Faith Burke was just 20 when she found herself on the front line of the Covid pandemic.
As a trainee pharmacist assistant in Wiltshire, she worked 10-hour shifts during a time of intense demand, staff shortages, supply chain issues, and a very real risk of exposure to the virus. Despite the problems, it was a job she loved – a stepping stone to her dream career as a paramedic.
When her employers told Faith that all staff would need a vaccine or alternatively, would have to be gloved, masked and aproned up for the entirety of every shift, she agreed to take the 1.5-hour round trip to visit one of the few centres offering the first jabs.
‘I assumed it would be safe because the Government said it would be, ‘ Faith tells Metro. Despite her confidence, it didn’t stop her parents from expressing their concerns. ‘They were asking: “Do you really think you need it? You’re healthy. Do you want to just wait until the rest of your age category have it?”‘ she remembers.
‘But I didn’t want to be the odd one out at work and at the time, it felt like there was social pressure,’ Faith, now 24, adds. ‘If you didn’t have the vaccine, you were treated almost like a leper. People were unfriend-ing people on Facebook who didn’t have it.’
So on Friday 15 January 2021, she stood in a socially-distanced queue, feeling very conspicuous among the octogenarians alongside her and rolled up her sleeve. The injection passed by without event, and Faith went to work as usual.
‘My legs were covered in lumps and hives’
By the time she got home that evening, Faith had begun to to feel itchy all over her body. She was able to mostly forget about it and enjoy a ‘normal weekend’, however, by Monday morning, her ailments became unignorable.
While at work, Faith remembers that her hands began to hurt and swell to such a degree that she couldn’t move her fingers or hold a pen. Her legs also became covered in hives and lumps appeared on her arm. So, she went to see a pharmacist who told her she was likely having an allergic reaction and advised antihistamines.
Faith took the advised medication but the swelling worsened and she began to experience ‘crushing, aching’ chest pain. When she had to undo her shoelaces to make room for her swollen feet, Faith finally decided it was time to go home.
There, she called a health advisor on 111, who advised her to go to the hospital. Her mum drove her straight there but waited in the car due to Covid restrictions, and Faith was admitted to hospital alone.
She was initially told she might have Kawasaki disease, a serious illness which causes inflammation of the blood vessels and can affect the heart, but less than 24 hours later, Faith was reassured again that it was an allergic reaction.
Yet, her body continued to deteriorate; she was breathless, with hands ‘like rubber gloves’ and covered in rashes.
‘My lips swelled up badly and by the third day, it looked like I had horns coming out of my forehead due to swollen lumps,’ Faith recalls. ‘During the night I was struggling to breathe so they gave me a shot of adrenalin.’
There was so much going on, she says she didn’t have a chance to feel scared, but grew convinced that her vaccination had something to do with her symptoms. When she tried to share her views, Faith says she was quickly shut down.
Finding out the cause
‘The nurses said: “Don’t tell anyone on this ward that you think it was the vaccine because you don’t know that and shouldn’t spread misinformation.”’,’ she claims.
Faith complied but when her curtains were pulled closed for the evening, she says she overheard a conversation she was never meant to be privy to. ‘I remember a nurse saying to her colleague, “I’m getting my vaccine tomorrow, and I don’t want to get it now I’ve seen her, I’m a bit nervous.”’
After five days Faith was sent home. A rheumatologist told her she was likely to be suffering from reactive arthritis following the vaccine, and prescribed steroids, vowing she’d be ‘right as rain before long’.
But Faith not right as rain. Three years later, she says she is now disabled and struggles with pain, brain fog, breathlessness, headaches and fatigue. She’s gone from dancing competitively and working out at the gym three times a week, to barely managing a short dog walk.
Her symptoms correlate with a little-understood, persistent condition, referred to as post-vaccination syndrome. She is one of a number of people speaking out about their experiences on behalf of charity UKCVFamily.
Facing the future
Faith’s work has also been impacted, leaving her feeling she had no choice but to leave the pharmacy and her dream to be a paramedic. She moved on to an estate agency, assuming it would put less stress on her body, but after two years she resigned, and now works in her mum’s gift shop.
‘My long-term plan has been completely wiped, which is pretty rubbish,’ says Faith. But it’s not just work that’s been affected, as she feels she can no longer be the adventurous friend she once was, going nightclubbing every weekend and enjoying spontaneous trips. Her predicament has put a strain on relationships, adds Faith.
‘I feel like a friend that always poo-poos everything,’ she explains.
‘My life has been pretty much ruined, and there’s no end to it. If they diagnosed and treated me, it might have just cost me my early 20s. I could have dealt with that, but how long will this go on? Will it be forever?’
Faith is now on a waiting list to see an endocrinologist – a medical specialist who treats people with conditions that are caused by problems with endocrine glands and hormones – but until then, she has to take it very easy.
She has reported the reaction under the Yellow Card scheme which safeguards medical products’ quality and efficacy in the United Kingdom, as did her pharmacy and doctor. Faith says she doesn’t want compensation but instead wants people to know what happened.
‘People just don’t understand. One doctor told me I was too young to label myself as disabled, and that I just needed to get myself out of it, mentally. I cried after the appointment,’ she remembers.
‘For the first three years, I was positive, because I’d assumed it would get better. But in the last six months, there’s been a noticeable difference where I’m getting frustrated. As I’ve gotten more ill, I get a lot more annoyed, upset, and emotionally fragile.
‘There are still people out there calling me anti-vax – but I’m not,’ she emphasises. ‘I never have been. I had all my inoculations through school and I understand that we had to do something to slow the spread of the virus, but I do regret having this vaccine.
‘I am such a positive person who usually says there’s no point in wishing that you hadn’t done something, because you can’t change the past – but if I could turn back time, I wouldn’t do it again.’
Covid-19 vaccinations
Faith’s experience was rare and unfortunate. In 2021 alone, Covid-19 vaccines saved at least an estimated 14.4 million lives worldwide, according to the World Health Organisation.
A spokesperson for Pfizer said: ‘Patient safety is paramount and we take any reports of adverse events very seriously. Adverse event reports do not imply causality, and in the context of vaccination, such events may be unrelated to the administration of the vaccine. Hundreds of millions of doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine have been administered globally and the benefit-risk profile of the vaccine remains positive for all authorised indications and age groups.
‘As with every medicine and vaccine, including the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, Pfizer has robust processes to meet its regulatory responsibilities to closely monitor, report and analyse all adverse events, and collect relevant information to assess any new potential safety risks that may be associated with the Covid-19 vaccine. In addition to our pharmacovigilance efforts and compliance with regulatory requirements related to quality and safety, we also work with regulatory authorities around the world as they independently monitor the safety profile of our vaccine.
‘Patients who receive the Covid-19 vaccine should talk to their doctor, pharmacist or nurse if they have any concerns or experience any side effects. This includes any possible side effects not listed in the package leaflet. Side effects can be reported directly via the Yellow Card Scheme here.’
