Why you should get vaccinated when possible and common myths debunked
Everyone should be able to see what a serious toll this pandemic has taken on everyone, some more than others, but still. I have been seeing many people spreading misinformation and blatant lies about the new vaccines for Covid-19. My hope is that everyone can continue to correct this dangerous misinformation and bring awareness to why the vaccines really are safe. Before getting into why these vaccines are very safe, I don't agree with most reasons for being anti-vax especially with these vaccines, everyone has a right to their opinion the point of this is to correct information and educate.
The three vaccines I am mostly referring to are Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson. while many of the main points will and do refer to any upcoming or other recent vaccines. The most common and probably most believable misinformation I have heard is that these vaccines were rushed and therefore are not safe, many people wonder about “the long term effects” because of this. I can confidently say, and any expert or some quick research will back me up, these vaccines and their processes were not rushed. Vaccines normally take upward of ten years to develop, so it can be concerning at first thinking about how these were developed in basically a year, but the real reason vaccines normally take so long is because of lack of funding. The immense need for a solution brought in additional billions of dollars, so trials were able to be started much faster and as trials started they also started mass producing the vaccines as they hoped, but had not yet confirmed the efficiency of the vaccines.
The second misconception only refers to the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine and it is that “it can change your DNA” This misconception stems from a lack of education. Your body is full of mRNA, mRNA is like a set of instructions to build something, that's it’s a job. every piece of mRNA in you has instructions to build something. The mRNA in the vaccines holds instructions to make just the spike protein (the part of the virus that attaches to your cells) so once it enters your body it uses what you already have to create that spike protein. Once the spike proteins are created the mRNA soon disintegrates and your body recognized the spike proteins as something foreign so it creates antibodies to fight it, these antibodies are then left behind and if you become exposed to the virus they will recognize those same spike proteins before it can actually infect you.
many people also believe that when given a vaccine the vaccine itself can infect you or make you sick the first way to prove this is false for any upcoming vaccine is that through the trials no one was observed to get sick from getting the vaccine never in a vaccine do they inject any actual infectious part of a virus. specifically for the Moderna and Pizer vaccine that infectious piece is a spike protein.
Another misconception is that the symptoms of the vaccine are much worse than the covid itself, the most common symptoms of any vaccine including these covid vaccines are pain at the injection site, headache, fatigue, chills, and joint pain all of these symptoms are very short-lived unlike covid-19 itself.
The last myth that I have very unfortunately heard many times is that the vaccine is a way to control and track everyone. I wish this type of misinformation was not being spread because there's nothing that even remotely makes it make sense. First, why would the government do this when you have your phone in your pocket with all your information all day everywhere you go. Second, if the government was going to do something like this why wouldn't they require everyone to get the vaccine. Third, if this was the plan why would they have waited so long and why would they not have enough to vaccinate everyone.
This pandemic has been a huge struggle for every single person no one has stayed unaffected, lets stick together and protect each other, life has to go on there's no reason it can't go on while wearing a mask correctly everywhere, getting vaccinated when you are able, and being aware that even though it has affected you your actions could very possibly be making it affect someone else much worse. Misinformation is everywhere before you believe something do your research please peoples lives are on the line.
