I did delay getting my second booster for 2022, but got my flu and shingles jabs at the same time during my October annual checkup with the VA. I had only mild reactions to those. But I know from previous experience with the COVID jabs (all Moderna so far) that my immune system reaction depends on the dosage. My first Moderna half-dose booster produced very little reaction. My last booster, in June this year, was a full dose and hit a bit harder. After about 8-12 hours I started feeling kinda blah and achy for about 12 hours. Fine afterward.
But my second full Moderna jab back in 2021 kicked like a mule. Took about 12 hours to hit, and I was miserable for about 24 hours. If I didn't already have a background in health care, including assisting researchers, I might have been fooled into believing nonsense like "tHe VAcCinE GAvE mE tEh C0V1D!!!" Same stuff we hear every year about flu shots, etc.
I have had fairly serious side effects almost immediately from other shots when I was a kid. A tetanus booster at age 12 after I was bitten by a chipmunk (little b@s@rd mistook my finger for a peanut) caused the entire right side of my body to swell within a couple of hours. The ER said if it had been on my left side it might have impacted my heart. I haven't had a tetanus shot since, although I'd get one if there was a high-risk event. Odd because I'd had four or five DPT shots as a little kid, no problems.
And when I was 24 I got the gamma globulin shot after I developed hepatitis -- an occupational hazard from working in a hemodialysis clinic. I never got an accidental needle stick, so I'm not sure how it happened. But I developed a serious reaction within 15 minutes of getting the gamma globulin shot, and had to quit my college classes and work for almost six months. Very rare reaction but sometimes happens. Nowadays it's called immune globulin, and supposedly has even lower risk. I'd still take a chance with the immune globulin shot if I was exposed to hepatitis again. Hepatitis is forever. Side effects are usually temporary and not as severe as mine.
But every other reaction I've had to the many jabs I got as a kid, in the military and since have all been normal immune system responses. It might help if medical professionals explained this stuff more bluntly to patients: "This shot might make you feel like warmed over crap for a day or two. Beats the alternative: death or lifelong disability. Your choice."