A former Wisconsin resident who was part of a COVID-19 vaccine trial says he hopes everyone gets a vaccine when it becomes available to the general public. J.D. Garfield says he was selected to participate in the trial last summer and received his first shot in August, not knowing if it was a placebo or the real thing. “A nurse came in with a very nondescript syringe. I wasn’t sure what was in it. She wasn’t sure what was in it. Poked me in the arm and sent me on my way,” Garfield told WFDL news. Twenty one days later he got a booster shot. Garfield says about 24 hours after receiving his booster shot he developed a fever, along with severe headache and head to toe body aches. “I was at work at the time, so I went across the street and got a thermometer and saw that my temperature was 101.3. At that point I left work. When I got home I had the worst headache I ever had, and the worst bodyache I’d ever had.” Garfield says he logged onto a phone app provided by the pharmaceutical company to record his symptoms and called a number to talk with a doctor to describe what he was experiencing. “He asked me to describe my symptoms to him. He said don’t be afraid, we’re hearing these very same symptoms from a lot of people that are getting the vaccine.” Garfield says it was about 13 hours of feeling bad, but says the next day he was feeling fine and was pretty confident he had been given the vaccine at that point. “In my opinion, if the vaccine works the way it is supposed to, I believe in the next three to five years the world will approach COVID-19 the way it approaches the flu now,” Garfield said. “…every year make sure you go and get your COVID vaccine so you don’t get it. I hope society continues to have a fear of this virus.” Garfield says he just hopes when the vaccine becomes available to the general public people get it.
