Whanganui letters: The vaccine experience and the working life of Charlie Anderson

Immunologists in a report say vaccines like the Pfizer one produce flu-like symptoms in about 60 per cent of recipients after the second dose. Photo / Supplied

Aches and pains after Covid vaccination are a good sign.

When I got my Covid jabs last month, I was quite pleased I didn't get any nasty flu-like symptoms afterwards, but after reading a recent report in Science Immunology I now rather wish I was flu-ish afterwards.

The immunologists writing the report said mRNA vaccines, like the Pfizer vaccine we are receiving, produce flu-like symptoms in about 60 per cent of recipients after the second dose of the vaccine. These are due to an abundant production of interferons, cell-signalling proteins that play a vital role in activating an immune response.

Your body produces these soon after contact with pathogens and they have powerful antiviral effects throughout the body, suppressing replication by the virus, and thus preventing the spread of the virus elsewhere.

mRNA vaccines for other viruses are powerful inducers of interferon, so it is likely that the side effects of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine are byproducts of a healthy burst of interferon generation at the same time as the stimulation of an effective immune response. These effects occur more frequently in females than in males and are more severe in younger people than the elderly, and we know that that interferon production is substantially stronger in females than males, and in younger rather than older people.

So fatigue and headache after vaccination for Covid-19 should be viewed positively as a sign of a very effective immune response, indicating that the vaccine is doing its job of stimulating production of interferons, the body's in-built immune stimulators.

The SARS-CoV-2 virus slows interferon production and leads to below-normal levels of interferons in the blood, even in those with severe disease. This implies that severely affected Covid patients had a low level of interferon during their early stages of infection.

It also implies that young women have the highest levels of immunity to Covid-19 because they have the highest levels of interferon, the complete opposite of old men like me!

JOHN ARCHER
Ohakune

Common sense and dogged determination

A wonderful article in the Whanganui Chronicle on Saturday, August 21, written by Iain Hyndman, that touched on the amazing working life of Charlie Anderson and his beloved Bell Jet Ranger and their exploits together.

I knew who Charlie was (all farmers did) before I moved to Whanganui in 2005, but I didn't really get to know him well till after we got flooded a year or two later.

If it hadn't been for Charlie's common sense and dogged determination, to fight council staff and some councillors, for the replacement of the Wikitoria Road culvert, we would still be having sleepless nights every time there was heavy rain.

So thank you, Charlie.

PAUL DUNCAN
Whanganui

Click here to email us a letter.