There are now two COVID vaccines available in the United States and they are currently being administered to health care workers and long-term residents.long-term care facilities. But it’s new, and new things are scary, and both COVID and its vaccine have been non-stop politicized. Rumors are circulating.
If people in your life doubt the safety of the vaccine or still wonder if the coronavirus is a hoax, here are some tips for talking to them. There they are there are still many unknowns about the vaccine, so just because someone has doubts or questions doesn’t mean they’re anti-vaxxer. If you have questions for yourself or if you want to talk to people in your life who do, we’ll break down some of the myths and facts for you.
Was it rushed?
The vaccine developed rapidly and spread and distributed much faster than any other vaccine in history. But this does not mean that it has not been tested or that corners have been cut.
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Each of the two vaccines was tested in a study of more than 30,000 people, in which half received the vaccine and half did not. Simply put, there is a lot of data to confirm the belief that the vaccine is safe and effective.
The vaccine cannot provide you with COVID
Both vaccines contain a piece of MRNA that our bodies can use to make spike protein, a small piece of the virus. The shot not more it contains mRNA and some ingredients that help mRNA turn it into cells. This means:
- It does not contain the virus itself.
- It does not contain any of the proteins in the virus.
- It does not contain the complete RNA of the virus, only the part that encodes the ear protein.
All of this means that he cannot give you and cannot provide you with COVID. The virus is not there. The virus is also not involved in the vaccine production process. (Some other vaccines use modified or dead viruses; the COVID vaccine does not use any virus in its production).
The mRNA in the vaccine cannot alter your DNA
The coronavirus has RNA for its genetic material and we have DNA for ours. But the two are not interchangeable. Your DNA is safe.
Your DNA lives in the nucleus of each of your cells and our bodies make mRNA copies of our DNA as part of the normal daily work of keeping us alive. The vaccine introduces a new mRNA that would not normally be there. MRNA does not alter DNA.
Now, there are others viruses in the world called retroviruses, which can make DNA from RNA and in some cases can be inserted into DNA. But this is not relevant here because the coronavirus is not a retrovirus. He uses RNA but does not know how to make DNA.
Neither the virus nor the vaccine include one reverse transcriptase, a special molecular machine that is needed to make DNA. Even if reverse transcriptase were to be present in the cell in some way, neither the viral RNA nor the vaccine mRNA included the binding sites necessary for reverse transcriptase to function.
Or if you want an analogy, think of your DNA as a reference library. The books stay in the library, but you can take notes in your own notebook to use elsewhere. (Notepad is RNA.) There’s no way your notebook will somehow become part of the library’s permanent collection.
What’s really in the vaccine?
Both vaccines are incredibly simple. The ingredient lists for both contain only three types of ingredients:
- mRNA
- lipids with very long names (they are basically elegant oils and form the coating around the mRNA)
- sugars, salts and / or simple chemical buffers
In the Pfizer vaccine, the third category includes potassium chloride, monobasic potassium phosphate, sodium chloride, dibasic sodium phosphate dihydrate, and sucrose. It may sound scientific, but you probably have three in the kitchen (sucrose is sugar, sodium chloride is salt, and potassium chloride is sodium-free salt). Here is the Pfizer vaccine fact sheet, which includes the list of ingredients.
The Modern vaccine is formulated with different ingredients, but following the same formula. In addition to mRNA and lipids, it includes tromethamine, tromethamine hydrochloride, acetic acid, sodium acetate, and sucrose. Again, these are simple ingredients that are extremely common in medical solutions. Tromethamine is just a Tris buffer, which you may have used in science class. Acetic acid is the acidic component of vinegar. Sucrose is sugar. Here is the information sheet on the Modern vaccine.
But I’ve heard it contains …
Even before COVID, there was a lot of misinformation about vaccines. Sometimes people felt that there was a certain ingredient some vaccines and came to the conclusion that it had to be all vaccines. Like mercury, for example, which is only found in a few vaccines. (Before it was over.) So let’s look at some items out there no to the COVID vaccine:
- COVID vaccines do not contain aluminum or mercury.
- COVID vaccines do not contain preservatives.
- COVID vaccines do not contain fetal cells.
- COVID vaccines do not contain microchips.
Let’s talk about the last two for a second.
