Jonathan Roberts When I finally regained full consciousness about five minutes later, I felt the same as I did almost every morning â tired and longing for more sleep. Fortunately, aside from some arm soreness, I felt fine, which surprised me considering I had received my second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine just 20 hours or so earlier. You see, I had read the stories of other people who felt like garbage after getting their second shot, and I fully expected the same, though I was aware of research showing women typically felt stronger side effects than men do. Still, I thought Iâd feel pretty bad, so I planned to take a day off April 8.