COVID-19 vaccine myths

By Niyi Akinnaso

If you are a reader of this column, you are not likely to believe in the COVID-19 vaccine myths or conspiracy theories. However, if you do, please read this carefully and share it with the myth-makers, conspiracy theorists, and myth peddlers on social media. Educate them about COVID-19, the efficacy of available vaccines, and the need to get the vaccine as soon as it is available.

Among the myth makers and their believers are subordinate workers, including drivers, gatemen, and domestic workers, who sometimes share the same closed space with you. They may infect you with the virus, while they remain asymptomatic and eventually shake it off. Some high profile COVID-19 deaths in Nigeria caught the virus from some members of this group.

Tell them that COVID-19 is real. The virus is still around and it will keep circulating and killing people until the vast majority of the world population is vaccinated. The United States provides a test case. Here is a country that manufactures and distributes three of the world’s leading vaccines against COVID-19. Yet, infection rates are rising in some of its 50 states.

This is particularly so in states, which oppose vaccination for ideological reasons or have vaccine hesitant citizens, who believe in one myth or the other about the vaccine. Such states include Alabama, Arkansas, and Mississippi, where only about 35% of the population is fully vaccinated. The infection rates, due largely to the Delta variant, are three to five times higher in these states than in others, such as Vermont, where over 60% of the population is fully vaccinated.

The continued rage of COVID-19 is demonstrated by the global data: As of yesterday, Tuesday, July 13, 2021, it had infected over 186 million and killed over 4 million people worldwide. True, Nigeria has been lucky so far as are many other African countries, yet, nearly 170,000 Nigerians have been infected and over 2,000 have died from the disease. And these are just the reported cases alone!

In the absence of a cure, the only respite for now is the vaccine. Unfortunately, the vaccine has not circulated around the world, partly because enough has not been produced, partly because of vaccine nationalism, whereby high income countries hoard the available vaccines, and partly because low income countries cannot afford to purchase enough doses for their populations.

It is doubly unfortunate that vaccine hesitancy, promoted partly by ignorance and largely by misinformation, is preventing some people from taking advantage of the vaccine, even in countries, such as the United States, where there are enough doses to go round.

There are many myths and conspiracy theories out there. Only a few will be discussed here. One popular myth that has been circulating on social media in Nigeria is the myth of the magnet. This is the idea that the vaccine site on the arm has a magnetic field that can hold magnets or metals, such as a key or even a phone. It is a bogus lie. The myth makers simply tricked the gullible believers, either by sticking the coin to a sweaty vaccine site or rubbing the site with some light transparent glue.

Another myth is that the vaccine site can light up a bulb. Big lie. The bulb seen in the video has a small flat battery in it, which lights up when held in a particular position or a switch is pushed on the side of the bulb. It is a trick often used by amateur magicians.

Equally false is the myth that the vaccine will deliver a microchip into the recipients body. This falsehood developed from confusion about digital vaccine records. This simply means that vaccination records are digitally tracked so that the number of vaccine recipients can be easily known: You get the vaccine. It is recorded. Someone enters the record into a computer. And you are tracked. Simple. There are no electronic components whatsoever in the vaccines.

The microchip myth is tied to another myth that the vaccine will alter the recipient’s DNA or genetic material. It needs emphasizing that no vaccine or immunization enters the cell nucleus, where the DNA resides. Rather, they do their work of combating infection on the periphery or cytoplasm of the cell nucleus.

Yet another myth is the idea that the vaccine itself will give the recipient COVID-19. Not true. Modern vaccine technologies do not require the use of the virus itself in producing the vaccine. Therefore, none of the available vaccines can give you COVID-19. It’s as simple as that.

You may then ask, how come the vaccines were produced so quickly, within a year? This is a legitimate safety question. It is because scientists have been working on viruses and various vaccine technologies, including the mRNA technology, for decades. All that was needed this time around was to properly code the virus that causes COVID-19 in order to produce an appropriate, safe, and effective vaccine. Nonetheless, all available vaccines went through rigorous trials and vetting procedures, which were reported from time to time in various medical journals.

One of the most disturbing myths is the false claim that the vaccines may cause infertility and are unsafe for pregnant women. It is also false that pregnant women were not included in the vaccine trials. These false claims conflated the spike protein on the coronavirus with the spike protein involved in the growth and attachment of the placenta during pregnancy. Yet, the two spike proteins are completely different and distinct.  Therefore, getting the vaccine will not affect pregnancy, fertility, or in vitro fertilisation.

It is also not true that the old, the infirm, and those with suppressed immune system should not get the vaccine. Indeed, they are often the first in line for the vaccine after health and essential workers. This is so because the vaccine really has no significant side effects.

Nevertheless, since December 2020, over three billion doses of coronavirus vaccines have been administered in over 190 countries, worldwide and the calamities circulated on social media have not materialised.

Beyond the myths, however, is the availability of the vaccines, now that a more transmissible and deadly variant of the virus is circulating in the country. Yet, not even one percent of the Nigerian population is fully vaccinated (with donated vaccines!) yet, despite the alleged investment of about N40 billion in vaccine procurement. It is now time for Nigerians to demand: Show me the vaccine!