Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic at the end of 2019, more than 82 million infected and about 1.9 million deaths have been recorded. Today, a year later, we are in one of the worst moments of the pandemic and achieving group immunity naturally is not a viable option given Sweden’s attempt. Also, the virus doesn’t seem like it will go away on its own.
Fortunately, for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic and thanks to the unprecedented efforts of scientists and laboratories around the world, we have something that has been able to defeat other infectious diseases in the past: vaccines.
Until now, many people have been looking forward to the COVID-19 vaccine. However, now that there are several vaccines approved for use and the vaccination campaign has already started in several countries, there are certain groups that view vaccination with doubts and mistrust.
Having doubts about what is not known is completely normal and is one of the engines that drives science. However, these doubts can lead to false information and hoaxes that fly like wildfire on social networks in a better or worse intentional way. For this reason, and because the best antidote to misinformation is truthful and verified information, we have created the following guide where we give an explanation to most of the hoaxes that we have found about vaccines against COVID-19.
1. “Messenger RNA vaccines are going to modify our genome”
Fake. So far, and with the knowledge we have of molecular and cellular biology, there is no evidence that messenger RNA vaccines can modify our genome and the reasons are not few, including that:
- Messenger RNA degrades very easily and does not have time for almost anything.
- Messenger RNA does not meet DNA.
- RNA in vaccines does not integrate into DNA.
- So far no trace of any coronavirus has been found in our genome.
2. “They have been done too fast”
The speed at which the first vaccines were designed, manufactured and administered has so surprised that it causes skepticism about whether they are safe. The reality is that all the usual protocols and phases in these procedures have been complied with. In addition, all the results of the clinical trials are public and can be consulted. The main reasons these vaccines have developed faster than others are as follows:
- There is a wealth of information on similar viruses. The SARS-CoV-1 and MERS-CoV coronaviruses have been known since 2002 and 2012, as well as the genetic structure or role of common coronavirus proteins.
- Pre-existing vaccine prototypes are being used. For example, the Oxford or Johnson & Johnson vaccines are based on adenoviruses that have already been used in other vaccines, for example the Ebola virus.
- There is overlap of the clinical phases. Phase 1 and phase 2 studies have been carried out in parallel to determine, among other things, the ideal dose of the vaccine and the duration of the immune memory in the volunteers.
- Large-scale manufacturing of millions of doses has begun before obtaining approval from regulatory agencies.
- An unprecedented economic investment has been made from both public and private institutions.
- It has been easy to get thousands of volunteer citizens.
3. “Vaccines are not safe”
Fake. The approved vaccines have gone through all the normal process in the development of a vaccine, including a preclinical experimental phase in animals and the different clinical phases I, II, and III. In addition, after approval they enter phase IV or pharmacovigilance, in which their safety continues to be studied. So far, millions of people have already been vaccinated and no serious adverse effects have been detected that cast doubt on their safety.
4. “A nurse fainted right after getting vaccinated”
In different social networks, a video has gone viral where a nurse named Tiffany Dover fainted during a press conference minutes after receiving the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine in a hospital in the United States. There are even sources that assure that the nurse died shortly after being vaccinated.
It is true that the nurse fainted during the press conference. However, the nurse herself clarified in a later interview that she suffers from what is known as vasovagal syncope, for which she can faint in response to a trigger such as seeing blood , certain pain, be it a stepfather, a blow to the foot, the jab of a vaccine or high emotional stress.
5. “The vaccine against COVID-19 makes you positive for HIV”
Some time ago the Australian government announced the suspension of the development of one of its vaccines due to false positives of HIV (the virus that causes AIDS) during phase 1. However, this has nothing to do with approved vaccines and has a Good explanation:
The appearance of false positives for HIV occurred because in the vaccine being developed in Australia they used a small fragment of an HIV protein to give greater stability to the coronavirus protein that was to act as an antigen (the S protein).
The problem is that, in this case, the immune system of those vaccinated, in addition to generating antibodies against COVID-19 , also generates antibodies against HIV because it recognizes that small stabilizing fragment as something strange against which it is necessary to fight.
And would not generating antibodies to HIV be a good thing? Not really, because it is known that this response does not serve to prevent infection, but it could interfere in the diagnosis of HIV by giving false positives. Finally, there would be false positives for HIV because in these tests the positive diagnosis consists of identifying the presence of antibodies against HIV.
