Doctor Battling COVID Vaccine Misinformation with Ingredient List for Twinkies

Doctors have tried to tackle denial and misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine in a variety of ways, including a doctor who shows patients a list of ingredients for Twinkies in order to compare it to the components of the vaccine.

Dr Vincent Shaw in Baton Rouge, Louisiana displays the ingredient list for Twinkies when patients tell him they don’t want the COVID-19 vaccine because they don’t know what’s going on in their bodies.

“Look at the back of the package,” Shaw says. “Tell me you can pronounce everything on the back of this package. Because I have a chemistry degree, I still don’t know what it is.”

He makes the comparison to remind patients that many everyday products contain safe additives that the majority of people don’t understand, so concerns about the components of the COVID-19 vaccine are unfounded.

For more Associated Press reporting, see below.

Such exchanges have become all too common for medical workers who are growing weary of the denial and misinformation of COVID-19 that made the treatment of unvaccinated patients maddening during the delta flare.

The Associated Press has asked doctors across the country to describe the types of misinformation and denial they see on a daily basis and how they respond to it.

Here are their stories:

LOUISIANA DOCTOR: “Stop looking at Facebook”

Shaw also often hears patients telling him that they haven’t done enough research on vaccines. Rest assured, he told them, the vaccine developers have done their homework.

Then there are the marginal explanations: “They put on a tracker and it makes me magnetic.”

People who get sick with mild cases insist that they have natural immunity. “No, you are not a Superman or a Superwoman,” he told them.

He said one of the biggest issues was social media, as evidenced by the many patients who describe what they saw on Facebook deciding not to get the vaccine.

“I’m like ‘No, no, no, no, no.’ I shake my head, ‘No, no. That’s not good, no, no. Stop, stop, just stop looking at Facebook.’ “

DALLAS ER DOCTOR: Baffled by how he has “lost all credibility” with anti-vaccine patients

Dr Stu Coffman asks patients to tell him that they are afraid of the side effects of vaccines. They don’t trust the regulatory approval process and raise refuted concerns that the vaccine will harm their fertility. He said the most unexpected thing someone had told him was that there was “actually poison in the mRNA vaccine” – a baseless rumor that originated online.

He is bewildered by the repression.

“If you have a gunshot or stab wound or have a heart attack, you want to see me in the emergency room,” he said. “But as soon as we start talking about a vaccine, all of a sudden I lost all credibility.”

KENTUCKY: political opinions become clearer after diagnosis

Dr. Ryan Stanton recently had a patient who started his conversation by saying, “I’m not afraid of any Chinese virus. From that point on, he knew what he was up against to deal with the patient’s politics and mistaken beliefs about the virus.

Stanton blamed people like far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones for spreading some of the misinformation that has taken hold among his patients. Among them, the vaccine contains fetal cells. Another said that “it is a simple fact that the vaccine has killed millions of people”.

“In fact,” he said, “it couldn’t be more from the truth.”

There was hope after the vaccines arrived, but then came the delta variant and slower vaccinations.

“Really amazes me how many people have this huge fear, this vaccine conspiracy theory and honestly before God will try anything, including a vet drug, to get better,” Stanton said.

MICHIGAN PULMONOLOGIST: Facebook post sparks frustration

For Dr. Matthew Trunsky, the vaccine setback has become so intense that he took to Facebook to describe the anger he faces daily at his hospital in Troy, Michigan. The post listed eight encounters he had had in the previous two days alone in which COVID-19 patients explained misinformation-fueled reasons for not getting the vaccine or requested unproven treatments.

Example # 5 was a patient who said he would rather die than be vaccinated. Response from Trunsky: “You can get your wish.”

He estimates that he has treated 100 patients who have died since the start of the pandemic.

ILLINOIS FAMILY DOCTOR: Nicki Minaj traces misinformation back to Scripture

Dr Carl Lambert hears a lot of savage misinformation from his patients. Some come from interpretations of the Bible; some are from rapper Nicki Minaj.

Some of them are Internet conspiracy theories, as if there was a microchip in the vaccine that would grab their DNA.

“Scientifically impossible,” says the Chicago family doctor. He also overhears patients telling him that the vaccine will weaken their immune systems. He replies, “Immunology 101. Vaccines help your immune system.”

Recently, he received a flurry of messages from patients worried about damage to their testicles – a rumor he ultimately traced to a spurious tweet from Minaj alleging the vaccine causes impotence.

“And I was like, ‘This is weird. This is a little outrageous.’ So a lot of advice that I didn’t expect to have to do. “

Some of the disinformation is being transmitted from above the pulpit, he said. People sent him preaching sermons saying that the vaccine is “ungodly or has something in it that will mark you,” a reference to a verse in Revelation about the “mark of the beast” that some Christians quote in not getting vaccinated.