Aussie journalist shares 'intense' vaccine side-effect from hospital bed
- Pfizer has a rare heart inflammation side effect
- Myocarditis and pericarditis explained
- People urged to discuss with GP if concerned about side effects
- Australians still urged to "get vaxxed" — despite the health scare
Australian journalist Denham Hitchcock is urging Aussies to explore what Covid vaccination is best for them after being hospitalised with a heart condition in the
weeks after his second Pfizer jab.
Hitchcock, who works for Seven News, described "feeling off" for a couple of weeks after receiving his second dose of Pfizer, saying his symptoms didn't start to appear until the end of the second week.
He later went to the hospital
where he was diagnosed with pericarditis, which he said was a "rare" side effect.
Pericarditis is an inflammation of the lining around the heart. The condition occurs generally in the population and is more common in males aged between 20 and 50 years.
According to the Australian Department of Health website, the risk of myocarditis and pericarditis has been observed in people
who have received mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, like Pfizer, in overseas studies.
Symptoms started a couple of weeks after his second dose
Mr Hitchcock admitted he debated whether or not to post his experience online, but decided it was important everyone know of possible side effects when deciding what vaccine to receive.
"I'm not anti-vax,"
he wrote in a post to Instagram, along with pictures of himself in hospital.
"I’m PRO opening the bloody country up and to do that I don’t see any way around getting the majority of Australia vaccinated."
"Nearing the end of the second week my heart started to race, I was getting pins and needles in the arms, extreme fatigue and a very strange sensation of dizziness," he wrote.
"I took Nurofen, and I kept working."
By the end of the third week after his vaccination though, Mr Hitchcock said he had gotten "steadily worse".
"Sharp chest pain — cold shivers and chills — and the dizziness was intense," he said.
"25 days after the shot and probably a little late to hospital — but here I am — diagnosed with pericarditis — or inflammation of the heart due to the Pfizer vaccine."
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