THE UK has become the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and experts have urged the public ignore anti-vax myths.
Theories have started circulating as to how scientists could have produced the vaccine in such a short period of time and people have accused experts of “cutting corners”.
Experts have blasted dangerous myths that could lead to anti-vax sentiment in the UK
One expert has blasted these dangerous myths, which include sceptics claiming that the jab is the “next Thalidomide”.
The editor of independent fact-checking charity Full Fact, Tom Phillips said the authorities and vaccine makers need to garner the trust of the public.
The Pfizer jab, which is 95 per cent effective and developed by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and German firm BioNTech – is safe for use, health regulators say.
As soon as the news broke yesterday social media was inundated with anti-vax theories and sentiment.
Within hours both “Thalidomide” and “Bill Gates” began trending on Twitter.
Tom said it is important to look for the source before sharing on any claim about the vaccine and added: “Ask to see the evidence. It’s always worth spending a little bit of time before you share it on to check if it is true.”
Here are some of the eight myths surrounding the vaccine – and why they don’t hold up.
1. The regulators cut corners to test the vaccine quickly
Since the virus began circulating earlier this year, scientists have been working around the clock to find a suitable vaccine and treatments.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has been able to test the vaccine at a faster pace than usual due to the fact that clinical trials over-lapped.
Data was examined in tandem – whereas usually it would be done separately.
The safety checks were still the same – and this was something the experts couldn’t compromise on.
June Raine, head of regulator MHRA, said: “That doesn’t mean that any corners have been cut, none at all.”
Dr Raine said experts had worked “round the clock, carefully, methodically poring over tables and analyses and graphs on every single piece of data”.
2. The Covid vaccine is another repetition of the Thalidomide scandal
Thalidomide is a drug that many people distrust after it was marketed as a treatment for morning sickness in pregnant women in the 1950s and 60s.
It later caused birth defects – but experts say it cannot be compared to a vaccine.
Thalidomide went into the bloodstream whereas the Covid vaccine gives antibodies to fight off the virus.
Thalidomide was never properly tested nor did it go through the rigorous monitoring system that the Covid vaccine has.
A consultant for the Thalidomide Society said the comparisons were “insulting”.
Dr Ruth Blue, consultant for the Thalidomide Society, said it was “a bit insulting that suddenly Thalidomide gets remembered after all these years when it suits anti-vaxxers to have something to compare to”.
She added: “The outcome of Thalidomide completely changed the way drugs are tested and are passed.”
3. Bill Gates is using the vaccine to secretly microchip the world
Mr Gates’ charity works in vaccine development and the Microsoft founder is often subject to conspiracy theories.
There is no evidence that Mr Gates or anyone else is trying to microchip people through the use of a vaccine and Mr Gates has denied these claims.
The theory originates from a study that was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which states the team developed an “approach to encode medical history on a patient” by including a small amount of dye with a vaccine.
However, it never experimented on humans and did not include any hardware technology, such as microchips.
Earlier this month police had to break up protesters who had gathered outside the headquarters of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in London.
Piers Corbyn was one of the people at the forefront of the protests.
Police in London were forced to move protesters on last week
4. One of the first participants in the vaccine trial has died
This is false and Dr Elisa Granato is still alive.
Dr Granato was one of the first participants in human trials of the AstraZeneca and Oxford University vaccine.
The false claims of her death prompted her to tweet that she was “very much alive” and “having a cup of tea”.
5. Vaccines alter your DNA
The vaccines do not alter your DNA. They comprise mRNA that gives the body instructions on how to make proteins on the surface of the virus.
6. The government is passing law so that they can’t be held responsible
Another myth is that the government will pass a law which will mean that if the vaccine goes wrong when it is distributed – then they cannot be held to account.
This is incorrect – the Government held a consultation on whether it should change the rules around unlicensed vaccines.
Unlicensed is not the same as untested and a manufacturer would still be liable if it did not meet safety standards, or if it was defective.
7. The Oxford vaccine contains parts of aborted foetus
Facebook has been awash with this myth after a user falsely claimed the vaccine uses MRC-5 cell lines, which were “originally developed from research deriving lung tissue of a 14-week-old aborted Caucasian male foetus”.
AstraZeneca said its vaccine was not developed using MRC-5 cell lines but does use a different cell strain, taken from a female foetus aborted in the 1970s.
The cells do not make it into the final jab – so they would not be injected into a patient.
They are cell lines that have been grown in a laboratory from a primary cell culture originally taken from a foetus.
Deputy chief medical officer Prof Jonathan Van-Tam said vaccinating high-risk groups will ‘eliminate 99 per cent of Covid-related deaths’
8. The speed it was created in means it’s not safe
This is incorrect, the global need for a vaccine has meant that experts everywhere have been working all hours to develop a jab.
Deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van-Tam explained: “With Covid vaccines it is clear that we have a global public health emergency on our hands and that even waiting five years for a Covid vaccine if we don’t have to is completely the wrong thing to do.”
He said this meant the “shackles had come off in terms of investing”, and governments such as the UK had invested hundreds of millions of pounds “to try and speed it up”.
The standards for safety and effectiveness have not, however, changed due to the speed of production and testing – and it is still subject to independent regulation.
In the UK’s case, this comes from the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), which approved the Pfizer vaccine on Wednesday.
