So what exactly is a vaccine?
A vaccine is a killed form of a disease that trains your immune system to create antibodies to fight against the disease in question if you come into contact with them. Because vaccines contain only killed or weakened forms of germs like viruses or bacteria, they do not actually cause the disease or put you at risk of its complications.
How did we develop the COVID vaccine so quickly?
We were able to develop all the vaccines available today because COVID-19 is not an entirely new virus. SARS, the infectious respiratory syndrome that we first saw back in 2002 is 79% similar to COVID-19 genetically. Due to strict public health measures, we haven’t seen a case of SARS since 2004 and while a vaccine wasn’t developed at the time, all the research that has come as a result of that pandemic combined with the urgent need for a solution has allowed us to develop a vaccine much quicker than usual.
What’s different about the COVID-19 vaccine?
The research that was conducted post-SARS found that the more typical vaccine formulas didn’t produce the desired results. Vaccine developers eventually constructed the slightly innovative mRNA vaccine which does not contain the virus itself unlike whole inactivated or live attenuated vaccines. MRNA vaccines teach our cells how to make a protein—or even just a piece of a protein—that triggers an immune response inside our bodies.
Why we shouldn’t be afraid
The benefit of mRNA vaccines, like all vaccines, is that getting vaccinated means that you gain protection without ever having to risk the serious consequences of getting sick with COVID-19. COVID-19 mRNA vaccines give our bodies instructions for our cells to make a harmless piece of the virus called the “spike protein.” Our immune systems recognize that the protein doesn’t belong there and begin building an immune response and making antibodies, like what happens in natural infection against COVID-19. This vaccine has been rigorously evaluated for safety and does not affect or interact with our DNA in any way. The mRNA never enters the nucleus of the cell, which is where our DNA is kept and the cell breaks down and gets rid of the mRNA soon after it is finished using the instructions.
Why are people afraid anyway?
A lot of people that are anti-vaccine are able to relay their thoughts in lay terms, their reach is a lot broader than your typical scientist that mostly explains in scientific terms which not everybody understands. Anti-vaxxers have beliefs rooted in conspiracy which then get strengthened by confirmation bias which is the result of viewing and emphasizing information that further confirms one's beliefs. When it seems like there is substantial information backing up one belief you’re quite likely to believe that anyone with opposing beliefs is conspiring against you and that’s the danger of a single story. Like politics, vaccination can be a very polarizing topic of discussion. Those who are pro-vaccine are often quick to come down on those who are skeptical before they take the time to understand where their questions might be coming from. This isn’t great because it only makes those in question weary about the staunch opposition to questions which leaves those who are pro-vaccine even more frustrated. Not a great cycle.
In order to best make science-related decisions, it helps to evaluate things on the basis of cause and effect. An example of this would be the cause and effect of a flood. Constant heavy rains over a prolonged period would cause the effect of a flood. The flooding water and the rain are correlated because one caused the other. An example of something that would not count as cause and effect is the connection anti-vaxxers have made between autism and vaccines. Nothing has proven the correlation (include correlation definition) between vaccination and the neurological disorder autism. The only connection that has been made is the sequence of the events. Many parents who believe that vaccinations cause autism only found out that their children had autism AFTER they were vaccinated. While their children have both been vaccinated and have autism the existence of the two does not prove correlation and we’re not left with a very strong argument.
In fact, the one study conducted in 1998 that claimed to prove the correlation was fiercely debunked as it only studied 12 children under very questionable conditions that couldn’t be replicated by the several studies that followed it. In fact, investigators learned that a lawyer looking for a link between the vaccine and autism had paid the study’s head researcher Andrew Wakefield more than £435,000 to guarantee the desired results.
Anti-vaxxers aren’t necessarily dangerous people who want to spread disease. A lot of them genuinely think they are performing acts of public service and that lives are truly at risk and some of them genuinely have questions that they would like answered. This way of thinking can be very harmful though, especially during times such as these wherein a lot of people are looking for simple answers in one place.
What can we do about it?
I think that asking questions is important and we should encourage anyone that has them to continue asking them even if the answers seem obvious. Questions are what drives science, they allow it to be dynamic and stimulate important conversations that wouldn’t happen otherwise. It is important however that we proceed with caution when it comes to informing others and try not to confuse fact with opinion. Ideally, we should all be learning from one another but that cannot happen if we are all afraid. Fear is a strong emotion but we can beat it with understanding. If COVID-19 has proven one thing, it’s that we all want to return to a sense of normalcy and can’t wait to take advantage of it when we see it again - let’s get there together.
Sources:
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/history-of-pandemics-deadliest/ - big flow chart infographic
https://www.healthline.com/health/coronavirus-vs-sars#molecular-factors
https://jbiomedsci.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12929-020-00695-2
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/different-vaccines/mrna.html
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