Covid Questions Answered
I regularly receive group emails full of Covid misinformation. I recently crowd-sourced a reply that I can use to reply-all to them. I know it won't change the minds of the determined anti-vaxxers, but I hope it may sway some people who are genuinely undecided, or be used by people who agree and send it to other undecided people in their own social circles.
Thank you very much to everyone who helped me put this together!
Please feel free to share the following with anyone you like, in whole or in part. Also please correct me if I got anything wrong. This is intended as a simple, basic informative email for people whose eyes glaze over at too much science and statistics. It's US-centric because I'm in the US.
THE EMAIL: COVID QUESTIONS ANSWERED
Please feel free to share this information with anyone. Many people are still on the fence over whether or not to take the vaccine. Getting the facts may help them decide.
Is the Covid vaccine more dangerous than getting Covid?
Getting Covid has killed over 600,000 people in the US. Getting the Johnson & Johnson vaccine has killed 3 people in the US. Nobody has died from getting the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines.
There is almost no risk from getting the vaccine, and a huge risk from getting the virus.
Does the Covid vaccine cause infertility?
The Covid vaccines do not cause infertility. However, getting Covid can cause impotence.
Link: Covid causes erectile dysfunction.
If you're concerned about difficulties with fertility, you should be more worried about Covid than the Covid vaccine.
Is Covid something to worry about even though most people survive?
Many serious diseases are only deadly for a small minority of the people they infect. That doesn't mean they're not real or serious. For instance, most people who contract polio have no symptoms at all. But we consider polio a serious disease that should be vaccinated against, because it's very contagious and that small proportion of people who do die or become paralyzed adds up quickly. Covid is similar in that way.
Are Covid vaccines actually vaccines?
Yes, they are vaccines. A vaccine is a substance that causes immunity to whatever you’re vaccinating against. This can be a weaker live form of the virus (such as the measles vaccine), or a component such as a viral package protein (influenza vaccine) or a bacterial cell wall (pneumonia vaccine).
Pfizer and Moderna do this via mRNA that tells your cells to produce one of the covid spike proteins. Because that protein isn't recognised by the human immune system, it creates an immune response that protects against Covid. Other Covid vaccines use harmless non-Covid viruses to do the same thing.
Does the Covid vaccine alter your genes?
It does not. It instructs your cells to produce a spike protein, which alerts your immune system to protect you from Covid. That does not alter your genes in any way.
Does the Covid vaccine protect you from Covid?
Yes, it does. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are 95% effective at preventing you from catching or transmitting Covid. Johnson and Johnson is about 70% effective at preventing transmission and infection.
Link: Pfizer vaccine in Israel shows 97-94% effectiveness.
Have the Covid vaccines been tested?
The Covid vaccines currently available in the US have been extensively tested. Pfizer enrolled 43,661 people in trials before it was released to the general public; the trials have demonstrated that it was both safe and effective. Johnson & Johnson enrolled 43,783 people in trials. Other vaccine trials have similar numbers.
I personally know several people who were involved in the Covid vaccine trials.
Link: Johnson and Johnson vaccine trials.
The technology used to develop the Covid vaccines is not new. Research has been ongoing for coronavirus vaccines for many years, particularly since the SARS epidemic in 2003. Research into mRNA vaccines (like Pfizer and Moderna) has also been ongoing for years - there have been human trials ongoing since 2006. The Covid vaccines make use of this research. The vaccines themselves are new because Covid is new, but they were able to be produced so quickly because the technology they use already existed.
The reason the vaccines are currently under Emergency Authorization is because they're so new. They will be approved soon.
Link: Why the vaccines are under Emergency Authorization.
Does it matter if teenagers get Covid?
It is correct that children and teenagers are very unlikely to die of Covid, though a small number of them have. However, a much larger number of children and teenagers have developed Long Covid, a serious chronic illness which currently has no treatment, after getting Covid.
Link - Long Covid in teenagers and children.
