Yesterday evening my shoulder was sore, but not badly sore. On a 5-point scale, where 0 is no pain and 5 is 'get me that morphine now', my shoulder soreness was a solid 2. I took a precautionary ibuprofen at bed time & slept decently. I briefly woke at 3 am, took another ibuprofen, went back to bed & woke at 6 am. That's good sleep for me.
Yesterday when I went to CVS drug store for the vaccinations, I completely forgot to pick up a bottle of Aleve or house-brand Naproxin. Ibuprofen is as effective for me, but it lasts only 4 hours, not longer. That can matter overnight.
My shoulder is still sore this morning, but I expect it will get better as the day goes by. As reactions to vaccinations go, this year's Covid-19 and Flu shots were minor problems, if any at all. My wife's reactions to the same shots a few weeks ago were similar.
In contrast, last week she got the RSV vaccine for
Respiratory Syncytial Virus. It contained
adjuvant, a loosely defined term that for vaccines means additive(s) that can increase the injection-site inflammation and overall immune response. She experienced greater pain that lasted for about 3 days. Apparently, there are some 5 or 6 RSV vaccines now available, and at least 2 of them include an adjuvant. The manufacturers apparently needed these adjuvants to boost the immune response to the poorly immunogenic RSV immunogen. Adjuvant additives in vaccines do have to be tested clinically and the FDA has to review & approve their use on an individual vaccine basis.
I'm not warning people to avoid the RSV vaccine because of adjuvant(s), I'm only providing a heads-up in advance that it
might be more painful than this year's Flu or Covid-19 vaccines.