COVID vaccines are safe. These social media myths are dangerous nonsense

President Joe Biden’s plan to mandate COVID-19 vaccines because any company with more than 100 employees has thrown gas on the disinformation fire surrounding vaccination. Although 63% of the American population has received at least one injection, millions of people still remain unvaccinated.

As government and health officials push to get more people vaccinated, false claims about the Vaccines against covid-19 continues to proliferate on social networks. Facebook, Reddit and Youtube have tried to stop the spread of disinformation on their platforms, but the problem remains. In July, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy described misinformation about COVID-19 as an “urgent threat” to public health.

We’ll demystify some common false claims posted on social media, and explore the facts about COVID-19 vaccines.

False: vaccine kills more people than COVID

A common misconception about COVID-19 vaccines is the idea that they cause a high number of deaths. To substantiate this misrepresentation, conspiracy theorists often refer to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System. The system functions as a vaccine surveillance program to “detect unusual or unexpected adverse event reporting patterns for vaccines”.

The latest VAERS figures show 7,653 deaths reported as of September 24. This represents 0.002% of the 380 million doses administered.

These recorded events do not directly relate death to a vaccine and can be submitted by anyone, whether a patient, family member, health care provider, or from a vaccine manufacturer. The CDC receives these reports, and if there is a trend, it investigates further. By comparison, nearly 660,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the United States as of September 15, according to the CDC.

“Reports of deaths after COVID-19 vaccination are rare,” according to the agency. The United States Food and Drug Administration requires health care providers to report any deaths after COVID-19 vaccination to VAERS, “even though it is not clear whether the vaccine was the cause,” according to the CDC. “Reports of adverse events to VAERS after vaccination, including deaths, do not necessarily mean that a vaccine has caused a health problem. A review of available clinical information, including death certificates, autopsy, and medical records, has not established a causal relationship with COVID -19 vaccines. “

The agency notes that there may be a causal relationship between the Johnson & Johnson single-injection vaccine and a rare blood-clotting condition called thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome, or TTS, which can be fatal. But the CDC says the disease is so rare that the benefits outweigh the risks. However, he adds that people, especially women under the age of 50, should be made aware of TTS and other available COVID vaccines, such as Pfizer or Moderna, for which a risk of TTS has not been observed.

False: We do not know the long term effects of the vaccine; people could die in three years

Last month, the Food and Drug Administration gave full approval of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID vaccine following regulatory review. With such reviews, the agency evaluates vaccine data to determine their “quality, safety and efficacy.” The vaccine was previously administered under an emergency use authorization, which is still in place for Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines.

False claims that people who received the Pfizer vaccine will die in three to five years have no scientific basis. Though there is known side effects of mRNA vaccines, like that of Pfizer, the CDC says serious long-term effects are “extremely unlikely.”

With most vaccines, side effects occur soon after the injection.

“I usually start by saying, first of all, that to our knowledge, no vaccine has long-term side effects,” said Dr. Allison Arwady, director of the Chicago Department of Public Health. “Where we’re really concerned about side effects is particularly at the beginning, and then usually where you see a problem, it will happen in the first couple of weeks, even with a brand new vaccine. , that’s part of why the FDA wants the six months of surveillance, because if you’ve watched someone for six months afterwards, there’s really no biological reason you expected there to be any issues. long-term vaccine. “

As for the COVID vaccines themselves, they have been studied since the start of the pandemic.

“Specific vaccines for COVID are under study, essentially since we knew what the virus was and had its RNA sequences (January 2020), with the first candidate vaccines ready in February 2020,” said Dr Julie Parsonnet, professor of medicine. and epidemiology and population health at Stanford University. “The first large trials started in July 2020. The studies are HUGE compared to most clinical trials,” she said, hundreds of times larger.

False: There is a 99.9% chance of surviving COVID, so it is not necessary to get vaccinated

A false claim made for most of the pandemic is that COVID-19 has a 99.9% survival rate. This number comes from a CDC planning document from September 2020. This claim, however, lacks a lot of context.

Nearly 660,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the United States. A study, published last October, puts the death rate at 1.15%. For younger people, the rate drops dramatically, while it increases for older people or those with certain medical conditions, such as cancer or heart disease.

However, the most contagious delta variant could change those numbers. There have already been a growing number of young people hospitalized with COVID-19 this summer due to the delta variant. Those who survive may also suffer from symptoms after their recovery, from not being able to taste food to more serious effects called post-COVID syndrome, also known as “long COVID”.

False: creator of mRNA vaccine says it’s dangerous

Someone spreading misinformation about COVID vaccinations claims to be the inventor of mRNA vaccines, like those from Pfizer and Moderna. Dr Robert Malone has appeared on right-wing talk shows and conspiracy theorist podcasts claiming that mRNA vaccines cause spike proteins to spread throughout the body, resulting in cell death. There is no proof for this.

Malone’s Twitter bio suggests he is the creator of mRNA vaccines, but this is misleading. In 1989, he wrote an important article on the development of mRNA vaccines, but that did not make him their creator. In addition, the vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna were not developed with contributions from Malone.

MRNA in vaccines is a genetic sequence that instructs cells to make the coronavirus spike protein. Once these spikes leave the cell, the body’s immune system goes to work creating antibodies to prevent infection. This process does not change a person’s DNA.

False: There is no reason to bother with the vaccine when you can use Ivermectin

Ivermectin has not yet been proven to help treat COVID-19. The CDC, FDA, and the World Health Organization have not listed it as a treatment for the disease.

The antiparasitic drug became popular over the summer as a small number of doctors have claimed that it improves the conditions of patients infected with COVID-19. But the studies backing up their claims are lacking in data, have a small number of participants, or have yet to be peer-reviewed. These studies that were reviewed were found to have questionable methodology, ethical concerns and plagiarism.

Some people who insisted on taking ivermectin started using an animal version of the medicine. This has resulted in an increase in the number of calls to state poison control centers due to side effects from the higher dosage in the animal version of the drug.

False: masks do not work

Like vaccines, masks have been a hot and political topic for some people. Since people vaccinated can still be contagious and, on rare occasions, be infected with COVID-19, the CDC began recommending in April that vaccinated people wear masks indoors.

This has led some people opposed to vaccines to spread false claims that face masks don’t work. Cloth masks provide some protection and surgical masks and masks N95 / KN95 provide scientifically proven protection against the spread of the virus as long as everyone near each other is wearing one.

There is also no scientific evidence to support the pretend to wear a mask reduces oxygen levels or causes carriers to inhale carbon dioxide.

False: vaccines go against the Nuremberg Code

Another frequently repeated false claim is that the vaccine violates the Nuremberg Code. The code was created by the judges overseeing the United States of America case against Karl Brandt during the Nuremberg trials after World War II. In the Brandt proceedings, also known as the “Doctors’ Trial”, a number of doctors and Nazi officials were accused of performing experiments on humans and participating in mass murders.

The first part of the code is what people against COVID vaccines refer to, and it says:

“The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential. This means that the data subject must have the legal capacity to give consent; must be located in such a way as to be able to exercise free choice, without the intervention of any element of force, fraud, deception, coercion, excess or other unacknowledged form of coercion or coercion; and must have sufficient knowledge and understanding of the elements of the matter at hand to enable him to make an informed and informed decision. ”

But the Nuremberg Code deals specifically with medical experiments, and what proponents of this false claim fail to understand is that vaccines are not experimental. COVID vaccines went through rigorous testing for months before being made available to the public. In addition, before an injection can take place, a person must first consent to the injection. A warrant may make the vaccine a condition of employment or a prerequisite for performing a particular activity, but a person would still have the right to refuse the vaccine.