The safety and effectiveness of vaccination against coronavirus remains the most discussed topic, especially in connection with the continuing spread of the new omicron strain. A huge amount of information has been collected on the Internet, and a lot of what they write is just speculation or even a figment of a sick imagination, says Mikhail Kagan, Honored Doctor of Russia, leading scientific editor of the distance medical education service Vrachu.ru. The expert, at the request of Rossiyskaya Gazeta, analyzed the main myths about vaccinations, relying on facts and scientific evidence (see links).
Myth number 1
Vaccines contain components hazardous to health (nanochips, genetically modified cells, mercury, aluminum). They cause irreversible consequences, up to the development of cancer and autism.
Actually. Vaccines contain tiny fragments of a pathogen or a program to create these tiny fragments (called an antigen). They also contain other ingredients necessary for the vaccine to be safe and effective (preservatives, stabilizers, additives, diluents, and others). These latest ingredients are included in most vaccines and have been used for decades in billions of vaccine doses.
All vaccines contain weakened or killed copies of the pathogen, or individual fragments. Depending on the type of vaccines, they may contain parts of the virus or bacteria that are unable to cause infection, weakened toxins of microorganisms or subunits of its protein – all this triggers immunological reactions that subsequently protect a person from infection. Also, the vaccine may contain a vector particle – a virus unable to reproduce, which serves as a vehicle for delivering information about a pathogenic microorganism to cells.
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/conversations/understanding-vacc-work.html
Here is an example of the composition of a Sputnik V vaccine:
- Component I, active ingredient: recombinant adenoviral particles of serotype 26 containing the gene for the protein S of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
- Component II, active ingredient: recombinant adenoviral particles of serotype 5 containing the gene for the protein S of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
- Excipients: tris (hydroxylmethyl) aminomethane, sodium chloride, sucrose, magnesium chloride hexahydrate, EDTA-disodium salt dihydrate, polysorbate, ethanol 95%, water for injection.
As we can see, the vaccine does not contain any “genetically modified” cells or nanochips. It has been proven that the components contained in vaccines do not cause disease.
Myth number 2
The vaccine is the same virus. Getting into the body with an injection, it begins to mutate, and this leads to negative consequences, up to death.
Actually. None of the vaccines currently in use contain the virus. Accordingly, vaccine components cannot begin to “mutate” or cause disease.
Traditional vaccines are made up of whole pathogens that have been killed or weakened so that they cannot cause disease.
Subunit, recombinant, polysaccharide and conjugate vaccines use only virus particles.
MRNA vaccines do not contain a single live virus. They work by training our cells to make a harmless piece of “spike protein” that sits on the surface of the virus that causes COVID-19.
Vector vaccines contain adenoviral particles that are deprived of the possibility of reproduction, which serve as a transport for the delivery of antigens of other microorganisms into cells
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4494222/
Myth number 3
Vaccination changes a person’s DNA. The vaccinated will give birth to children with pathologies. Or they won’t be able to have children at all.
Actually. Everything is exactly the opposite. The genetic material delivered by mRNA vaccines never reaches the cell nucleus where the DNA is stored.
At the same time, 8% of human DNA consists of the remnants of viral particles that have accumulated in the genetic material over tens of millions of years of evolution. Sequences of foreign DNA remain inactivated in the human body. The existence and the enormous prevalence of such regions in human genes suggests that this is a normal evolutionary process. However, adenoviral vectors, although they are capable of transient expression, like adenoviruses themselves, their regions are deprived of the ability to integrate into the human genome, reproduce in the human body and be inherited.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1887690/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8168329/
Accordingly, there is no question of any change in DNA. Vaccination during pregnancy helps produce antibodies that can protect the baby.
The misconception about the negative impact of the vaccine on pregnant women or those planning a child is one of the most persistent. But no studies have found any problems with pregnancy and fetal development, menstrual cycle and fertility in women or men that would be associated with vaccines. On the contrary, studies and experts say that not getting a vaccine for a pregnant woman is much more dangerous – due to the severe course of infectious processes in pregnant women.
Myth number 4
It is pointless to vaccinate, because vaccinated people get sick as well as unvaccinated ones.