6. “Vaccines contain cells from aborted fetuses”
Fake. Various videos circulate on social networks in which it is assured that cells from aborted fetuses are being used to investigate vaccines against COVID-19, generating great controversy. However, the reality is that fetuses or embryos are not used as such for the generation of drugs or vaccines.
What is used at some point during the development of some of these possible future vaccines against COVID-19 are cell lines derived from very specific human tissues from decades ago (some will be derived from fetuses, others from various cancers or tumors for example) . Cell lines are cells of a single type (especially animal cells) that have been adapted to grow continuously in the laboratory and are commonly used in research.
This can be confusing, but it is important to note that working with a ‘cell line’ is not the same as working with the original cells. Furthermore, these cell lines are mainly used in the preclinical phase of the vaccine to do some laboratory testing. Therefore, none of the vaccines in development contain cells from aborted fetuses.
7. “The UK variant has appeared because they have been the first to be vaccinated”
Fake. The UK started the vaccination campaign on December 8, becoming the first Western country to distribute a vaccine against COVID-19 (the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine). However, the variant identified in the UK had been circulating since at least September. Long before starting to vaccinate.
8. “If they have given us the vaccine we can go without a mask and lead a normal life”
No. The first thing is that immunization occurs in two stages (two doses) and it is necessary to complete both to have a more complete immunization. The second is that the production of antibodies and cellular response takes a while to occur. Furthermore, this latency time varies between populations and even individually. Therefore, we should not consider ourselves immune to the virus prematurely and expose other people to the virus.
On the other hand, so far, what has been described is that vaccines can prevent the symptoms of COVID-19, especially the most serious ones, but it has not been looked at in depth if vaccination can prevent infection. So what we know so far is that by getting vaccinated we are protected from disease but we can get infected and infect others. That is why it is important to continue with protective measures: mask, hand washing, safety distance and good ventilation, especially this first year of vaccination.
9. “Why are we going to get vaccinated if it does not protect against infection and we can continue to spread?”
So far it is not known if it protects against infection but it is known that it prevents the most serious forms of COVID-19. For many this may seem little but it is a very important step. Preventing the most serious symptoms of the disease can prevent the health system from collapsing and thus prevent many deaths. Furthermore, the fact that whether vaccination protects against infection has not yet been studied does not mean that it does not. It has been seen in various animal models that some of the vaccine candidates can protect against infection.
10. “The pharmaceutical companies keep the processes in secret and do not publish the data”
Fake. The development of the different vaccines approved so far has gone through a rigorous process where absolutely all the data from each of the stages that have been carried out have been published. We have had everything, including press releases, detailed reports and articles published in prestigious magazines. Here we can see the vaccine data from Pfizer / BioNTech, Moderna and Oxford / Astrazeneca.
11. “Getting vaccinated can cause COVID-19”
Fake. The adverse effects of vaccination are the usual ones in these treatments: fever, joint pain or fatigue. They are also some of the nonspecific signs and symptoms of COVID-19, obviously to a much lesser degree. Additionally, approved vaccines only use certain genes or proteins from the virus to generate an immune response. Therefore, there is no possibility that we can simply get infected with the vaccine.
12. “Vaccines are useless because there are people who get vaccinated and still get infected”
To have greater protection with approved vaccines, it is necessary to apply two doses with a time interval. For example, the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine confers protection against a severe COVID-19 of 52.4%, and increases to 95% after the second dose. In addition, the body always needs a few days from vaccination until the immune response is generated. Therefore, people can become infected in that time window between the different doses and there will always be that 5% in which the vaccine is not effective. A very low number compared to 95% of people who will be protected.
13. “If we get vaccinated we can remain sterile”
Fake. So far there is no scientific evidence that neither the virus nor the vaccine interfere with hormonal metabolism at dangerous levels or the development of tissues necessary for reproduction.
14. “Scientists use the phrase ‘no evidence’ a lot because they have no idea”
Fake. In science the phrase “there is no evidence”, “the results suggest”, “it is possible that”, “it seems that” is used because scientists talk about what is known and are not based on opinions or beliefs. To give an example: “Is it possible that tomorrow the sun will burst into a thousand pieces and destroy all known life? Well, so far there is no scientific evidence that this is going to happen ”.
15. “They want to use us as guinea pigs”
Fake. The vaccines have passed all the necessary phases for the evaluation of their safety in a satisfactory way. In addition, millions of people have already been vaccinated and no adverse effects have been found that cast doubt on their safety.
