IT was the news we have all been waiting for, a Covid-19 vaccine rolled out to millions of Brits before Christmas.
But amid the applause at the super-fast turnaround, a series of false and potentially “dangerous” myths have begun circulating on social media including Facebook and Instagram.
So-called “anti-vaxxers”, who shun vaccines, especially for children, and conspiracy theorists have begun spreading bizarre claims that the new drugs are UNSAFE and that a trial volunteer DIED.
Some are even comparing it to the notorious Thalidomide scandal, which saw thousands of babies born with deformities after their pregnant mothers took that drug. Experts have slammed the theories, with Professor Hugh Pennington, emeritus professor of bacteriology at Aberdeen University, branding them “dangerous”.
He said: “These myths need to be addressed because some people truly believe them . . . they can be dangerous.
“We want to really rebut these silly stories so that, when you make your choice about whether you want the vaccine, you do it on a rational basis. This will stop you getting a virus. If you’re old, it will stop you getting killed by it, and if you’re young, it will stop you getting it and passing it on to someone that might be killed by it.”
Here, Professor Pennington and oncologist and ex-World Health Organisation chief, Professor Karol Sikora, debunk some of the crazy theories circulating online.
Vaccines alter your DNA
A FACEBOOK post shared thousands of times, and since censored by the platform, stated the vaccine will “alter your DNA. It will wrap itself into your system. You will essentially become a genetically modified human being”.
Professor Pennington stated it is not possible, however, as the Covid treatments are what is known as mRNA vaccines, which, rather than put weak or inactive germs into our bodies, like many vaccines, instead teach the body how to make a protein which triggers an immune response.
That immune response, which in turn produces antibodies, is what protects vaccinated people from becoming infected if the real virus enters their body.
Professor Pennington explained: “The virus vaccine doesn’t go anywhere near your DNA.”
Repeat of Thalidomide
SCEPTICS of the new vaccine have compared it to the infamous anti-morning sickness drug used in the Fifties and Sixties.
Thalidomide was given to pregnant women and led to thousands of miscarriages and children with birth defects. It is regarded as one of the biggest man-made medical disasters ever.
Professor Pennington said: “Thalidomide is a very dangerous red herring. It is irrelevant because it was never tested in the same way.”
The Thalid- omide Soc- iety, which offers victim support, said the comparis- on is an insult to the vaccines.
It was created too quickly
ONE concern ramped up by many on social media is that the vaccine cannot be safe because of the speed at which it has been approved.
Professor Pennington said: “The science behind [this vaccine] has been on the go for several years.
“The speed is more to do with the trials. They haven’t been rushed, though.
“They’ve managed to recruit so many volunteers because of the big problem that Covid’s causing worldwide.
“Hundreds of millions of pounds of investment has flown into trials, accelerating the usually laborious funding process. But the usual standards for safety and efficacy haven’t changed.
“In the UK, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) approved the Pfizer vaccine this week.”
Early volunteers have died
ANTI-VAXXERS have claimed a female doctor taking part in an early trial of the new vaccine had died, but she has come forward to say she is alive and “doing fine”.
The fake article started circulating on social media in April and claimed that microbiologist Elisa Granato, who was taking part in the Oxford University trial, had died from complications after being injected with the vaccine.
The Government denounced the claim.
And Dr Granato, above, took to Twitter to express her anger.
She wrote: “Nothing like waking up to a fake article on your death. I’m doing fine everyone.”
Vaccines will be mandatory
ANOTHER Facebook post was widely shared wrongly claiming that the vaccine could be made mandatory.
This is something Professor Sikora said would simply never happen. The Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984 gives the Government the power to prevent, control and mitigate the spread of an infection or contamination.
But the law explicitly says authorities can’t force someone to take a medical treatment, including a vaccine.
However, travel restric- tions here or abroad could make not having a jab difficult. Prof Sikora said: “People might find they won’t be able to go to Australia or something. We’ve had that before with yellow fever and smallpox, you need a vaccine certificate to travel.”
Untested vaccine will be rolled out
CHARITY FullFact says it has seen “a number of Facebook posts claiming the Government is planning to change the law to allow untested and unlicensed vaccines to be given to the public, in light of the Covid-19 pandemic”.
Both experts insist this is simply not true, and Professor Pennington added: “Many thousands of people have volunteered to be guinea pigs.
“I don’t think any vaccine has been tested as rigorously as this one.”
This myth is also possibly to do with a misunderstanding about medical administration.
The Government did hold a consultation as to whether it ought to change the rules concerning unlicensed vacc-ines. But unlicensed does not mean “untested” and manu-facturers will still be culpable if their vaccine did not work or meet safety standards.
Vaccines contain microchips
BILL Gates regularly features in wild conspiracies as an arch-villain attempting to take over the world, and the latest theory might be the wackiest yet.
Anti-vaxxers claim the Micro-soft founder wants to put microchips into people via a Covid vaccine.
This is because they learned the Bill And Melinda Gates Foundation had funded a study in the US to “encode medical history on a patient” using a dye with a vaccine.
However, it never experimented on humans and did not include any hardware technology, such as microchips.
Professor Pennington said: “The microchips would have to be so small they wouldn’t work. It would be impossible.”
Aborted foetus in vaccine
ANOTHER social-media user falsely claimed that the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine contained cells from an aborted male foetus.
The video shared on social media claimed the vaccine uses MRC-5 cell lines which were “originally developed from research deriving from lung tissue of a 14-week-old aborted male foetus”.
However, AstraZeneca has confirmed its vaccine was not developed using MRC-5 cell lines. It said it does use a different cell strain, taken from a female foetus aborted in the 1970s, but the cells are used to propagate the virus for the vaccine. These cells do not make it into the final jab.
MRC-5 cells are also not the same cells from an aborted foetus. They are cell lines that have been grown in a laboratory from a primary cell culture originally taken from a foetus.
