My mom won’t let me get vaccinated!

Addressing anti-vaccination sentiment and safety concerns surrounding the COVID-19 vaccine

After waiting months for the COVID-19 vaccine to be approved for adolescents, my mom surprised me when she told me that I would not be allowed to get vaccinated. Although I have usually been fearful of needles inside my skin, this time it felt different; I felt like I would have been part of a greater effort to eliminate a problem. This disagreement has lead to much tension (anger and confusion!!!), and I presume that this has been the case for others.

mRNA vaccines are a new technology, and it is smart to be skeptical, especially about your health and well-being. The inconsistency within the government has caused much fear, uncertainty, and doubt.

Together, we will address 3 myths I have heard about the COVID-19 vaccines and I will try my best to explain them in a logical fashion. As I am not an expert in this field, I will bring together the works of others who can speak knowledgeably about this topic. For each statement I make, I will link what I believe to be a reliable source.

1). There are unknown long-term side effects of the vaccines

Vaccines have the ability to do good, but they are also capable of harming the recipient. For example, the polio vaccine is one that saved countless lives, but about 1 in 2.4 million recipients of the oral polio vaccine became paralyzed. It is reasonable to have doubts about a vaccine.

In the article linked above by the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, multiple examples of long-term vaccine side effects were listed. However, it is extremely improbable that there exist chronic side effects. In all of the examples, all of the side effects appeared within the first 60 days of vaccination. With the polio vaccine, all cases of paralysis occurred within 60 days, and the same goes for the remaining examples.

The COVID-19 vaccines have been administered for well over 60 days; it is extremely unlikely that a vaccine side effect would appear 20 years or 30 years in the future. So, the question that remains is a question of risk management.

We drive, but risk getting hit by another car. We fly, but risk literally falling out of the sky. Every day, we make decisions that have the possibility to lead to injury. Between 1999 and 2014, 951 people died of “contact with powered lawnmover”, 2,167 died of “constipation”, and 10,206 died of “accidental suffocation and strangulation in bed”.

Through these insane causes of death, we see the minuscule risk of the COVID-19 vaccine. Today is May 17, 2021; two months (the time it takes for long-term effects to appear) ago was March 17. In the United States, two months ago, about 72 million people have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Even though there have been no reports of long-term effects, we will assume that 1 in 72 million people suffer long-term effects. With that assumption, if the entire United States were vaccinated, less than 5 people would observe long-term effects.

The possible downside of receiving a vaccine is like winning the lottery but backward. If you do take the vaccine, you will have been a part of the force fighting against the COVID-19 virus.

2). I should not take the Johnson and Johnson vaccine because it has a lower efficacy rate

Only the second part of this myth is true. During the vaccine trials, the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines had an efficacy of 91% and 94%, while the Johnson and Johnson vaccine had an efficacy rate of only 72%. It is important to always want access to the highest quality products, especially when it comes to your health. However, these numbers do not reflect the “true” efficacy rate of the vaccines.

To understand these confusing numbers, we first have to understand how these numbers are obtained. Let’s pretend we are scientists and are tasked with calculating the efficacy rate of a made-up vaccine called xVax, the newest kid on the block.

Suppose we have 200 people to test the vaccine on. Here is how we would do it. First, split the group in half; give xVax to one group and give the other group a fake (placebo) vaccine. People who are given the placebo believe they have received the vaccine even though it does not do anything.

After some time, you determine the number of people who tested positive for COVID-19 in each group. Let’s say that 10 people who received the placebo tested positive, and 2 people who received the vaccine tested positive. Then, the efficacy rate of xVax would be 10/(10+2), which is 83%. Recipients of xVax are 83% less likely to get COVID-19 compared to the unvaccinated.

Although all three vaccines were evaluated the same way, the circumstances in which they differed significantly. The Johnson and Johnson vaccine was tested when the pandemic was the most severe. Transmission, cases, and hospitalizations were at the highest. During this time, COVID-19 variants also appeared.

All these are reasons why the efficacy rate for the Johnson and Johnson vaccine is lower than the other two. However, all three did exactly what they sought out to do. In all three vaccines, none of the people who received the vaccine were hospitalized or passed away. This will ensure that people who need to go to the hospital will have all the resources they need.

3). Shortcuts were taken in order to develop the vaccines in record time

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccines took 10 to 15 years to reach the public. This time, the vaccines were developed multiple times faster. It has been about 1.5 years since the pandemic began, and 1.5 billion people, or about 19% of the world, have been vaccinated.

Additionally, using mRNA in a vaccine is a new technology. Undoubtedly, this would lead to questions about the development process. However, this technology has been studied decades before the COVID-19 vaccines. The research that preceded the development must have contributed to the unprecedented rate.

Another factor that sped up the development was the widely available test subjects. With hundreds of thousands of new cases each day, finding volunteers for clinical trials was made much easier. Clinical trials are usually the longest part of research and development; because volunteers quickly filled the spaces, this section of the vaccine development was expedited greatly. If we had been developing a vaccine for a rare disease that only appears in a few individuals, this process would have taken significantly longer.

These are three concerns I have heard about the COVID-19 vaccines. I hope that these points have helped improve your understanding of the safety concerns over the vaccines. After talking to my mom, I will be getting vaccinated this Friday!