Dr. Huerta: If they gave me the placebo, I'll get the 1:29 vaccine
(CNN) -
How can the covid-19 vaccine be safe if it is produced, tested, and licensed in record time?
How can we trust something endorsed by this administration?
Vaccines especially attract myths and rumors, and coronavirus vaccines appear to be magnets for fiction.
Here are some of the most common myths:
Vaccines against covid-19 came out very quickly.
We cannot know if they are safe.
It is true that the vaccines that are manufactured against the coronavirus were created in record time.
But that's not because they rushed.
It is by careful preparation.
The technology behind the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, the first two to go through the US regulatory process, has been in the works for more than a decade and was made precisely for a pandemic situation.
This “plug-and-play” technology only needs the genetic code of a new virus, and it became available within days after the new coronavirus was identified and isolated.
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Vaccines often take time to develop because, contrary to popular belief, they don't make big profits for pharmaceutical companies, so production doesn't increase unless there's a guaranteed market.
In this case, the United States government paid billions up front to make companies feel confident to go ahead and manufacture vaccines at the same time as they began the process of months-long clinical trials.
He is a doctor, he was vaccinated and tells us about his experience 28:16
These tests were carried out quickly due to the pandemic itself.
So many people were getting infected across the country that it didn't take long to find out if the vaccine could protect people from infection.
Additionally, the hospitals and academic labs that did the tests sped up their own processes, handing over paperwork on a daily basis, for example, rather than waiting weeks to file in batches.
And scientists from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) who reviewed the data worked seven days a week to review the information, discarding everything else to speed up their decisions.
The companies themselves undergo external experts called Security and Data Monitoring Boards while testing is ongoing.
Finally, the review was subject to external eyes.
The FDA presented all the data to the Advisory Committee on Vaccines and Related Biologicals, a mostly non-governmental and non-industrial group of experts who reviewed the data.
They overwhelmingly voted that both Pfizer / BioNtech and Moderna vaccines are as effective and safe as claimed by the companies that made them.
Anyone who wants to can see the data.
They are published online and were published in the New England Journal of Medicine for any expert review and critique.
Allergic people cannot be vaccinated
It is true that people who have allergies to specific ingredients in these vaccines should not receive them.
But that's a pretty short list and it could include ingredients like polyethylene glycol.
Outdated flu vaccines are grown in eggs and some people with egg allergies have been cautioned against receiving some flu vaccine formulations, but even flu vaccines have been reformulated in recent years and many do not contain eggs.
Vaccines against the coronavirus are not made from eggs.
They also do not contain preservatives that can trigger allergies.
"Honestly, anaphylaxis and other serious allergic reactions are considered a potential risk with every licensed vaccine," said Dr. Elissa Malkin, research assistant professor of Medicine at George Washington University and a co-investigator of the Moderna vaccine clinical trial. in GW.
“It's not surprising that as more people get vaccinated, allergic reactions will appear.
We hope they are rare and rare, ”Malkin told CNN.
LOOK: The FDA authorizes the emergency use of Moderna's vaccine against covid-19
No allergic reactions were seen in clinical trials of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, which involved just under 80,000 people.
However, as they are deployed to millions of people, more are likely to be seen.
A healthcare worker who suffered an allergic reaction in Fairbanks, Alaska, issued a statement Friday saying he would get vaccinated again.
"Anaphylaxis is a rare but expected potential side effect that can be treated and has no long-term health implications like COVID," he noted.
"I would get the vaccine and recommend it to anyone, despite my reaction," he added.
"I have seen first-hand the suffering and death of COVID patients and my adverse reaction to the vaccine pales in comparison to what COVID infection can do to people."
The vaccine will permanently change your DNA
This rumor may have started because the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines use genetic material.
But they don't change the DNA.
They use RNA, which does not stay in the body.
The former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Tom Frieden, proposed this analogy:
'An mRNA vaccine does not actually contain the virus itself.
Think of it as an email sent to your immune system showing what the virus looks like, instructions to remove it, and then - like a Snapchat message - it disappears.
Amazing technology, ”Frieden tweeted.
The vaccine is more dangerous than covid-19
Dr. Megan Ranney from the Brown University emergency room took over.
He noted that at least 1% of people who contract the coronavirus die from it.
«Another 10-20% are hospitalized.
Another 30% or more have long-lasting symptoms.
The vaccine is much safer, with only minor temporary side effects, ”Ranney said on Twitter.
MORE: Pfizer and Moderna's Covid-19 Vaccines: What Are Their Similarities and Differences?
In the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine trials, no worrisome side effects were seen.
Covid-19 has killed more than 313,000 Americans and more than 1.67 million people worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The coronavirus is just a myth
If it's a conspiracy, it's good.
Tens of thousands of doctors and nurses around the world must be colluded in this lie.
Each and every government, the United Nations, the World Health Organization, the CDC, and many other organizations must participate.
Media organizations, large and small, must participate in this conspiracy and users of social networks around the world must also decide to lie by posting images of their own suffering and that of their loved ones who have suffered this virus and have been died for him.
covid-19 coronavirus vaccine