as I was much healthier before that happened.  It is to say some people are just tougher than others.  Some are more determined.  Some probably do have different immune reactions.  It's just baseball, and I wouldn't worry about it.  Peace.

[auntiejessi]

No, that's not what it means. It really just varies from person to person, and we don't really know why. You'll get the same protection even if you have no side effects.

Here are some articles that go into a lot of detail about how the vaccine works but end up saying in the end, it doesn't mean anything about your immune system - sometimes people get side effects, sometimes they don't, but it still works. :)

https://health.clevelandclinic.org/if-you-dont-get-sick-after-your-covid-19-vaccination-does-it-mean-your-immune-system-isnt-working/

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/04/27/990992425/you-dont-have-to-suffer-to-benefit-from-covid-vaccination-but-some-prefer-it

https://www.healthline.com/health-news/your-covid-19-vaccine-is-still-working-even-if-you-dont-have-side-effects