16. “With the vaccine they implant a chip”
Fake. In some networks it is said that Bill Gates is going to put a chip in the vaccine that will allow the tracking of people. This hoax has its origin in a video in which Bill Gates talks about the possibility in the future of using digital certificates with some vaccines using microparticles, something that has nothing to do with any microchip. Furthermore, implantation of any chip with the vaccine is currently not possible. Apart from the main component (messenger RNA), the vaccine consists of salts, lipids and sugars.
17. “I do not have to get vaccinated because I have already passed the disease”
Fake. The various research groups still do not have enough data to answer how long the protection of those who developed antibodies lasts after passing the disease.
18. “The vaccine has luciferase”
Fake. Luciferases are proteins widely used in laboratories because they are harmless and have the ability to glow under certain conditions. In general, they serve to better visualize reactions when conducting experiments in the laboratory because they are so easy to detect. However, none of the approved vaccines contain luciferases.
19. “It is better to wait and see what happens”
Fake. The benefit of the vaccine far outweighs the risk of having an adverse effect. The probability that we will become infected with the virus, infecting others, becoming ill and developing severe symptoms of COVID-19, even dying, is greater than the possible side effects that the vaccine may have. In this case, it is not true that “the remedy will be worse than the disease”, hence it is so important that we get vaccinated, to protect ourselves and our loved ones.
20. “5G is the cause of the coronavirus and it will worsen with the vaccine”
Fake. During the pandemic, it was shared that the countries with the highest number of 5G antennas were where there was the highest incidence of COVID-19. This was disproved shortly thereafter because the same correlation was not seen in Asian and African countries. In fact, 5G is a very important progress in medical practice rather than an inconvenience to our health.
21. “Why vaccinate ourselves against a virus that ‘only’ kills 1% of those infected?”
Seen like this, 1% may not seem like a lot but it is a huge number when it comes to lives and millions and millions of infected people. Would we sneak into a room with 99 other people knowing that one was going to die instantly? Talking about numbers is easy when it doesn’t affect us directly.
22. “Nobody tells the ‘recipe’ for vaccines”
Fake. Due to the recent and understandable public concern about vaccine safety, companies and the FDA have made all components of the vaccine public as an ingredient list for everyone to refer to. Here we can find a summary of the ingredients of the main vaccines or here the ingredients of the Pfizer vaccine. In summary, apart from the main component (messenger RNA for example), the vaccine consists of salts, lipids and sugars.
23. “Vaccines are useless because the virus is mutating”
Fake. It is true that viruses mutate because it is the way they evolve. However, coronaviruses are one of the RNA viruses that mutate the least because they have error-correcting activity that corrects them when the virus multiplies. Even so, mutations and variants are very common and new variants will continue to appear.
The vaccines that are available so far are based on the complete protein S (Spike) of SARS-CoV-2. Within this protein there are several sites that elicit the immunogenic response. A variant with a one-off change, one of these sites may change, but not all. The vaccine covers more areas and will remain effective within the required ranges.
Furthermore, mutations do not always lead to the appearance of serotypic variants. That is, although they have a different sequence, these changes are not large or important enough for our immune system to recognize it as something different, as a new serotype. To date, no distinct serotypes of the COVID-19 virus have been identified, but we must be vigilant in case it ever occurs. If so, the vaccines would simply have to be updated.
24. “If masks and social distancing are effective, why vaccinate ourselves?”
Protective measures are essential to reduce the probability of infection but are not enough to prevent the virus from continuing to infect. The objective of vaccines is to generate group immunity that allows us to return to normality, something that is not achieved through health measures.
Jose M Jimenez Guardeño, Researcher in the Department of Infectious Diseases, King’s College London; Alejandro Pascual Iglesias,, Health Research Institute of the La Paz University Hospital (IdiPAZ); Ana María Ortega-Prieto, Postdoctoral research associate, King’s College London; Francisco Javier Gutiérrez Álvarez, Postdoctoral research fellow, National Center for Biotechnology (CNB – CSIC); Javier Cantón, Professor of Coronavirus Biotechnology, International Campus for Security and Defense (CISDE); José Angel Regla Nava, Scientific Research. Emerging viruses, La Jolla Institute for Immunology and Jose Manuel Honrubia Belenguer, Researcher, National Center for Biotechnology (CNB – CSIC)
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original.
