Vaccines have been developed too quickly
On average, it takes 10 to 15 years to develop and register a vaccine. COVID-19 vaccines were available in as little as a year, which is concerning to some. But the speed at which the drugs were developed is understandable:
- The vaccines were based on pre-existing and previously tested technologies
- The development of vaccines against SARS-causing coronaviruses had been underway for a long time
- Enormous investments were made to create a vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 virus
I have antibodies
People who have had the disease can get reinfected and get sicker. No one knows how long a person has antibodies in their system. Very often, the antibody level drops quickly and becomes insufficient to protect the body, which is why it is important to get vaccinated.
People often get sick after vaccination
Many people think that vaccination reduces immunity and immediately after vaccination you can catch an acute respiratory infection or even get COVID-19 again. We are constantly surrounded by many bacteria and viruses that the body is constantly fighting. With the vaccine, we get an antigen that our immune system can easily deal with and produce antibodies. But when the body encounters a coronavirus, it will already have developed a reliable immune response.
However, it is possible that a person can be infected before vaccination and have symptoms of the disease appear after vaccination. This is the situation that gives rise to rumors that it is easy to get sick after vaccination. Even if the infection does occur between the first and second vaccination, it is much easier to get sick, because antibodies start to develop a week after the first dose.
If you get vaccinated, you become contagious
None of the registered vaccines contain a live virus capable of reproduction. And since the virus itself does not enter the body, the possibility of infecting someone is excluded.
An elderly person will have a hard time with the vaccine
Everyone knows that COVID-19 is especially dangerous for the elderly. Test results have shown that the Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are safe for people over 60 years old.
Elderly people generally tolerate the shot well, although there may be short-term side effects in the form of headache, slight fever, and pain at the injection site. If you compare it to the severity of the disease itself, the choice is obvious.
Vaccination causes infertility
Some worry that RNA vaccines such as Pfizer and Moderna suppress not only the protein of COVID-19 but also synthacin-1, which is necessary for the formation of the placenta. The similarity between the adhesion protein of coronavirus and synthacin-1 is only 0.75 %.
The British Fertility Society has said that there is no evidence that any coronavirus vaccine affects the fertility of women or men. However, becoming infertile after contracting a severe form of coronavirus is a real possibility.
Fear of developing thrombosis
Scientists initially said that adenovirus vaccines could cause side effects in the form of fever, aches, and pains in the muscles, but then information about thrombosis began to appear more frequently.
The fact is that adenoviruses, which deliver the adhesive protein, can bind to platelets, which have an adenoviral receptor on their surface, and activate them. In this case, the benefit of the vaccine must be compared with the possible risk.
Thrombosis has raised many questions about the vaccine produced by Johnson & Johnson. Professor Rolf Marschalek (Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany) believes that the adenovirus protein delivered by this drug does not enter the cytosolic fluid of a healthy cell, but rather its nucleus. Parts of the adhesion protein are then cleaved and create mutations. Instead of an immune response, these mutant versions of the protein cause thrombosis in 1 in 100,000 people.
Of course, if a person is at risk (for example, if a woman is taking contraceptive hormones), the condition should be monitored after the first dose of the vaccine.
Patients who have a low platelet count (thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome) after the first vaccination should not be given a second dose. You should see a doctor if you have a severe and frequent headache, difficulty breathing, abdominal pain, or pain in your legs.
DNA changes
This fear has been circulated in countries where Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are used, like the USA. The nature of this belief lies in the technology used to create the vaccine. But if you understand the difference between our DNA and the matrix RNA used in the vaccine, the fears recede.
Messenger RNA delivers instructions to the body to produce a viral protein, which is released on the cell surface and triggers an immune response. The used RNA is then destroyed. The RNA has no access to the cell nucleus and cannot fuse with the human genome.
When deciding to get vaccinated, you need to assess your health status and visit a general practitioner to rule out possible risks. In any case, it is scarier to get sick with COVID-19, since the course of the disease can be very severe, and recovery can take 1–6 months.
