These 9 myths about covid-19 vaccines don't hold up

Delta variant sends more young people to hospital in the US 0:36

(CNN) -

Americans have an easy way to end COVID-19, which would allow more businesses to reopen safely, reduce the need for masks and help prevent the emergence of more dangerous variants.

But many don't want to get vaccinated, as myths and misunderstandings spread.

As of mid-July, fewer than 60% of eligible Americans age 12 and older are fully vaccinated.

This is a big problem for several reasons:

• More than 97% of people now admitted to hospital for COVID-19 are not vaccinated, the director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in mid-July. .

  Among them are previously healthy children and young adults.

  (More about it later).

• Unless more people get vaccinated, we may never achieve herd immunity.

• The longer people go unvaccinated, the more likely the virus is to mutate.

  And if the mutations are significant, they could lead to more troublesome strains that could evade vaccines.

• The so-called "long covid" is real.

  Even young athletes have suffered from cognitive dysfunction, chest pains and shortness of breath for months after infection. "Even for young people who consider their risk of severe covid to be low, the long-term consequences can be quite serious." stated Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health.

But widespread myths and unnecessary worries get in the way.

Here are some of the most popular reasons not to get vaccinated and why doctors want to clear things up:

"I don't want to get the covid-19 virus from the vaccine"

It is literally impossible to get COVID-19 from any of the vaccines used in the US because none of them contain even a piece of actual coronavirus.

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This is how each vaccine was made.

How are vaccines in the race different?

1:27

"We don't know what the long-term side effects are."

Any adverse side effects from vaccines almost always "show up in the first two weeks, and certainly in the first two months," said Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the School of Public Health at Brown University.

So he and many other health experts asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to wait at least two months after the trial participants had been inoculated earlier. to consider the possibility of giving an emergency authorization to vaccines against covid-19.

"If there were problems ... they would become apparent within two months of vaccination," he said.

"That's what the FDA has hoped for."

The most serious vaccine side effects in history have all been detected within six weeks, said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Center for Vaccine Education at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and a member of the Vaccines and Products Advisory Committee. FDA Related Biologics.

Olivia Rodrigo supports the White House vaccination campaign 2:36

"I would say, please tell me which vaccine has been shown to cause a long-term side effect that went undetected in the first two months," said Offit, a co-creator of the rotavirus vaccine who has studied immunology for more than four decades. .

"The smallpox vaccine could cause inflammation of the heart muscle. The oral polio vaccine was a rare cause of polio: it was produced in about 1 in every 2.4 million doses. ... The fever vaccine Yellow is a rare cause of ... yellow fever. All of them occurred within six weeks of dosing, "he said.

• Don't panic if you have these side effects from the covid-19 vaccine - they can be a good sign

There can be very rare side effects that are not immediately detected in clinical trials.

But that's because of the extreme rarity of those side effects, "not because it's a long-term problem," Offit said.

"Sometimes they are not detected initially because they are extremely rare, so a risk of one in a million is not going to be detected in a trial of 44,000 people," he said.

Pfizer / BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson had about 44,000 participants in each of their trials.

Half of the volunteers were vaccinated and the other half received placebos.

Moderna's trial had about 30,000 participants, half of whom received vaccines and the other half placebo.

And because the coronavirus is highly contagious, killing more than half a million Americans and leaving many survivors with long-term complications, it is far better to get vaccinated.

"I already had covid-19, so I don't need to get vaccinated"

Even if you've already caught COVID-19, you should get vaccinated because the immunity you get from the vaccine will likely be longer or stronger than the immunity you got after getting infected, health experts say.

• Highlight of the week: how long does the immunity of someone who has overcome covid-19 last?

"This is true for a number of vaccines: the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine induces immunity better than natural infection. The tetanus vaccine does, too," Offit says.

When it comes to the two-dose vaccines, those from Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna, people who have already been vaccinated against the coronavirus should receive both doses, said ER doctor Leana Wen, MD.

Those vaccines were studied in people who took both doses, and that's what experts know to be effective.

It is not clear how long protection can last after a single dose.

• Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine against covid-19: immunity, effectiveness against delta variant and what we know so far

"We also don't know how long the protection will last after having the coronavirus, so you have to keep getting vaccinated (completely)," Wen said.

"The vaccine could harm my fertility"

"This is total nonsense," Offit said.

There is no evidence that people have lost fertility from covid-19 vaccines.

The rumor apparently started with the myth that the coronavirus spike protein, which is mimicked when vaccinated, also mimics the protein on the surface of placental cells, Offit said.

"So the false notion was that when you produced an immune response to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, you were also inadvertently producing a response to a placental protein, which would make it less likely that you would become fertile." Offit said.

"So this is all nonsense. It's not true."

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also said there is no link between any vaccine and fertility.

"If you are trying to get pregnant now or want to do so in the future, you can get the covid-19 vaccine when it is available to you," says the CDC.

"There is currently no evidence that any vaccine, including covid-19, causes fertility problems."

The benefits of getting vaccinated if you are pregnant or trying to get pregnant far outweigh the risks, as pregnancy puts a person at higher risk of covid-19 disease.

And some research suggests that COVID-19 vaccines provide some level of protection to newborns.

Waiting for your baby during the pandemic 4:51

"It's none of your business if I don't get vaccinated"

Refusing the covid-19 vaccine actually affects a lot of people: yourself, your loved ones, even the country as a whole.

"When people say, 'What do you care? You're vaccinated. I'm going to choose not to get vaccinated. You're vaccinated, so you're fine,'" that makes three false assumptions, Offit said.

"First of all, vaccines are not 100% effective."

So even if your friends and family are vaccinated, but you are not, you can still carry the virus and spread it to your loved ones.

And as Americans return to frequenting bars, concerts, sporting events, and movie theaters, the need for mass vaccination becomes even more important.

Second, it is a mistake to think that everyone who wants a vaccine can get it.

Some people are on chemotherapy for cancer.

"They can't get vaccinated, they depend on the herd to protect themselves," Offit said.

So many of the most vulnerable Americans are counting on their compatriots to get vaccinated.

• People not vaccinated against covid-19 are at risk of suffering the most serious virus of their lives, says an expert

"And thirdly, by not getting vaccinated, or being part of a reasonably-sized group of people who choose not to get vaccinated, you allow the virus to keep replicating. When you allow this, it will create mutations, which could cause variants that are completely resistant. to immunity induced by natural infection or vaccination ".

In other words: Not getting vaccinated could make vaccines less effective.

And that could ruin vaccines around the world, rolling back the country in this pandemic.

"I am young and healthy, so I don't need to get vaccinated"

Collins and other doctors say that it is essential that young and healthy people get vaccinated.

This is the reason:

Young people can suffer long-term complications from Covid-19.

Young, healthy people have become "long-term sick" with COVID-19, suffering from chronic fatigue, chest pain, shortness of breath and cognitive dysfunction months after infection.

A study conducted this year found that 30% of people who had COVID-19 continued to have symptoms for up to nine months after infection.

"Covid-19 doesn't have to kill you to destroy your life," said Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a professor of medicine and surgery at George Washington University.

Young people can be easy transmitters of the coronavirus.

Multiple covid-19 outbreaks have occurred in youth summer camps.

• More than 80 teens and staff caught COVID-19 at summer camp in Illinois

And with the spread of the more contagious delta variant, hospitals in the least vaccinated states are seeing more children and teens hospitalized with COVID-19.

"This year's virus is not last year's," said Dr. Catherine O'Neal, an infectious disease specialist at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

"It is attacking our 40-year-olds. It is attacking our young parents and grandparents. And it is attacking our children."

In mid-July, O'Neal's covid-19 unit had more patients in their 20s with no prior health problems, he said.

In Missouri, "people in their late teens and early twenties are being hospitalized and need respirators," said Katie Towns, acting director of the Springfield-Greene County Health Department.

• US sends covid-19 support team to southwest Missouri after increase in cases and hospitalizations due to delta variant

Young adults can be victims of their strong immune systems.

Doctors have observed that some young, previously healthy patients suffer from covid-19 cytokine storms.

That's basically when someone's immune system overreacts, potentially causing severe inflammation or other serious symptoms.