Actually. The long history of vaccines refutes this argument. In fact, the use of whole organism live attenuated or killed vaccines has had tremendous success in combating and eradicating severe infectious diseases in humans. These are smallpox, polio, measles, mumps, rubella.
As for the coronavirus, you can look at the example of the UK. The Office for National Statistics in England has established that the death rate from COVID in the country among the unvaccinated was 849.7 per 100,000 people. And among those who received two doses of the vaccine, the figure was only 26.2 per 100,000 people. That is, the mortality rate among the vaccinated is 32 times less!
Myth number 5
Vaccinations weaken the natural immune system. Better to get sick and get “natural” immunity.
Actually. It is much safer for health to get a vaccine than to wait until the body gets sick with a “natural” infection. The price for the transferred “natural” infection can be very high – the coronavirus can lead to serious complications and even death. This rule has been confirmed on the basis of observation of other infections. For example, with measles, pneumonia develops in one in 20 children, encephalitis in one in 1000, and one to three children in 1000 die. At the same time, when vaccinated against measles, the vast majority of children develop mild reactions (fever, pain in injection site), which pass on their own.
Myth number 6
Vaccinations against previously known diseases have been developed for a long time, and their effect has been verified by years of practice. But the coronavirus vaccine was created in a hurry, and it turned out to be unfinished and dangerous for humans.
Actually. The basis for a vaccine against coronavirus (the so-called “platform”) has been established a long time ago. And the most important thing in the development of vaccines is the creation of such a platform. But the adaptation of vaccines to the emergence of new viruses or their strains is a standard practice, and it is typical not only for completely new types of vaccines, such as mRNA-containing (contains a viral molecule), but also for traditional ones. If we talk about the platform used in Russia (Sputnik V, Sputnik Light, Sputnik M vaccines), then adenoviral vectors (used as a transport to deliver dead virus fragments into cells) have been used since the 1970s, as in USSR and abroad.
In April 2020, the results of the Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials of the Sputnik V vaccine were published. In February 2021, the results of a Phase 3 clinical trial of this vaccine, conducted among 21,977 participants, were published. Thus, this vaccine has passed all the necessary stages of research before the start of mass vaccination.
If we talk about foreign vaccines, then, for example, the interim data of clinical trials of the drug from Pfizer were published back in November 2020.
https://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140-6736(20)31866-3/fulltext
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)00234-8/fulltext
https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-detail/pfizer-and-biontech-conclude-phase-3-study-covid-19-vaccine
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmoa2034577
Myth number 7
Coronavirus and vaccines against it were invented in order to make money on the treatment of people. But from vaccination, a person becomes infectious. And some even die.
Actually. We have already said that there is no “live” virus in the vaccine, and accordingly, after vaccination, a person cannot get sick.
All existing vaccines contain either only a portion of the virus (like Sputnik V), by which the immune system can recognize an infectious agent and develop antibodies against it, or a coronavirus with destroyed genetic material that is not capable of infecting cells (like in the CoviVac vaccine). At the same time, a person does not become infected with COVID-19 and does not become a source of infection.
Vaccines are specifically designed to protect people from dangerous diseases and have been extensively clinically tested to prove their effectiveness and safety. In addition, the experience of countries where more than half of the population is already vaccinated indicates that the number of deaths is significantly reduced with a wide coverage of the population with vaccinations.
However, some continue to believe various conspiracy theories. A study was conducted, the authors of which concluded that conspiracy theories help people get through difficult times. When a person believes in a theory, the feeling of uncertainty disappears, and it seems to him that he is in better control of the situation.
Myth number 8
People with chronic diseases and the elderly should not be vaccinated – it can be dangerous.
Actually. On the contrary, people in high-risk groups – the elderly and those with chronic diseases – are the first to receive the vaccine around the world. Olga Tkacheva, the chief freelance geriatrician of the Russian Ministry of Health, confirms that age or the presence of chronic diseases is not a contraindication to vaccination. And if you open the instructions for vaccine preparations, then in the column of contraindications it is indicated that the vaccine is not recommended to be administered only during the period of exacerbation of chronic diseases.
.