Vaccine side effects or COVID infection ?

50-80% of patients  get some side effects especially after the second dose.
Often times it is hard to differentiate the corona virus vaccine side effects from
actual acute corona virus infection since both produce similar symptoms such as fever, chills, headache, body aches joint pains etc.

Most of the vaccine side effects symptoms occur within the first 3 days of the vaccine .
Majority of the patients  get the symptoms on day 2.
Symptoms are generally mild to moderate and resolve within a couple of days.
Vaccine side effects are more common in young persons compared to those above 55 years of age. 

However  cough, shortness of breath loss of taste or smell, runny nose--these are more likely to be symptoms of the actual Covid 19 disease.
If symptoms persist longer than 3 days and are more severe, talk to your doctor.
For more information , go to 
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/expect/after.html