There are no microchips in vaccines
The idea that vaccines contain microchips is just flat ground.wrong caliber. There is a whole conspiracy theory that spread from the air on microchips and was shared in groups discussing Qanon conspiracies and vaccine propaganda. It is not based on anyany world truth.
There they are Injectable microchips in this world and your pet can get them at any vet office. (They don’t do anything either, as they don’t have a battery; their only job is to store a serial number.) Sometimes pets get their microchip at the same appointment where they get vaccinated. Maybe that’s where the rumor started?
If you’ve ever seen a microchip injected, you’ll know that they are slightly larger than a grain of rice and that the needle that delivers them is fitted. In other words, the inside of the needle is large enough to fit a grain of rice. Meanwhile, vaccine-administering needles are extremely thin and less than 1 millimeter wide. Here is Vice President Pence receiving his COVID in front of the cameras. It can be seen that the needle is a normal size. There is no microchip there.
There are no fetal cells in COVID vaccines
Some vaccines are developed in cell lines that are grown in laboratories, and in some cases these cells come from cells that were originally cultured from human fetal tissue. This has led to the myth that “pieces of aborted babies” are found in vaccines, which is not true at all.
COVID vaccines are not cultured in cells, neither fetal nor other. Remember they are just an mRNA. Laboratory machines can synthesize them without involving any kind of cell. Both Pfizer and Modern did use some fetal-derived cell lines for some of the tests they did in the vaccine development process.
If this is a problem for you or your loved ones, you have approved the Pope statement by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops can help you understand how a vaccine tested on fetal-derived cell lines fits with an anti-abortion religious framework. The bishops argue that the “remote connection” of vaccine development with abortion should not interfere with the fact that “vaccinating safely against COVID-19 should be considered an act of love for one’s neighbor.” and a part of our moral responsibility for the common good. ”
There is no evidence that vaccines harm fertility or pregnancy
Trials for both COVID vaccines excluded people who were pregnant, so we have limited data on their safety and effectiveness during pregnancy. But depending on how these vaccines work, scientists and doctors say there is no reason to believe the shot would be harmful to people who are pregnant, breastfeeding, or planning to become pregnant.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has stated this he believes the vaccine “should not be withheld” from pregnant people although the trials did not include them. The CDC agreed when they wrote the vaccine recommendations, saying people who are pregnant can choose the vaccine and should talk to their provider to decide if it makes sense to them.
Meanwhile, there is a rumor that spike protein mRNA has a similarity to a human placenta protein. If true, this would suggest that antibodies against the coronavirus would also react in the placenta and could interfere with pregnancy. If you’ve heard a misconception that the vaccine can “make you sterile” or “cause infertility,” this is probably the myth the person is thinking about.
But again, this is not supported by evidence. In fact, we have good reason to believe it no the case. The spike protein encoded by mRNA is the same as that of the actual coronavirus. Therefore, if coronavirus antibodies could cause problems with pregnancy, this would be just as true for people who got the virus naturally as for people who got the vaccine. But that turns out to be a debatable point because there does not appear to be any significant coincidence between the ear protein and the placenta.
But don’t just take my word for it. If you are pregnant or planning to become pregnant, talk to your doctor about the risks and benefits of the COVID vaccine.
Are there scary side effects?
For most people, the side effects of COVID vaccines are what is expected of an immune reaction. These include pain and possibly redness or swelling in the arm where you received the vaccine and potentially one or two days of fatigue and fever. As with other vaccines, the severity of these side effects varies from person to person.
If you’ve heard of serious side effects, they fall into two categories: those that are real or plausible and those that are just done to scare people on social media.
Here are some of the ones that really concern doctors and public health experts:
If you’ve heard of anything else that is weird or scary, it’s likely to be offset by clicks. Don’t just trust the blind; look at it. For example, a nurse fainted after receiving the vaccine (People faint after injections sometimes, it’s pretty common), and there’s been a rumor circulating that he died. She didn’t.
Or to take another example, a woman who was in a vaccine trial he developed a disease of fear at his feet, and posted online that he believed it was due to the vaccine. It turned out that he was part of the placebo group and had not received the vaccine at all. But his story kept circulating.
Will I have to shoot?
This is your choice. There is no government plan that forces anyone to achieve this. You don’t need to say any special words to your doctor to get out of it; “No, thank you” will always be enough.