Also, even if teenagers and children are fine themselves, they can transmit Covid to more vulnerable people, who may then die of it. No child wants to give their grandma a disease that kills her.
Link: Children likely to transmit Covid.
comments
Thank you very much to everyone who helped me put this together!
Please feel free to share the following with anyone you like, in whole or in part. Also please correct me if I got anything wrong. This is intended as a simple, basic informative email for people whose eyes glaze over at too much science and statistics. It's US-centric because I'm in the US.
THE EMAIL: COVID QUESTIONS ANSWERED
Please feel free to share this information with anyone. Many people are still on the fence over whether or not to take the vaccine. Getting the facts may help them decide.
Is the Covid vaccine more dangerous than getting Covid?
Getting Covid has killed over 600,000 people in the US. Getting the Johnson & Johnson vaccine has killed 3 people in the US. Nobody has died from getting the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines.
There is almost no risk from getting the vaccine, and a huge risk from getting the virus.
Does the Covid vaccine cause infertility?
The Covid vaccines do not cause infertility. However, getting Covid can cause impotence.
Link: Covid causes erectile dysfunction.
If you're concerned about difficulties with fertility, you should be more worried about Covid than the Covid vaccine.
Is Covid something to worry about even though most people survive?
Many serious diseases are only deadly for a small minority of the people they infect. That doesn't mean they're not real or serious. For instance, most people who contract polio have no symptoms at all. But we consider polio a serious disease that should be vaccinated against, because it's very contagious and that small proportion of people who do die or become paralyzed adds up quickly. Covid is similar in that way.
Are Covid vaccines actually vaccines?
Yes, they are vaccines. A vaccine is a substance that causes immunity to whatever you’re vaccinating against. This can be a weaker live form of the virus (such as the measles vaccine), or a component such as a viral package protein (influenza vaccine) or a bacterial cell wall (pneumonia vaccine).
Pfizer and Moderna do this via mRNA that tells your cells to produce one of the covid spike proteins. Because that protein isn't recognised by the human immune system, it creates an immune response that protects against Covid. Other Covid vaccines use harmless non-Covid viruses to do the same thing.
Does the Covid vaccine alter your genes?
It does not. It instructs your cells to produce a spike protein, which alerts your immune system to protect you from Covid. That does not alter your genes in any way.
Does the Covid vaccine protect you from Covid?
Yes, it does. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are 95% effective at preventing you from catching or transmitting Covid. Johnson and Johnson is about 70% effective at preventing transmission and infection.
Link: Pfizer vaccine in Israel shows 97-94% effectiveness.
Have the Covid vaccines been tested?
The Covid vaccines currently available in the US have been extensively tested. Pfizer enrolled 43,661 people in trials before it was released to the general public; the trials have demonstrated that it was both safe and effective. Johnson & Johnson enrolled 43,783 people in trials. Other vaccine trials have similar numbers.
I personally know several people who were involved in the Covid vaccine trials.
Link: Johnson and Johnson vaccine trials.
The technology used to develop the Covid vaccines is not new. Research has been ongoing for coronavirus vaccines for many years, particularly since the SARS epidemic in 2003. Research into mRNA vaccines (like Pfizer and Moderna) has also been ongoing for years - there have been human trials ongoing since 2006. The Covid vaccines make use of this research. The vaccines themselves are new because Covid is new, but they were able to be produced so quickly because the technology they use already existed.
The reason the vaccines are currently under Emergency Authorization is because they're so new. They will be approved soon.
Link: Why the vaccines are under Emergency Authorization.
Does it matter if teenagers get Covid?
It is correct that children and teenagers are very unlikely to die of Covid, though a small number of them have. However, a much larger number of children and teenagers have developed Long Covid, a serious chronic illness which currently has no treatment, after getting Covid.
Link - Long Covid in teenagers and children.
Also, even if teenagers and children are fine themselves, they can transmit Covid to more vulnerable people, who may then die of it. No child wants to give their grandma a disease that kills her.
Link: Children likely to transmit Covid.
comments
No comments have been added yet.