• What immunological mechanisms cause a patient with covid-19 to get worse?

"We have seen people who come to our hospital, very young people (in their twenties) ... who have to be put on an ECMO, which is basically a heart-lung machine, for days or even weeks because they come with cardiomyopathy, which is a response to a cytokine storm, "Reiner said.

"These vaccines only have emergency use authorization, not full FDA approval."

It's true that Pfizer / BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson's covid-19 vaccines have FDA emergency use clearance and not full approval yet.

But that's only because not enough time has passed to show how long the vaccines are still effective, Offit said.

"Frankly, the only real difference was the length of follow-up," he said.

"Normally, you want to check the effectiveness for one or two years."

But with COVID-19 vaccines, "you couldn't do that. You couldn't do a one, two or three year study ... because the virus was killing hundreds of thousands of people. So we wanted to get it out." .

Offit stressed that the emergency clearance status of vaccines does not mean they are less safe.

As a member of the FDA's vaccine advisory committee, Offit said vaccines are reviewed with the same level of scrutiny as if they got full approval.

Offit said he is confident the vaccines will get full FDA approval.

"The effectiveness and efficacy data in phase 3 trials and now in the real world ... is excellent," he said.

• FDA Grants Priority Review to Pfizer / BioNTech Covid-19 Vaccine;

  a decision on its approval is expected by January 2022

Furthermore, the vaccine trials showed "excellent cellular immune responses, that is, so-called helper T cells."

Offit said that's a good sign that these vaccines provide strong, long-lasting protection.

"My faith will protect me, so I don't need to get vaccinated"

Among religious groups in the US, "white evangelical Protestants are the most likely to say they will refuse to be vaccinated (26%), with an additional 28% being undecided," according to a study conducted this spring by the Public Religion Research Institute and the Interfaith Youth Core.

Some experts say anti-vaccine sentiment among evangelicals is fueled by mistrust in the government, ignorance about how vaccines work, and misinformation.

"If you believe that God created us in his image and likeness, including the ability to think and reason, we have been able to think and reason for many of these diseases" thanks to vaccination, Offit said.

"We no longer die of smallpox. Children are no longer permanently paralyzed by polio in America. It's a good thing. That's because God gave us brain to think and reason. So use it."

• OPINION |

  Enough: time to make vaccinations a must

"I may not be able to afford a vaccination"

"Everything is free. The government is paying for this," Offit said.

This is a message that public officials could better explain, he said.

"I never hear them describe them as free, I think because it's always taken for granted that people know they are free," Offit said.

But "maybe for all those commercials you see on TV ... they should make it clear that you don't have to pay for this."

For those without Internet access, Offit said it would be a good idea for state or local health departments to mail brochures explaining when and how they can get vaccinated, and reminding them that it is free.

Bottom line: Not getting vaccinated can be a setback for everyone

If you want to protect yourself, your friends, your family and the economy, get vaccinated.

Otherwise, you will be part of the problem, not the solution.

"This virus keeps mutating," Offit said.

"What worries me the most is that this virus mutates to the point that immunity induced by natural infection or vaccination does not work at all. That is the most important reason to vaccinate."

The longer a virus circulates among unvaccinated people, the more chance it has to mutate.

And if the mutations are significant, they can lead to more problematic variants, including some that could partially or totally escape the protection of the vaccine.

"It's already starting to happen," Offit said, citing the B.1.351 and P.1 variants.

Although vaccines remain effective against these strains, "these variants have begun to escape the immunity of natural infection or immunization. They do not escape entirely, but they have started to."

• Variants of interest and worrying variants of covid-19: this is what we know

So the key to ending this pandemic is not simply getting vaccinated.

It's getting vaccinated as soon as possible, before the virus mutates into variants that we can't control with our current vaccines.

"Vaccination is the single most important way to end this pandemic. That means we have to vaccinate everyone in our country," said US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy.

"Now what we have to do is, first, get vaccinated. Second: turn around and look at our family and friends and ask them if they are going to get vaccinated. If they need help, that's what we have to do."

- CNN's Ryan Prior, Richard Allen Greene and Megan Marples contributed reporting.

covid-19 vaccine